Pentagon Seeks Mightier Bomb vs. Iran
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Interactive Graphic: 
Akhil
Reed Amar, America's
Unwritten Constitution: The
Precedents and Principles We
Live By
Join us Sunday for a live three-hour interview with author and columnist, Mark Steyn. The bestselling author will discuss topics such as American culture, free speech, and terrorism. Mr. Steyn is the regular guest host of Rush Limbaugh's radio show and a visiting fellow in journalism at Hillsdale College. He is the author of nine books, including America Alone, Lights Out, and his latest release, After America.
Deborah Scroggins, Wanted Women, interviewed by Akbar Ahmed, Brookings Institution
| At a time when the majority of homeowners are worried about home values, Democrats and independents tend to favor government action to mitigate foreclosures, while Republicans prefer the housing market resolve its problems on its own. |
| Read more at GALLUP.com. |
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Los Angeles Times Op-Ed January 26, 2012
Friends, Romans, voters
In
64 BC,
Quintus
Cicero
helped
his
brother
Marcus
Cicero
become
consul
of Rome.
His
advice
still
holds
true
today.
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View Online »Thursday, January 26, 2012 |
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Ezra Klein in Bloomberg View on the parties' narrow philosophical gap Both parties characterize the coming election as a "Thunderdome" battle, "an epochal clash between irreconcilable worldviews." "The two parties are much further apart politically than they are philosophically... But elections are zero-sum affairs, and the one question on which there is no overlap between the two parties is which side should take power in November," writes Klein. He criticizes Romney's criticism of Obama, characterizing the president's agenda as center-left and not actually very far from policies Romney supports. He also critiques Obama's characterization of past Republican agendas, noting that Obama continued many Bush programs including the tax cuts. Klein notes there are significant and large differences between policies, but if both parties weren't focused on zero-sum elections, they'd probably be able to meet in the middle. Free enterprise isn't in danger in 2012, Klein says. Instead, "it's a political system where you win elections by denying areas of ideological agreement and refusing to participate in cooperative governance."
Amy Davidson in The New Yorker on women at the State of the Union The State of the Union featured three men -- Obama, Biden, and Boehner -- facing a mostly male Congress, so Davidson chooses to focus on the presence of three women from Tuesday night. "[Gabby] Giffords and other women at the speech, both legislators and guests, provided some of its most arresting, and challenging, moments," writes Davidson. Watching Giffords embrace the president, while supported by a Republican friend, provided the night with a moving moment, she says. Warren Buffett's famed secretary, Debbie Bosanek, reminded viewers accustomed to thinking of her as an abstraction that she was a real person, representing "secretaries everywhere," she said. Finally, Colonel Ginger Wallace sat with the first lady. She's a lesbian, newly free to acknowledge her partner of 20 years to colleagues, and her presence also removed from abstraction that the military "can and has been a transformative civic classroom." She and others there, "helped keep the President's peroration from sinking too far into metaphor."
Henry Levin and Cecilia Rouse in The New York Times on graduation rates and society In his State of the Union, President Obama proposed to make high school mandatory until graduation or the 18th birthday. It was "a step in the right direction, but it would not go far enough to reduce a dropout rate that imposes a heavy cost on the entire economy." The costs associated with lowering the drop-out rate might sound expensive, write the two economics professors, but the costs to society of keeping the rate so high are much greater. They describe methods for improving the rate, investing not just in high school education but even in strengthening pre-school programs. And they detail their calculations that society would benefit, with reductions in welfare payouts and a widening tax pool, from the money spent to graduate more kids. That, they say, is "a reason both liberals and conservatives should rally behind dropout prevention as an element of economic recovery, leaving aside the ethical dimensions of educating our young people."
Richard Thaler in Bloomberg View on corporate responsibility There's a long-running political debate over whether corporations have a responsibility to act as moral citizens or whether their responsibility is solely to shareholders and profits. "I would like to push back a little on those who claim to be following [Milton] Friedman's tenets and offer my own alternative, middle-of-the-road view," writes Thaler, a professor at Chicago's Booth School. As an example, he describes banks that decided that if you make several charges to a debit card and overdraw your account, they can process your purchases from the largest expenditure first, to maximize the number of times you've overdrawn and collect more fees. All this without notifying you. Thaler argues that practices that you're afraid to announce publicly will improve your short-term profits but might anger consumers or incite more legislation against you. "As a matter of logic, if the only standard you are willing to live by is the letter of the law, then you should expect that the letter of the law will become increasingly specific."
