The CQ Researcher Blog

This Week’s Report: Youth Volunteerism

2012-01-26T18:48:00.000-05:00

In recent decades, high schools and colleges have increased volunteer opportunities for students, sometimes mandating service as a graduation requirement. Nearly 90 percent of colleges offer service-learning programs that link class work with volunteer activities.

But as Staff Writer Marcia Clemmitt notes in this week’s report, the trend has had mixed reviews. Researchers have found that service work leads to greater civic engagement as young people grow older. But some worry that volunteer opportunities are more available to middle-class and affluent students than those from low-income families. And critics of mandatory service say it infringes on personal choice, though courts have ruled in favor of schools that require public service for graduation.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Weekly Roundup 1/24/2012

2012-01-24T18:11:00.002-05:00

Polarized news market has altered the political process in South Carolina primar
Marc Fisher, The Washington Post, Jan. 21, 2012

Synopsis: On the eve of the South Carolina primary, veteran Washington Post reporter-columnist Marc Fisher critically analyzes voters’ increased reliance on news sources that reinforce their political views. “There’s more campaign news and commentary out there than ever before, but more and more citizens are tucking themselves inside information silos where they see mainly what they already agree with,” Fisher writes.

Takeaway: Fisher writes: “The result, according to voters, campaign strategists and a raft of studies that track users’ news choices, is an electorate in which conservatives and liberals often have not only their own opinions but also their own sets of facts, making it harder than ever to approach common ground.”

For CQ Researcher coverage, see Tom Price, “Journalism Standards in the Internet Age,” Oct. 8, 2010; Tom Price, “Future of Journalism,” March 27, 2009, updated Sept. 3, 2010; Marcia Clemmitt, “Internet Accuracy,” Aug. 1, 2008.

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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Why a President Romney Would Find It Hard to Repeal 'Obamacare'
Brian Beutler, Talking Points Memo, Jan. 18, 2012

Obamacare Reform Lags in Many States
Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, The Associated Press in Bangor (Maine) Daily News, Jan. 22, 2012

Synopsis: The health-care system is adjusting to health-reform-law changes that are already under way, potentially making repeal a dicey proposition that could trigger pushback from hospitals and some patients. Meanwhile, however, three out of four uninsured people live in states that have made little to no progress implementing the insurance-coverage portions of the law, leaving the federal government with a much harder job than anticipated to cover the uninsured by 2014.

Takeaway: Spurred by the law, providers "have been moving away from a paradigm in which they’re reimbursed for the volume of treatment...toward one that rewards good outcomes — a shift that will...cut deeply into per-patient profits," writes TPM's Beutler. "They bought into the law...because it also guarantees them millions of new patients — enough to keep them economically viable despite the payment reforms...If a GOP President tells hospitals, 'Surprise! Those new patients aren’t coming!' there will be hell to pay."

However, states were expected to be partners in implementing the law, setting up "exchanges" in which people can buy coverage, and only 13 states have implementation plans in place, writes AP's Alonso-Zaldivar. Many Republican governors and lawmakers say they won't cooperate because they oppose the law on ideological grounds.

For more, see Nellie Bristol's Jan. 6 report on Preventing Disease and my June 11, 2010, report (updated May 24, 2011) on Health Care Reform.

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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How U.S. Lost Out On iPhone Work
Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradsher, The New York Times, Jan. 21, 2012

Synopsis: Apple boasted not long ago that its products were American made. Now, almost all of apple’s tens of millions of iPhones, iPads and other products are manufactured overseas.

Takeaway: The overseas jobs created by Apple and many of its high-tech peers are not likely to return to the U.S. In addition to finding cheaper labor overseas, the authors write, “Apple’s executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have [vastly] outpaced their American counterparts.”

For background, see the following CQ Researcher reports: “U.S.-China Relations” (May 7, 2010; updated May 24, 2011); “Emerging China” (Nov. 11, 2005); and “Future of Globalization” CQ Global Researcher, September 2009.

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

This Week’s Report: Financial Misconduct

2012-01-19T17:36:00.001-05:00

In the aftermath of the worst financial meltdown since the Great Depression, many Americans are pressing for stronger regulation of the financial industry and harsh punishment for banks and other institutions they say created the crisis.

But as Associate Editor Kenneth Jost writes in this week’s report, four years after the financial crisis began, no prominent financial executives have been prosecuted for central roles in the crisis. In one case, a federal judge rejected a proposed settlement with a major bank as too lenient. But some legal experts say that many of the practices that helped trigger the economic crisis were not necessarily illegal.

This is a strong report for classes and papers dealing with the economy, government regulation, economic history and institutional misconduct.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Weekly Roundup 1/17/2012

2012-01-17T17:05:00.003-05:00

The Benefits of Bain Capitalism
Ross Douthat, The New York Times, Jan. 15, 2012

America Isn’t a Corporation
Paul Krugman, The New York Times, Jan. 13, 2012

The C.E.O. in Politics
David Brooks, The New York Times, Jan. 13, 2012

Synopsis: With Mitt Romney’s victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, more attention is being focused on his record as a venture capitalist. Romney says his business experience proves his qualifications for the presidency and refutes criticism of Bain Capital for having destroyed, not created, jobs. Three New York Times columnists comment, from different perspectives. Ross Douthat argues the “private equity revolution” has benefited the economy but that Romney needs to acknowledge its costs. Paul Krugman criticizes Bain’s record and asks whether Romney “understands the difference between running a business and managing an economy.” And David Brooks concludes: “There’s little correlation between business success and political success.”

For CQ Researcher coverage, watch for the upcoming February report on the “Presidential Election.”

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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The Hidden Dangers of Low Interest Rates
David Cay Johnston, Reuters, Jan. 10, 2012

Synopsis: Longtime tax blogger and analyst David Cay Johnson explains the overlooked consequences, especially for retirees, of the Fed's low bank interest rates, which have been maintained near zero for years on the grounds that they will help the struggling economy by increasing the supply of money and credit.

Takeaway: "Low rates keep alive the banks that the government considers too big to fail and reduce the cost of servicing the burgeoning federal debt. Low rates also come at a cost, cutting income to older Americans and to pension funds. This forces retirees to eat into principal, and may put more pressure on welfare programs for the elderly."

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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Judith Clark’s Radical Transformation
Tom Robbins, The New York Times Magazine, Jan. 16, 2012

Synopsis: Judith Clark has been in a maximum security women’s prison for three decades for her role in the infamous Brinks robbery in upstate New York in 1981, which caused the death of a bank guard and two policemen. When she entered prison, she was an angry, unrepentant militant.

Takeaway: By all accounts – including the prison warden -- Clark has been a model prisoner who earned college degrees, helped hundreds of other inmates, and now deeply regrets the deaths she helped to cause. She has also served far more time than her accomplices, who played more crucial roles in the robbery. Given the apparent changes Clark has undergone, author Robbins asks, Why is she still in prison?

For background, see “Downsizing Prisons,” by Peter Katel, March 11, 2011.

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

Restoring the Gulf Coast

2012-01-13T17:23:00.002-05:00

Fifty years and $50 billion to rebuild Louisiana’s coast: That’s the price tag in a long-term plan just released by the state of Louisiana for restoring the state’s eroding marshes and protecting low-lying areas – including New Orleans – from storm surges. (See graphic and story.) State officials call the issue an emergency and say they can carry out the plan by combining a share of legal penalties from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill with federal appropriations and revenues from offshore oil drilling. Even if every step in the plan is carried out, it won’t stop coastal erosion, but it will slow the process significantly. By 2042, the plan forecasts, Louisiana would finally start gaining land every year instead of losing it to the ocean. For background, see my CQ Researcher report, “Gulf Coast Restoration,” Aug. 26, 2011.

--Jennifer Weeks, Contributing Writer

This Week’s Report: “Occupy” Movement

2012-01-12T18:16:00.000-05:00

Thousands of activists have taken to the streets in recent months to protest income inequality and corporate greed, a movement that has invited condemnation from conservative politicians but captured the imagination of many economically struggling Americans.

The “Occupy” movement, which began last September in New York City’s Financial District and has spread to virtually every state, is changing the national dialogue on economic fairness, Staff Writer Peter Katel reports. It marks “the first time since the days of the anti-Vietnam War movement that ideas from the left have helped set the national agenda,” he writes.

With pro-con debates, charts, graphs and chronologies, this report is ideal for classes and papers on social policy, economics, labor and cultural history and politics.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Stop Working -- Now!

2012-01-12T11:40:00.001-05:00

Here in D.C. -- probably the workaholic capital of the world -- long days in the office are commonplace. Indeed, I remember reports of White House staff working 12 hours a day or more (though insiders said some were staying late because they'd gotten into an "arms race" over who could put in the most time -- and many were often just surfing the net or gossiping instead of working. But many organizations and companies are conscientious about helping workers maintain "work-family" balance, including our own CQ Press office, where fresh fruit is provided free to employees three times a week. Chevron, however, takes health care to another level. A friend who works in Chevron's government affairs office here told me employees' computers automatically switch off when a ceiling on work has been reached. The computers have ergonomic counters that turn the computer off when the limit on key strokes has been reached. What happens if there's a project that has to be finished and you're out of keystrokes? Workers can override the shut-off switch, but it gets reported to management. Why the limits? Chevron no doubt cares about its workers' health, but it's also good business. As Nellie Bristol's recent report on "Preventing Disease" made clear, keeping workers healthy significantly cuts insurance and other expenses.

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

Weekly Roundup 1/9/2012

2012-01-09T18:13:00.002-05:00

My Guantanamo Nightmare
Lakhdar Boumediene, The New York Times, Jan. 8, 2012 (print and online)

Notes from a Guantanamo Survivor
Murat Kuranz, The New York Times, Jan. 8, 2012 (online)

Synopsis: On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the opening of the U.S. prison camp for suspected enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba [Jan. 11], two men recount their experiences of having been there for years before being ruled innocent and released. Boumediene, a Bosnian immigrant working for the Red Crescent (part of the International Red Cross), was arrested with five others barely one month after 9/11, wrongfully suspected of plotting to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo. Kuranz, an immigrant to Germany from Turkey, was arrested in Pakistan, also not long after 9/11, apparently linked to a friend in Germany who was wrongly suspected as a terrorist. Both men waged hard legal battles during their captivity to clear their names and be released. Eventually, they were released: Kuranz returned to Germany through diplomatic efforts, Boumediene repatriated to France after winning a landmark Supreme Court case that bears his name.

Takeaway: Boumediene and Kuranz have left Guantanamo behind, but not their experiences there. “So long as Guantánamo stays open and innocent men remain there, my thoughts will be with those left behind in that place of suffering and injustice,” Boumediene writes. Kuranz too says he finds it “hard not to think about my time at Guantánamo and to wonder how it is possible that a democratic government can detain people in intolerable conditions and without a fair trial.

For CQ researcher coverage, see my reports “Closing Guantanamo,” Feb. 27, 2009, updated March 15, 2011; “Treatment of Detainees,” Aug. 25, 2006 (with Peter Katel); and “Prosecuting Terrorists,” March 12, 2010, updated May 26, 2011.

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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Google’s Cloud Robotics Strategy – and How It Could Soon Threaten Jobs
Martin Ford, Huffington Post, Jan. 3, 2012.

Synopsis: We never got those individual jetpacks that futurists used to promise us. But the job-snatching robots? Apparently they’re on the way.

Takeaway: “Many…who dismiss the potential for robots and automation to dramatically impact the job market have not fully assimilated the implications of machine learning. Human workers need to be trained individually, and that is a very expensive, time-consuming and error-prone process. Machines are different: train just one and all the others acquire the knowledge….Imagine that a company like FedEx or UPS could train ONE worker and then have its entire workforce instantly acquire those skills with perfect proficiency and consistency….And, of course, machine learning will not be limited to just robots performing manipulative tasks -- software applications employed in knowledge-based tasks are also going to get much smarter.”

For more, see Patrick Marshall’s April 22, 2011, report, “Artificial Intelligence.”

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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The Myth of Japan’s Failure
Eamonn Fingleton, The New York Times, “Sunday Review,” Jan. 8, 2012

Synopsis: Japan is portrayed in the media as an economic disaster case. But that view doesn’t square with reality, writes the author. As a prominent Japan-watcher wrote after a recent visit: “There’s a dramatic gap between what one reads in the United States and what one sees on the ground in Japan. The Japanese are dressed better than Americans. They have the latest cars, including Porsches, Audis, Mercedes-Benzes and all the finest models. I have never seen so many spoiled pets. And the physical infrastructure of the country keeps improving and evolving.”

Takeaway: Americans view Japan as a failure at Americans’ own peril, says Fingleton. Japan should be held up as a model, not an admonition. … Japan’s constant upgrading of its infrastructure is surely an inspiration. It is a strategy that often requires cooperation across a wide political front, but such cooperation has not been beyond the American political system in the past. The Hoover Dam, that iconic project of the Depression, required negotiations among seven states but somehow it was built — and it provided jobs for 16,000 people in the process. Nothing is stopping similar progress now — nothing, except political bickering.

For background, see David Masci, “Japan in Crisis,” CQ Researcher, July 26, 2002

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

This Week’s Report: “Preventing Disease”

2012-01-05T17:50:00.000-05:00

With health care costs rising sharply, medical experts and policy makers – including the Obama administration – are placing more and more emphasis on preventive measures to ward off chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers. Key targets of the preventive-health movement are smoking and obesity– the nation’s two biggest killers.

But as veteran health reporter Nellie Bristol notes in this week’s report, the prevention push faces financial and ideological roadblocks. Concerns over the federal budget deficit could result in sharp cuts to a signature Obama program – the $15 billion Prevention and Public Health Fund, enacted as part of the 2010 health care reform law. And, as Bristol writes, “critics of the preventive health movement say the ‘obesity epidemic’ has been overblown by public health officials and is a ruse to allow meddling in personal choices.”