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Updated Map: Federally Funded Family-Planning Providers in Texas
by Ryan Murphy and Thanh Tan
The state of Texas continues to reduce the number of family-planning contractors statewide, from 71 agencies in 2011 to 41 today. Use this interactive map to see which family-planning clinics received or lost funding. |
Mixed Portrait of Freshman Political Views
Their beliefs may lean liberal, but their politics tell a different story
By Libby Sander Chronicle of Higher Education,
January 26, 2012
View Online »Wednesday, January 25, 2012 |
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Dana Milbank in The Washington Post on Obama's boost from Gingrich Milbank describes Obama's speech as falling a bit flat. "But as he campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination in Florida, former House speaker Newt Gingrich was doing more to boost President Obama’s reelection prospects than anything Obama himself could do. While Obama was using the speech to portray the Republicans as plutocrats, Gingrich was doing all he could to prove the caricature true." Milbank recounts Obama's points on the economy and describes the scene in the House chamber as an unenthusiastic one. Meanwhile, Gingrich's attacks forced Romney into releasing his tax returns and Romney's counter-attacks focus on Gingrich's income from Freddie Mac. Polls show that neither Romney nor Gingrich have very high favorability ratings, especially compared to Obama, whose numbers are on the rise. "[I]t wasn't necessary for Obama to foment economic resentment. Gingrich is taking care of that."
Jeff Jacoby in The Boston Globe on Warren and Brown's spending agreement Sen. Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren signed a pledge to keep third-party advertising out of their campaign for Massachusetts Senate by fining the candidates for every ad buy from outside the campaign. "Brown and Warren have a simple message for anyone with something to say about the Massachusetts Senate race: Shut up." He notes that the effort is clearly aimed at curtailing the influence of big-spending Super-PACS, but the rules also exclude the participation of charities and policy advocates. He notes the stigma that would meet candidates who try to exclude the participation of media outlets, but wonders why they should treat non-media's participation differently. "Even for a pair of Massachusetts politicians, it takes remarkable chutzpah to demand that citizens stifle themselves about a political choice that may affect their families and fortunes for years to come."
Michael Wahid Hanna in The New York Times on embracing an Egyptian dissident Activist Maikel Nabil Sanad, released from Egyptian prison last week, hasn't become quite the cause that other Egyptian protesters have. "That is because Mr. Nabil, unlike other jailed protesters, is a Coptic Christian by background, an atheist by belief and a pacifist whose rejection of violence has led him even to declare zealously that Israel has a right to live in peace in the region." On the anniversary of the uprising against Hosni Mubarek, Hanna writes that Egyptians' treatment of him will be a test in their quest for an open society. Hanna describes Sanad's criticism of the military, his imprisonment, and his hunger strike. He notes the difference in attention paid to Sanad compared to other activists with more mainstream views. "But Egypt won't be a full democracy until its people value the lonely defiance of a man like Maikel Nabil, even when they differ with most of his beliefs."
Edward Alden and Liam Schwartz in The Wall Street Journal on U.S. visa procedures America is close to reattaining the levels of travelers with visas it welcomed before 9/11, and President Obama has said we need to reform our visa-approval procedures to help spur the tourism economy while maintaining national security. "Achieving those twin goals will require using the tremendous technological advances in homeland security for enhancing how the government manages risk in the visa system," write Alden and Schwartz. Current procedures require face-to-face interviews with both low-risk and high-risk applicants. We could use technology, instead, to identify patterns that predict someone's risk of over-staying a visa. This would allow us to process low-risk travelers quickly and free our resources to better vet the high-risk ones. "The Obama administration, and Congress, should move quickly to implement a visa system that responds to the genuine economic and security challenges of 21st century travel."
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Elizabeth Poster: The TT Interview 
by Thanh Tan
The dean of the University of Texas at Arlington's College of Nursing on the college's growth, its online studies program, state budget cuts and the critical shortage of nurses that Texas is facing. |
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View Online »Tuesday, January 24, 2012 |
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Joe Nocera in The New York Times on the N.C.A.A.'s abuses The N.C.A.A. has suspended UConn freshman Ryan Boatright from the basketball team twice this season while they investigate charges that his mother receives improper gifts related to his play. As Nocera continues to write about the N.C.A.A., he says, "one question keeps reverberating in my head: How can this be happening in America?" He outlines the N.C.A.A.'s demands that Boatright's mother show them her finances, and her forced cooperation for fear resistance will lead to consequences for her son. He takes apart the N.C.A.A.'s excuses that the school, not the organization, suspended Boatright. Finally, he quotes a reader who e-mailed him after another column on the topic. "[W]e all fear it, and it is all-powerful and follows its own rules and makes them up as they go along. Who are they protecting? The same thing the Gestapo protected: themselves."