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Weekly Roundup 1/3/2012

2012-01-03T17:45:00.003-05:00

The most important losers in American politics
Scott Farris, The Washington Post, Jan. 1, 2012

Synopsis: Every presidential candidate wants victory, but even losers can have a huge impact, according to journalist Scott Farris. But from his book Almost President: The Men Who Lost the Race but Changed the Nation, Farris highlights some of the defeated presidential candidates who helped change U.S. history – from William Jennings Bryan, who transformed the Democratic Party from a conservative, southern-based party to a progressive coalition of workers, farmers and crusaders; to Barry Goldwater, who helped turn the Republican Party decisively in a conservative direction. Some others: Al Smith, the first major-party Catholic nominee whose defeat made John Kennedy’s election possible; and Thomas Dewey, the GOP’s first post-FDR nominee who told the Republican Party not to campaign on a platform of undoing the New Deal.

Takeaway: “[W]inning an election is a narrow definition of success,” Farris writes. “A triumphant candidate may be stuck in the policies of the past and become no more than a footnote in history; a losing candidate can be prophetic and end up transforming our politics.”

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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Nuclear Power Play: Ambition, Betrayal and the 'Ugly Underbelly' of Energy Regulation
Ryan Grimm, Huffington Post, Dec. 29, 2011

Scuffle at NRC Has Stench of Industry Influence Behind It
J. Patrick Coolican, Las Vegas Sun, Dec. 12, 2011

Fight Among Nation's Top Nuclear Regulators Get Airing Before Congress
Mark Clayton, The Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 14, 2011

Synopsis: In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in Japan, some members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are accusing Chairman Gregory Jaczko of tyrannical behavior in pushing for safety upgrades at U.S. plants. Where some see an overzealous Jaczko bullying colleagues and the power industry to ram through expensive and possibly unnecessary changes, others see an understandably concerned chairman whose safety-improvement efforts have run into an industry-inspired roadblock, as nuclear-industry skeptics say has happened in the past.

Takeaway: In the state that's the site for the federal government's long-proposed nuclear-waste-disposal site, Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, many, understandably, seem to be on Jaczko's side. "People I talked to say this row is really about the strong record of Jaczko on nuclear safety and public health issues, including on Yucca Mountain," writes a reporter for the Las Vegas Sun. "The nuclear industry knows he won’t carry its water, so industry allies" on the Commission "are trying to force him out. According to one NRC observer, Jaczko is pushing hard for policies that will prevent blackouts at nuclear plants; much of the catastrophe at Fukushima can be pegged to power failures after the earthquake and tsunami there"

For more, see my June 10 report on Nuclear Power and Jennifer Weeks' Jan. 28 report on Managing Nuclear Waste.

-- Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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Pay Up Now
Joe Nocera, The New York Times Magazine, Jan. 1, 2012

Synopsis: You don’t have to be a fan of big-time college sports to be mesmerized – and taken aback -- by this fascinating look at the big money involved in college sports. For example, did you know that Mack Brown’s 2011 salary as University of Texas football coach was $5.1 million, while the combined value of the 2011 athletic scholarships for the UT football team was just $3.1 million. As writer Joe Nocera essentially says in this compelling report, Hmmm, what’s wrong with this picture?

Takeaway: Nocera proposes to end the inequity and false sentimentality of college athletics and pay college players for playing. He writes: “College sports will become more honest once players are paid and more honorable. Fans will be able to enjoy football and men’s basketball without having to avert their eyes from the scandals and hypocrisy. Yes, it’s true; paying players will change college sports. They will be better, too.”

For background, see Kenneth Jost’s “College Football,” CQ Researcher, Nov. 18, 2011.

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

CQ Global Researcher Coverage on North Korea

2011-12-19T18:24:00.002-05:00

North Korean state media announced the death of its country's leader, Kim Jong Il, this week. For CQ Global Researcher coverage on the North Korean regime, see Rob Kiener's report "North Korean Menace" (July 5, 2011).

This Week’s Report: “Fracking Controversy”

2011-12-16T14:51:00.000-05:00

The natural gas industry has been under fire since the mid-2000s, when a controversial drilling method called hydraulic fracturing – or “fracking” – began to spread nationwide.

The technique involves injecting massive amounts of water, chemicals, sand and other material under high pressure into rock formations to release trapped gas. Critics charge that fracking fouls water wells and causes other unsafe conditions. This month the Environmental Protection Agency established the first scientific links between fracking and pollution of nearby drinking water. But industry officials say fracking is safe and efficient and is helping to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign energy sources.

Writer Daniel McGlynn delves deeply into the controversy in this week’s report, which provides rich background for classes, reports and debates dealing with environmental policy, energy development and government regulation.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Weekly Roundup 12/13/2011

2011-12-13T11:02:00.002-05:00

Beyond Guantanamo, a Web of Prisons for Terrorist Inmates
Scott Shane, The New York Times, Dec. 11, 2011

Synopsis: Federal prisons within the United States house some 269 inmates convicted of crimes tied to international terrorism, far more than the 171 inmates still held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba. Congress has prohibited bringing Guantanamo inmates to the United States for trial, but the terrorist cases already prosecuted in civilian federal courts have been absorbed without undue difficulty, according to national security reporter Shane, and have resulted in long prison sentences. And those who have been released after convictions for lesser offenses are closely monitored by the Justice Department; few are reported to have returned to terrorism.

Takeaway: The prosecutions in federal courts contrast with the results from the military tribunals at Guantanamo, according to Shane, where cases have been “excruciatingly slow,”
“hugely costly” and strongly criticized within the United States and abroad.

For CQ Researcher coverage, see my reports “Closing Guantanamo,” Feb. 27, 2009, updated March 15, 2011; “Treatment of Detainees,” Aug. 25, 2006 (with Peter Katel); and “Prosecuting Terrorists,” March 12, 2010, updated May 26, 2011.

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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The Personal Computer Is Dead
Jonathan Zittrain, Technology Review, Nov. 30, 2011

Synopsis: As the computing universe shifts from personal desktop machines loaded with software we own to “cloud” computers that store our programs and information remotely and are controlled by big tech companies, dreams that the Information Age will uniquely empower individuals are on the wane. So writes Harvard Professor of law and computer science Jonathan Zittrain, who describes how cloud owners such as Microsoft and Apple can subtly or not so subtly squelch individual freedom and technological innovation..

Takeaway: “Governments have come to realize that this framework makes their own censorship vastly easier: what used to be a Sisyphean struggle to stanch the distribution of books, tracts, and then websites is becoming a few takedown notices to a handful of digital gatekeepers. Suddenly, objectionable content can be made to disappear by pressuring a technology company in the middle.”

For more, see David Hatch’s Nov. 11 report, “Google’s Dominance,” and my Sept. 16 report, “Computer Hacking.”

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

This Week’s Report: “Water Crisis in the West”

2011-12-08T17:08:00.000-05:00

Severe drought, a warming globe and rising demand for water in states such as Arizona and California are spurring fears of an unprecedented environmental crisis in the West: the lack of enough water to sustain the region’s massive agricultural industry and urban-population boom, Staff Writer Peter Katel writes in this week’s report.

The problem is sparking bitter conflict among agricultural interests, environmentalists, housing developers and others who have a stake in the issue, Katel writes.