George Will in The Washington Post on Gingrich and Romney There's a weak argument being made that Gingrich's win in South Carolina will benefit Mitt Romney because it will elicit an equal and opposite reaction of sorts in his direction. "With Gingrich defining the GOP brand, the Republicans' dream — unified government: a trifecta of holding the House, winning the Senate and the White House — might become three strikes and they are out," writes Will. Will defuses Gingrich's argument that his skill at debates should make him the nominee. ("So, because Gingrich might sparkle during 4 1/2 hours of debates, he should be given four years of control of nuclear weapons? Odd.") He notes that Romney's liabilities weren't the ones we predicted, but rather, his financial sector work. This loss should force him to argue for his candidacy on reasons other than electability. "[T]he nominating process in this complex continental nation usefully foreshadows the challenges of governing such a nation."
Roger Cohen in The New York Times on Sarkozy's election French President Nicolas Sarkozy faces a reelection challenge from Socialist candidate Francois Hollande. "If the French decide leadership is more important in a time of crisis they will grit their teeth and re-elect Nicolas Sarkozy. If they want change from a president never close to their hearts, they will — as Samuel Johnson said of second marriages — embrace hope over experience," writes Cohen. He notes that Hollande should win since he tends to fit most French peoples' sense of a president, and Sarkozy hasn't been personally popular, but he thinks Sarkozy may come from behind because he has handled the debt crisis well so far. He says Hollande's rhetoric has shown a bourgeois dislike for Sarkozy and a concern only for his platofrm and for France over Europe. "In the end what's unforgivable in a politician is ego and ambition that allow no greater cause than self. That's not the case with Sarkozy."
Ron Klain in Bloomberg View on Iowa and voting dysfunction Klain begins by wondering how Americans would react if officials couldn't determine the winner of the Super Bowl because of technological difficulties. "The Super Bowl metaphor is absurd, of course, because we invest untold sums in tracking ... the result of every single football play ... Why then, in the world's greatest democracy, do voters still vote on paper ballots tabulated by hand, on punch-card devices that jam or misalign ...?" asks Klain, who knows all too well from his role as counsel to Al Gore's recount campaign. The uncertifiable Iowa results, of course, bring our out-of-date voting methods once again to the forefront. He says efforts to legislate in the aftermath of 2000 haven't worked, and writes off worries about corporate fraud with more advanced machines by noting that this system is equally untenable. "Will conservatives and Republicans now appreciate that everyone has a stake in America's having the electoral system we deserve?" he wonders.
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View Online »Monday, January 23, 2012 |
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L. Gordon Crovitz in The Wall Street Journal on regulating the web After the Web rallied in protest against Congress's online piracy laws, SOPA and PIPA, both chambers backed off their support for them. "Those events were Silicon Valley proving that it can harness the power of the Web to protect itself against Washington—the clearest evidence yet of how technology moves so fast that regulations have no chance of keeping up," Crovitz writes. The laws particularly sought to rein in copyright infringements from foreign sites, but they included rules that would have hampered domestic sites' operations. Crovitz says content providers like Netflix are already devising business models that allow them to attract paying customers on the Web, and "egregious" violators like Megaupload are already penalized. The fight, he says, reveals different ways of thinking about the Web, as a self-regulating tool or as a business to be controlled.
Bill Keller in The New York Times on bombing Iran Keller begins by summarizing recent arguments made in favor of a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear program, which laid out a best-case scenario in which we hit all Iran's targets without inciting regional war. "This scenario represents one pole in a debate that is the most abused foreign policy issue in this presidential campaign year. The opposite pole, also awful to contemplate, is the prospect of living with a nuclear Iran," writes Keller. As America navigates between the two poles, he looks to each GOP candidate's policies. He says Santorum is closest to the "bomb Iran" position, and Mitt Romney, though he criticizes Obama, seems like he'd follow a similar path of sanctions. That approach has problems, including the possibility of war even without bombing their nuclear facilities. "That short-term paradox comes wrapped up in a long-term paradox ... Bombing Iran is the best way to guarantee exactly what we are trying to prevent."
James Surowiecki in The New Yorker on private equity Critics of the private equity industry have wrongly focused on its record of job creation. "The real reason that we should be concerned about private equity's expanding power lies in the way these firms have become increasingly adept at using financial gimmicks to line their pockets, deriving enormous wealth not from management or investing skills but, rather, from the way the U.S. tax system works," writes Surowiecki. He outlines private equity's model of leveraging, which rewards a firm for encouraging companies to take on debt. Private equity firms do have a record of spurring companies to manage themselves better, but increasingly, he writes, the industry has indulged in a practice of making a company take on more debt to pay big dividends to the firms. He details several ways that tax laws put this burden on tax payers. "If private-equity firms are as good at remaking companies as they claim, they don't need tax loopholes to make money ... Private-equity firms are excellent at gaming the rules. Time to change them."