“The confluence of drought, climate change and new scientific data on the region’s natural history is prompting a wave of concern in a region where massive dams, reservoirs and canals were thought for most of the 20th century to have solved water problems in the region,” Katel explains. “Worries are especially acute in the sprawling seven-state Colorado River Basin and in Texas, a swath that includes the entire Southwest.”

This timely report is especially useful for classes, reports and debates on environmental and agricultural policy, land use, local and state governance, geography and political science.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Weekly Roundup 12/6/2011

2011-12-06T12:06:00.003-05:00

Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion Undisclosed to Congress
Bob Ivy, Bradley Keoun and Phil Kuntz, Bloomberg Markets Magazine, January 2012 (post-dated)

Synopsis: The nation’s banks took generous advantage of below-market-interest loans that the Federal Reserve provided during the height of the financial crisis, borrowing heavily even as most of them professed no need for help and earning billions in profits by lending the funds out at higher rates. That’s the conclusion that reporters for Bloomberg Markets Magazine reached after poring over more than 29,000 pages of Fed documents obtained after a protracted Freedom of Information Act battle with the agency.

Takeaway: The reporters stress that Congress and the public were kept in the dark about the program. “While Fed officials say that almost all of the loans were repaid and there have been no losses,” they write, “details suggest taxpayers paid a price beyond dollars as the secret funding helped preserve a broken status quo and enabled the biggest banks to grow even bigger.”

For CQ Researcher coverage, see Marcia Clemmitt, “Financial Industry Overhaul,” July 30, 2010; Thomas J. Billitteri, “Financial Bailout,” Oct. 24, 2008, updated July 30, 2010; Kenneth Jost, “Financial Crisis,” May 9, 2008.

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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GOP Filibuster Ends Tenure of Health Care Cost Cutting Expert
Brian Beutler, Talking Points Memo, Nov. 23, 2011

Now Departed from his Tenure at The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, Berwick Receives High Marks for his Tenure at the Agency
Harris Meyer, Health Affairs, Nov. 2011

Synopsis: Filibuster-threatening Senate Republicans have steadfastly refused to allow an up-or-down vote on widely respected Don Berwick, whom President Obama appointed last year to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. He will leave the agency at year’s end. Ironically, in this era of fierce battles over how to balance government budgets, Berwick is one of the world’s leading experts on “comparative effectiveness” research -- figuring out how to improve care and save money. Republicans argue that the better approach is to turn over all health care to the private sector.

Takeaway: Berwick’s departure is lamented by many in the health-care field, writes Meyer. “Other Republicans with extensive health care experience also heap Berwick with praise,” he wrote. ‘He did a wonderful job, but Gandhi couldn’t have gotten confirmed in this environment,’ says Thomas Scully, a senior counsel at Alston and Bird, who headed CMS under President George W. Bush.”

For more, see my reports on “Health Care Reform” (June 11, 2010, updated May 24, 2011; and Aug. 28, 2009), “Universal Coverage” (March 30, 2007), and “Rising Health Costs” (April 7, 2006).

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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Punched Out: The Life and Death of a Hockey Enforcer
John Branch, Three-part series, The New York Times, Dec. 3,4,5, 2011

Synopsis: In a riveting, three-part series, reporter John Branch tells the tragic story of Derek Boogaard, who grew up in a small Canadian town dreaming of playing in the National Hockey League. Boogaard got his wish. But as a mediocre player, the only way the six-foot-three-inch, 250-pound skater could make it was as an enforcer---the player on each hockey team designated to duke it out – bare knuckles -- with the enforcer from the opposing team. Indeed, Boogaard became the most feared man in hockey.

Takeaway: The role exposed Boogaard to repeated head trauma, chronic pain and a deadly addiction to pain killers. He died at age 28 of an accidental overdose. A study of his brain showed massive deterioration from repeated concussions and, if he had lived, dementia in mid-life.

For background see “Preventing Memory Loss,” by Marcia Clemmitt, April 4, 2008

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

CQ Global Researcher Author on Public Radio

2011-12-06T09:27:00.001-05:00

Alan Greenblatt, author of this week’s CQ Global Researcher on “International Adoptions,” will be interviewed on public radio in St. Louis on why foreign adoptions are declining, even as some 2 million orphans are still living in orphanages around the world. The program will air Tuesday (Dec. 6) at noon (EST) on KWMU public radio. Don Marsh, host of "St. Louis on the Air,” will interview Greenblatt along with Cory Barron, development aid director for Children’s Hope International and father of twin girls adopted from China in 1999. Trish Almond, who also has two children adopted from China -- one with special needs -- will join the discussion.

Podcasts are available for the show.

--Kathy Koch, Managing Editor, CQ Global Researcher

This Week’s Report: “Digital Education”

2011-12-02T16:35:00.001-05:00

Computers are replacing – or at least supplementing -- teachers in American classrooms, and the fast-growing trend has led to both excitement and dread in education circles, as Staff Writer Marcia Clemmitt explains in this week’s report.

“While digital devices have become ubiquitous worldwide,” she writes, “debate is raging over whether – and which – technologies have proved their worth as learning tools. Some school systems have fully embraced technology. But critics argue that money for such programs would be better spent on teachers.”

Online learning is rapidly shaping curriculum decisions. Idaho requires high school students to complete at least two online courses to graduate. And a number of states, led by Florida, are creating “virtual” public schools that allow students to complete their entire high school education without ever stepping into a traditional classroom.

This report is a good foundation for debates, classes and papers on education policy, the role of technology in society and state and local allocation of public funds.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Amazon Rainforest Group Defeats Hydropower Project

2011-11-30T14:36:00.000-05:00

In a major victory for indigenous people in the Amazon rainforest, the Brazilian company Odebrecht abandoned plans to build a hydropower project in Peru. The voluntary decision came after opposition by the 14,000-member Ashaninka community, which said its forests and farmlands would be destroyed by the proposed Tambo-40 plant.

Commercial enterprises rarely take such initiatives on their own, according to the Sept. 20, 2011, CQ Global Researcher, “Saving Indigenous Peoples.” The report describes widespread encroachment into indigenous territories around the globe by governments and multinational corporations pursuing energy extraction, despite international agreements to first obtain consent from indigenous populations. Brazil’s planned Belo Monte Dam in the Amazon and Bolivia’s proposed hydropower plant in the Madidi National Park are prime examples. Bolivian President Evo Morales, the nation’s first indigenous president and a champion of indigenous rights, has been accused of “reprehensible incoherence” for riding roughshod over the concerns of Madidi indigenous groups to make way for the plant.

See the report at http://library.cqpress.com/globalresearcher/cqrglobal2011092000.

--Brian Beary

Weekly Roundup 11/29/2011

2011-11-29T14:34:00.002-05:00

Iraq’s young prepare to inherit a war-scarred nation after U.S. withdrawal
Dan Zak (story and photographs), The Washington Post, Nov. 27, 2011

Synopsis: Post reporter Dan Zak concludes a short tour in Iraq with portraits of Iraq’s young generation, who are “glad to be rid of Saddam Hussein but feel less safe — and therefore less free — than before 2003.” The front-page package includes individual portraits, among others, of bloggers trying to recreate an Arab Spring-style revolution, an activist seeking to energize a protest movement and a student hoping to help transcend ethnic divisions. The Web version includes a photo gallery.

Takeaway: Young Iraqis “view their government as a pseudo-regime that deprives them of basic rights” and “worry that their peers are being lured into the ethnic, sectarian and partisan traps of their elders.” They also think, Zak writes, that “the world is fixating on revolutions in other Arab countries while ignoring a rotting democracy in Baghdad and their generation’s struggle to live the freedom that was promised to them 8-and-a-half years ago.”

For CQ Researcher’s most recent coverage, see “America at War” (Aug. 13, 2010) and “Cost of the Iraq War” (April 25, 2008).

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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R.I.P. Lynn Margulis, Biological Rebel
John Horgan, Scientific American blogs, Nov. 24, 2011

Synopsis: Evolutionary biology lost one of its most remarkable minds last Tuesday, when Lynn Margulis, a professor of geosciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, died unexpectedly of a stroke at the too early age of 73. Margulis faced intense early opposition to her idea that symbiosis – joint, cooperative functioning between organisms – rather than competition alone has been a major driver of evolution. How organisms with nuclei in their cells evolved from simpler older organisms that have no nuclei remained one of biology’s great mysteries until Margulis proposed that larger non-nucleated organisms may have engulfed smaller ones, creating symbiotically united organisms in which the smaller single-celled creatures became the nuclei of the larger ones.

Takeaway: “‘Evolution no doubt occurs, and it’s been seen to occur, and it’s occurring now. Everyone who’s scientific-minded agrees with that. The question is, how does it occur? And that’s where everyone parts company,’” Margulis told blogger John Horgan. “Ultra-Darwinians, by focusing on the gene as the unit of selection, had failed to explain how speciation occurs. Only a much broader theory that incorporates symbiosis and higher-level selection could account for the diversity of the fossil record and of life today, according to Margulis,” he wrote.

Virtual Schools Are Multiplying, but Some Question Their Educational Value
Lyndsey Layton and Emma Brown, The Washington Post, Nov. 26, 2011

Synopsis: Full-time online schooling, mostly provided by for-profit companies, is becoming available to more students and younger students – including kindergarteners. But while some education theorists herald the development as a long-needed innovation that will save public dollars while giving students an invaluable chance to learn at their own pace, others say that online learning hasn’t yet proven its merits to the point that rapid deployment is warranted.

Takeaway: Possible social implications are one objection raised to full-time online schooling. “During recent deliberations over virtual schooling in Virginia, a member of the state Board of Education raised the issue of socialization,” write the Post reporters. “‘This would appear to make it possible to go from kindergarten through eighth grade without ever stepping into a real classroom,’ David M. Foster said. ‘I’m not sure I want to encourage that. . . . Collaborative problem solving, socialization, working with other people is key not just to the global economy but to getting along in life.’”

For more, see my CQ Researcher report on “Digital Education,” coming up Dec. 2.

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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The Prosecution’s Case Against DNA
Andrew Martin, The New York Times, Nov. 27, 2011

Synopsis: Hundreds of convicted criminals have been exonerated by DNA evidence in the past quarter-century. But when DNA seemingly clears convicted criminals in Lake County, Ill., the new evidence doesn’t always set the men free. Instead, prosecutors often say it just changes the theory of how they committed the crime.

Takeaway: The issues raised by DNA exoneration have led to an overhaul of the nation’s criminal-justice system. But in some jurisdictions prosecutors are dubious about such new evidence. Some legitimately believe the new evidence is somehow flawed. “But legal scholars … suggest that prosecutors’ concerns about their political future and a culture that values winning over justice also come into play.”

For background see “Eyewitness Testimony” (Oct. 14, 2011) and “Wrongful Convictions” (April 17, 2009)

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

Weekly Roundup 11/22/2011

2011-11-22T16:46:00.002-05:00

A Sensible Solution to Student Loan Debt
Richard Lee Colvin, Huffington Post, Nov. 12, 2011

Synopsis: To help students afford college and increase the repayment rate on college loans, the United States should follow Australia and other nations into making enrollment in income-contingent loan-repayment programs automatic, with repayment managed by the IRS. Currently, U.S. income-contingent programs are woefully undersubscribed and managed through the Department of Education.

Takeaway: “Income-contingent loans could encourage money-hungry colleges to boost tuition even further, so Congress should also provide incentives to colleges to keep costs down,” writes Colvin, executive director of the nonpartisan think tank Education Sector. “Colleges that didn't keep tuition hikes within limits could be barred from the income-contingent loan program, which could drive students away.”

For more, see Reed Karaim’s Nov. 15 CQ Global Researcher on “Expanding Higher Education” and my Oct. 21 report on “Student Debt.”

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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Teaching Good Sex
Laurie Abraham, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Nov. 20, 2011

Synopsis: A frank human-sexuality course at a private Quaker school on Philadelphia’s affluent Main Line “may well be the only one of its kind in the United States.” Teacher Al Vernacchio regards sexuality as “a force for good – even for teenagers.”

Takeaway: While Vernacchio extols the pleasure of sex, he also notes that sometimes it’s best left off the menu. At the same time, “I don’t necessarily see the decision to become sexually active when you’re 17 as an unhealthy one,” he says. “What if our kids really believed we wanted them to have great sex?” he asked at an evening talk for parents of ninth-graders who would attend his sex-ed course. “What if they really believed that we want them to be so passionately in love with someone that they can’t keep their hands off them? What if they really believed we want them to know their own bodies?”

See “Teen Sex,” (9/16/2005), CQ Researcher.

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

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MLS Deserves to Succeed
Ian Darke, ESPN, Nov. 22, 2011

Synopsis: Playing perhaps his final game in Major League Soccer (MLS), David Beckham capped off his five-year tenure with the L.A. Galaxy with his first league championship. Seen by many as a savior for the league when he arrived stateside in 2007, Beckham is now contemplating a return to a European club, which has prompted questions over the future of soccer in America should MLS lose its biggest celebrity.

Takeaway: The introduction of the Montreal Impact next season will bring the league’s team total to 19, nearly double the 10 teams it had upon inception in 1996 and approaching the 30 or so teams playing in other sports leagues such as the NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball. TV ratings and attendance have continually risen over the past decade. While pundits endlessly debate soccer’s place in the American sporting landscape, the league and its fans aren’t bothered if it remains a minority sport in the country because it’s increasingly becoming a significant one.

For historical background see “Soccer in America” (April 22, 1994).

--Darrell Dela Rosa, Assistant Editor

This Week’s Report: “College Football”

2011-11-17T17:09:00.000-05:00

College football, the nation’s No. 3 spectator sport in popularity and a multibillion-dollar business, is under increasing scrutiny. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is proposing changes aimed at tightening academic standards and helping players, who earn millions for schools. But the NCAA has little power to control schools’ lavish spending on the sport.

The game has drawn even more critical attention in recent days because of the unfolding child sex-abuse scandal at Penn State, which involves a former assistant coach and has resulted in the abrupt firing of legendary head coach Joe Paterno.