Juliette Kayyem in The Boston Globe on Turkey, Muslims, and the GOP Some wrote off Rick Perry's debate line that Turkey is being run by "Islamic terrorists" as a sign of his stupidity. "The scarier explanation is that Perry knew exactly what he was doing," writes Kayyem. First she argues against the idea that Turkey's leaders are terrorists, an argument she thinks Perry understands. She pegs it to a greater Republican strategy of playing to the base's fears with rhetoric on Muslims. Herman Cain said he wouldn't appoint a Muslim to his cabinet, clarifying that he only meant "bad Muslims." Newt Gingrich rails against the threat of Sharia law, and Mitt Romney takes foreign policy advice from a pundit with similar fears. All of them, she says, probably know better. "[I]t is manifestly in the American interest that democracy and Islam coexist peacefully. But that's a vision not worthy of imagining for those Republicans seeking the Oval Office. Islam is an easy target and one that still unites conservatives."
Ezra Klein in The Washington Post on Romney's tax rate Mitt Romney revealed yesterday that he's effectively taxed at 15 percent, a rate lower than many middle class Americans pay largely because his income is derived from capital gains. "To be fair to Mitt Romney, it's not his fault that he pays a 15 percent tax rate ... But if I were a rich investor paying 15 percent every year, I would be a bit peeved at Romney for running for president in the first place. We had a good thing going, man!" Klein says. Klein notes that Romney is just following the laws that are in place, but focus on his taxes will draw more attention to a system that gets less progressive as you move to higher incomes. Klein notes that there are good reasons for a capital gains rate that is separate and lower than the income tax, but there are also arguments against it, and those may win out precisely because of Romney's candidacy. |
Abbott Sues Feds to Get Voter ID Implemented The Texas Attorney General's Office is running out of patience with the Obama Administration. This time it's over voter ID.
Results from the latest Post-ABC national poll...
Electorate is sharply split over Obama, poll finds
As President Obama prepares to give his third State of the Union address next week, he faces a dispirited and polarized electorate that is sharply divided over his record, worried about the pace of the economic recovery and deeply pessimistic about the country’s trajectory.
In a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, 9 percent of Americans see a strong economic recovery — a number that has hardly budged in more than two years. Twice as many say they are worse off financially since Obama became president than say their situations have improved.
Link to full article: http://wapo.st/znRcup
Obama approval graphic: http://wapo.st/ywpKKx
Poll watcher: Nuclear Iran a weak spot for Obama
President Obama’s most nagging challenge remains a persistently sluggish economy, but a new Washington Post-ABC News poll reveals a chink in his foreign policy armor less than 11 months before he faces voters: Iran’s nukes.
By a 48 to 33 percent margin, Americans disapprove of the way Obama has handled the possibility of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. His rating is markedly worse than for his performance on terrorism and international affairs as well as attitudes toward his overall job performance, where equal numbers approve and disapprove.
Link to full post: http://wapo.st/zpNb9h
Newt Gingrich's tea party stalwarts hold strong
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is the most recent of the Republican challengers to go through the boom-bust cycle of support. He’s moved from a share of the lead with Mitt Romney in December to a distant second place of 17 percent support among Republicans and GOP-leaning independents in the new national Washington Post-ABC News poll.
His support has been nearly cut in half since December and the falloff has been broad based, with relatively even declines among all stripes of Republicans -- save one group. Gingrich remains a plausible alternative among strong tea party supporters, winning 27 percent support from this group. That’s currently his strongest base of supporters and they’ve stuck with him since December. He does worst among moderates and liberals, winning 11 percent.
Link to full post: http://wapo.st/xiy7fl
Poll shows Ron Paul’s strengths and weaknesses in GOP primary
Texas Rep. Ron Paul earns 16 percent support for the Republican nomination in the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, statistically unchanged from 15 percent in December and in the same range as Newt Gingrich (17 percent) and Rick Santorum (13 percent). Frontrunner Mitt Romney leads with 35 percent. (See the Post’s graphicshowing each candidate over time).
What are Paul’s strongest groups? He performs especially well among independents who lean toward the Republican Party (23 percent support him), those with a high school education or less (23 percent), attend church less than weekly (22 percent), moderates and liberals (21 percent), and those under age 50 (20 percent).
Link to full post: http://wapo.st/xKly42
Scott Clement
Polling Analyst
The Washington Post
Twitter: @postpolls
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PAC Track
@ ProPublica
What and Where are the Super PACs Spending?
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U.S. | December 14, 2011
The Caucus: State of the Union Date Is Set
By JACKIE CALMES
President Obama will deliver the State of the Union address on Jan. 24, an appearance that inevitably will set the tone and sound the theme of economic renewal for his re-election campaign.
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