Associate Editor Ken Jost explores the full range of issues surrounding college football in this week’s timely and highly informative CQ Researcher. The report is especially useful for classes and papers on sports management, higher education administration, ethics and contemporary culture.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Weekly Roundup 11/15/2011

2011-11-15T17:56:00.002-05:00

Joe Paterno, and the end of the iconic, eternal college coach
John Feinstein, The Washington Post, Nov. 13, 2011

Climate of secrecy led to crumbling of Camelot
Ron Bracken, Centre (Pa.) Daily Times, Nov. 11, 2011

Synopsis: The firing of Penn State’s legendary coach Joe Paterno last week (Nov. 9) in the wake of a child sex-abuse scandal involving his former assistant Jerry Sandusky dominated not just the sports sections but the front pages. Noted sports journalist Feinstein opines that the dismissal helps confirm the end of the “iconic” coach. With the pressure for success intensifying, even a revered coach may be vulnerable after a losing season, much less a national scandal. Meanwhile, Bracken, former sports editor of the local newspaper in Penn State’s home county, recalls a climate of secrecy on the Penn State campus that long antedated the current controversy.

Takeaway: “The attitude that prevails at Penn State,” Bracken writes, is “[p]rotect the image at all costs, and if the truth has to be whitewashed to hide it, well, break out the buckets and brushes.”

For a broader look at gridiron controversies, watch for my report, “College Football,” being published later this week.

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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The Tweaker
Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker, Nov. 14, 2011

Synopsis: The vast tide of recent post-mortem hagiography to the contrary, Steve Jobs was less a creative genius than an editorial expert – gifted at picking just the right configuration of details to make uniquely user-friendly products. As the saying goes, “Good artists borrow, great artists steal,” and Jobs was an artist-thief who achieved techno greatness. Apple’s graphical user interface – the screen icons and mouse – were invented by engineers at Xerox, where Jobs saw and appropriated them to create the then-unique Macintosh computer, in whose mold virtually all user interfaces are made today. But others borrowing Apple’s ideas made him furious.

Takeaway: When Bill Gates saw the Macintosh and knew that it was good, Microsoft Windows, a somewhat clumsier but obviously Apple-derived new system, quickly appeared. Jobs “summoned Gates…to Apple’s Silicon Valley headquarters…. ‘You’re ripping us off!’ he shouted. ‘I trusted you, and now you’re stealing from us!’ Gates looked back at Jobs calmly….’Well, Steve,’ Gates responded. ‘I think there’s more than one way of looking at it. I think it’s more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it.’”

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

This Week’s Report: “Google’s Dominance”

2011-11-10T17:05:00.000-05:00

Google is much more than an iconic search engine, as technology writer David Hatch reports in this week’s CQ Researcher. The company’s vast portfolio includes airline ticketing, comparison shopping, social networking and mobile-phone software, among other things, and Google’s proposed $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility would greatly increase its reach in the wireless phone industry.

Google’s rapid and aggressive expansion has drawn intense criticism from competitors, who portray the company as a monopoly that leverages its power to bully rivals, and from federal regulators, who are investigating whether Google is violating antitrust laws.

Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, defends the company against charges of monopolistic behavior, telling a congressional hearing, “We live in great fear …that consumers will switch in extraordinary numbers to other services.” But a skeptical Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., said he was wary “of big companies that simultaneously control both information and the distribution channels of that information.”

This report is ideal for classes and reports dealing with business law and ethics, congressional oversight and the relationship between technology and culture.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Weekly Roundup 11/7/2011

2011-11-07T17:24:00.003-05:00

A year from election day 2012, a dark mood awaits Obama and his GOP rival
Dan Balz, Jon Cohen and Chris Cillizza, The Washington Post, Nov. 6, 2011

Is Obama Toast? Handicapping the 2012 Election
Nate Silver, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Nov. 6, 2012

Synopsis: The American electorate is troubled about the economy, sharply polarized, frustrated with President Obama and disaffected with the Republican Party, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll published one year before the 2012 election. In hypothetical matchups, Obama leads each of the three top GOP hopefuls – Mitt Romney, Herman Cain and Rick Perry – according to the survey even though a majority (53 percent) disapprove of the way he is handling the presidency. In a separate article, Balz, the Post’s chief political writer, analyzes what he calls the “strange” race for the Republican nomination. An accompanying graphic shows the schedule for presidential primaries and caucuses beginning with Iowa on Jan. 3. Meanwhile, Nate Silver, editor of the The New York Times’ FiveThirtyEight blog, concludes from statistics-based handicapping that Obama’s chances of re-election rise or fall depending on economic trends.

Takeaway: “It will be an intensely negative and bitter campaign,” a GOP congressman tells the Post. “And that will complicate things enormously for the winner . . . .”

With economic issues front and center in voters’ minds, here are some CQ Researcher reports worth a look: Marcia Clemmitt, National Debt, March 18, 2011; Peter Katel, “Jobs Outlook,” June 4, 2010.

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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When ‘thank you for your service’ falls flat
Phillip Carter, The Washington Post, Nov. 6, 2011

Don’t know what to say to veterans? Just listen
Paula J. Caplan, The Washington Post, Nov. 6, 2011

Veterans Day this year follows President Obama’s announcement of that the U.S. military will leave Iraq by the end of the year’s end. As a long and deadly war nears its end-point, and with withdrawal from Afghanistan scheduled in 2014, the spotlight turns to veterans and the futures they face. (CQ Researcher reported in September on the slow-motion crisis of suicide in the active-duty military and among veterans.). Iraq veteran Carter writes movingly and thoughtfully of his efforts to come to terms with the cliché civilian greeting for Iraq-Afghanistan veterans. Caplan, a psychologist at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, proposes one way of bridging the divide between veterans and civilians that marks American life. Veterans make up a small fraction of the population. And their experiences, both writers note, threaten to isolate them from the country whose uniform they wore.

--Peter Katel, Staff Writer

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Why Science Majors Change Their Minds (It’s Just So Darn Hard)
Christopher Drew, The New York Times, Nov. 4, 2011

Synopsis: This just in: College classes in hard science are hard. It’s fashionable to blame poor middle- and high-school preparation for the low number of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) grads. But new studies show that the pipeline leaks steadily as it wends its way through college. How to change that? Might better college teaching help more students persist? Smaller classes? An atmosphere less focused on cutthroat competition, which is a special problem in pre-med studies? A greater emphasis in families and on the principle that hard work can be its own reward? No one knows for sure. Some, however, suggest one thing that might help: sprucing up freshman and sophomore STEM curricula to include interesting research projects -- similar to many middle- and high-school programs – rather than feeding aspiring STEM-ers a steady diet of 500-seat lecture courses that ignore the applied side of STEM disciplines.

Takeaway: “The National Science Board, a public advisory body, warned in the mid-1980s that students were losing sight of why they wanted to be scientists and engineers in the first place. Research confirmed in the 1990s that students learn more by grappling with open-ended problems, like creating a computer game or designing an alternative energy system, than listening to lectures,” writes Drew.

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

A New Measure of an Old Ill: Poverty

2011-11-04T15:00:00.002-04:00

The New York Times reports today that the U.S. Census Bureau is about to release a long-awaited new standard for measuring poverty.

Demographic methodology doesn’t ordinarily prompt major news coverage. But poverty is looming larger on the national radar these days, as I explored in my Oct. 28 CQ Researcher report, “Child Poverty.” One reason is a recent Census Bureau report of 2010 poverty statistics.

These numbers – based on the old methodology – showed a marked increase in the number of people living below the poverty line. The increase was especially drastic for children, 22 percent of whom were categorized as poor.

I cited that statistic and related findings in my report, along with experts’ questioning of the validity of poverty-calculation methods.

One aspect of the statistical issue that emerged both from my reporting and that of The Times: Experts on both sides of the deep left-right divide over poverty policy agree that new methodology is needed.

Both sides want – and apparently will get – calculation methods that take into account the benefits of antipoverty programs such as food stamps and Medicaid. For experts on the left, accounting for this aid will show its value in helping people. On the right, the idea is to show the magnitude of government aid to low-income people, to bolster conservatives’ argument that no more help is needed.

At the lower reaches of the socioeconomic ladder, some of the struggling people I spoke with do receive food stamps and other assistance. But they said they still relied on donations from food banks to keep their families fed.

--Peter Katel

This Week’s Report: Managing Public Lands

2011-11-03T17:08:00.000-04:00

The federal government manages millions of acres of publicly owned land, much of it concentrated in the West. Not only is the acreage – forests, deserts, marshes and tundra – home to a fascinating array of wildlife and plants, it also contains valuable resources such as timber, gold, rangelands for livestock grazing, oil and natural gas.

As veteran environmental writer Jennifer Weeks explains in this week’s report, “Managing Public Lands,” some conservatives want less federal control and more local authority over public lands so the acreage can be put to multiple uses – not just by hikers and campers but by industry as well. Environmentalists, on the other hand, argue that the lands need more protection from development, not less.

“For decades,” Weeks writes, “policymakers, industry and environmental advocates have argued over how to strike the right balance on multiple-use lands. . . .How much should public natural resources be conserved, and how much should they be exploited?”

This is an especially timely report for classes in public administration, environmental science, civics, business and federal policy.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Weekly Roundup 10/31/2011

2011-10-31T18:00:00.004-04:00

The Genius of Jobs
Walter Isaacson, The New York Times, Oct. 30, 2011

Steve Jobs’ Biography Examines How Rule-Breaker Tied ‘Artistry to Engineering’
Interview with Walter Isaacson, PBS NewsHour, Oct. 29, 2011

Synopsis: Steve Jobs granted author Walter Isaacson hours of interviews and informal conversations for a biography published within days of Jobs’s death on Oct. 5. Isaacson, whose previous books include biographies of Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin, writes that Jobs was “a genius” but not exceptionally smart. In an op-ed in The New York Times and an interview on the “PBS NewsHour,” Isaacson elaborates on Jobs’s use of experience and intuition, more than technical knowledge, in creating devices such as the Mac, iPod and iPhone.

Takeaway: Isaacson sees in Jobs’ career evidence that the United States has an advantage over economic rivals in producing people who are “creative and imaginative” and who “know how to stand at the intersection of the humanities and the sciences.” “That is the formula for true innovation, as Steve Jobs’s career showed.”

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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I Spy Occupy
Alison Craiglove Hockenberry, Huffington Post, Oct. 28, 2011

Synopsis: Social media is becoming a key battleground for protest movements and the government and corporate powers that seek to limit their influence. Governments and, increasingly, corporate sectors such as the financial industry that feel themselves under threat, mine social networks for advance information about how public gripes and disgruntlement are developing. Meanwhile, hackers rush to develop new digital channels for public communications that are anonymous and sometimes transient, and thus tougher for eavesdroppers to suss out.

Takeaway: “Big business has long employed social media monitoring companies to track and analyze the ‘chatter’ about their products and brands. This infrastructure is a natural tool for confronting the Occupy Wall Street movement....The very openness of Twitter and Facebook makes them useful to corporations.” The ListenLogic surveillance company “claims it has analyzed more than one million social media posts and determined that its clients are "at risk"’ because of the Occupy movement.

For more, see my Sept. 17, 2010, report on “Social Networking;”and Patrick Marshall’s Nov. 6, 2009, report on Online Privacy (updated Sept. 14, 2010).

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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U.S. Is Planning Buildup in Gulf After Iraq Exit
Thom Shanker and Steven Lee Myers, The New York Times, Oct. 30, 2011

Synopsis: U.S. defense policy is like a global chess game. That metaphor, of course, is not mine; it’s been used since time immemorial – or at least ever since the game was invented by, presumably, by the Chinese. But the metaphor came to mind after I read that the U.S. is likely to be repositioning new combat forces in Kuwait after it withdraws from Iraq at the end of the year.

Takeaway: The move comes after the Obama administration unsuccessfully pressed the Iraqi government to permit up to 20,000 American troops to remain in Iraq beyond 2011. Also, concern about a belligerent (and nuclear armed) Iran is prompting the U.S. to expand military ties with the six-national Gulf Cooperation Council.

For background see “Future of the Gulf States,” CQ Global Researcher, Nov. 1, 2011

--Tom Colin, Contributing Editor

This Week's Report: "Child Poverty"

2011-10-27T17:09:00.001-04:00

An astonishing one in five American children lives below the poverty line, and experts on both sides of the liberal-conservative divide say child poverty is causing the gap between rich and poor to widen, staff writer Peter Katel writes in this week’s expanded CQ Researcher report, “Child Poverty.”

Children who grow up in poverty often suffer lifelong effects. “Children who are reared in poor families are more likely to fail in school, drop out of school, get arrested,” a scholar at the Brookings Institution told Katel. “And the earlier the poverty starts…, the more likely those bad things are to happen.”

Yet, while liberals and conservatives agree that child poverty is among the nation’s most insidious social problems, they are far apart when it comes to pinpointing root causes. Liberals say fewer children would be poor of the government safety net were stronger and more parents could find jobs. Conservatives say out-of-wedlock births are the biggest cause.

This valuable report is ideal for classes in sociology, social policy, economics, government and demography and for papers dealing with child development and the income gap.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Weekly Roundup 10/24/2011

2011-10-24T16:49:00.002-04:00

Revolution Won, Top Libyan Official Vows a New and More Pious State
Adam Nossiter and Kareem Fahim, The New York Times, Oct. 24, 2011

Mogadishu on the Mediterranean?
Christian Caryl, Foreign Policy, Oct. 20, 2011

The colonel is caught
The Economist, Oct. 22, 2011

What’s Next for Libya?
L. Paul Bremer III, The Washington Post, Oct. 23, 2011

Synopsis: The death of Libya’s longtime dictator Moammar Gaddafi marks the end of an eight-month civil war, but the beginning of an uncertain transition. Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, chairman of the Transitional National Council, said the new government would be based on Islamist principles. Meanwhile, human rights groups were raising concerns about the killing of Gaddafi after he had been captured alive. In Foreign Policy, contributing editor Christian Caryl says the weak interim government may preside over a Somalia-style failed state. But The Economist views Gaddafi’s death as encouragement for democratic movements in the Arab world. And in the Washington Post, L. Paul Bremer III, the American diplomat who oversaw the U.S. occupation of Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, says the new regime’s success depends on providing security and demonstrating real political change.

Takeaway: Gaddafi’s death “will not necessarily spell the onset of sweetness and light across the region,” The Economist writes. “But it is a turning point all the same.”

For CQ Global Researcher coverage, see “Turmoil in the Arab World,” May 3, 2011

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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Information Is Cheap, Meaning Is Expensive
The European, Oct. 11, 2011

Synopsis: Historian of science George Dyson notes that computer technology is evolving rapidly and that because of digital technology’s nearly unimaginable complexity this evolution is occurring almost entirely out of human control. This poses some of the most profound ethical and philosophical challenges of our time, he writes. Computers already are far better than human minds at finding answers to many questions, for example. Just consider what happens when you type a query into the Google search engine. Human minds are still far better at posing the most important questions, though, Dyson notes. But there’s a danger we’ll allow the seductive ease of computer-assisted thinking to usurp our facility for doing so.

Takeaway: “The danger is not that machines are advancing. The danger is that we are losing our intelligence if we rely on computers instead of our own minds. On a fundamental level, we have to ask ourselves: Do we need human intelligence? And what happens if we fail to exercise it?... I spent a lot of my life living in the wilderness and building kayaks. I believe that we need to protect our self-reliant individual intelligence—what you would need to survive in a hostile environment. Few of us are still living self-reliant lives. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but we should be cautious not to surrender into dependency on other forms of intelligence.”

For more, see Patrick Marshall’s April 22, 2011, report on “Artificial Intelligence”; Alan Greenblatt’s Sept. 24, 2010, report, “Impact of the Internet on Thinking”; and my Sept. 17, 2010, report, “Social Networking.”

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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A jobs plan we shouldn’t bank on
Chris Edwards, The Washington Post, Oct. 23, 2011

Synopsis: Many people, myself included, think that government spending on infrastructure, such as new highways, can boost employment and the economy in general. Not always so, says the author, an analyst at the conservative Cato Institute.

Takeaway: “The recent infrastructure debate has focused on job creation,” Edwards writes. “The more important question is who is holding the shovel. When it’s the federal government, we’ve found that it digs in the wrong places and leaves taxpayers with big holes in their pockets. So let’s give the shovels to state governments and private companies.”

--Tom Colin, Contributing Editor

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From Russia With Lies
Elena Gorkokhova, New York Times Magazine, Oct. 23, 2011

Soviet civilization belongs to history books. But its survivors still walk among us. One of them, an emigré to the United States who has written a memoir of growing up in the USSR, authored this jewel of a piece on a special category of lie that was part of Soviet life. This genre of mendacity lives on, she writes, pointing to a recent episode involving Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. He too is a product of Soviet civilization, and it shows.

--Peter Katel, Staff Writer

This Week’s Report: “Student Debt”

2011-10-20T17:45:00.000-04:00

College students have borrowed so much for their education that the cumulative bill eclipses the nation’s entire credit-card debt, staff writer Marcia Clemmitt notes in this week’s report, “Student Debt.”

Critics say the loan system is flawed, in part because repayment requirements are far less forgiving than those for consumer debt. Unlike car-loan borrowers, for instance, students can’t escape their college debt through bankruptcy proceedings. But others say the tough rules are justified.

Congress has taken some steps to make the loan system fairer for struggling families, including giving them easier payment options. Lawmakers also have shifted more money into federal Pell Grants for low-income students, among other steps. But advocates want more.

This report is must reading for classes on economics, consumer finance, income inequality and the history of higher education – and for any student attending college or preparing to apply.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

U.S. Cracks Down – Sort of -- on Food Speculators

2011-10-19T14:55:00.002-04:00

by Sarah Glazer

U.S. commodity regulators on Tuesday approved sweeping new curbs on speculative trading in food commodities, the most aggressive anti-speculation move by a government since food prices began to rise in recent years. But the vote may not be the end of the story.

The latest rules will limit trading by banks and investment funds, which consumer groups blame for the rising food prices. But after heavy lobbying by Wall Street, the rules passed Tuesday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission were watered down significantly.

In addition, the commission-- aware that Wall Street could challenge the action in court -- agreed to delay many of its new rules for at least a year.

The European Union is considering similar rules but faces strong opposition from London, a major trading center. France had pledged to curb food speculators when the G-20 summit meets Nov. 3-4, but political leaders’ ardor has cooled in recent months, as we report in this week’s CQ Global Researcher on “Rising Food Prices.” Whether the American regulators’ latest action will influence Europe’s approach remains to be seen.

Weekly Roundup 10/17/2011

2011-10-17T17:56:00.002-04:00

Parsing the Data and Ideology of the We Are 99% Tumblr
Mike Konczalaa, Rortybomb blog, Oct. 9, 2011

Synopsis: The “We Are the 99 Percent” blog -- http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/ -- houses a growing collection of photos and personal statements of Americans declaring themselves members of our economy’s “99 percent.” Most chronicle personal financial struggles and fears, while a few note that they’re doing okay but stand in solidarity with others seeking change. In a computer analysis of the posters’ text statements, liberal economic analyst Mike Konczal, of the Roosevelt Institute, finds these the top concerns: student debt, fears about being able to take care of children, unemployment, and health care. The list is basic, oddly old-fashioned and, perhaps, a bit scary and surprising in our high-tech era, often seen as afflicted mainly with overspending and inflated expectations – “affluenza” – Konczal says.

Takeaway: “The people in the tumblr aren’t demanding to bring democracy into the workplace via large-scale unionization, much less shorter work days and more pay. They aren’t talking the language of mid-20th century liberalism, where everyone puts on blindfolds and cuts slices of pie to share. The 99 percent looks too beaten down to demand anything as grand as ‘fairness’ in their distribution of the economy. There are no calls for some sort of post-industrial personal fulfillment in their labor – very few even invoke the idea that a job should ‘mean something.’ It’s straight out of antiquity – free us from the bondage of our debts and give us a basic ability to survive.”

For more, see Peter Katel’s “Jobs Outlook” report, June 4, 2010, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010060400; Thomas J. Billitteri’s “Middle-Class Squeeze,” March 6, 2009, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2009030600; and my reports on “Income Inequality,” Dec. 3, 2010, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010120300; and “Student Debt,” coming up this week.

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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Amid fine weather, thousands help dedicate King Memorial on mall
Michael E. Raune, The Washington Post, Oct. 16, 2011 (Oct. 17 in print edition)

Synopsis: The weekend dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial drew more than 10,000 people to the National Mall, including President Obama, to remember the late civil rights leader’s life and legacy.

Takeaway: “This day, we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s return to the National Mall,” Obama said as he stood before the 30-foot statue of King, centerpiece of the memorial. “In this place, he will stand for all time.”

The Post’s full multimedia coverage is available here. For an archived webcast of the dedication ceremony, visit the memorial’s web site, here.

The CQ Researcher Archive includes scores of reports on racial issues, including “Civil and Social Rights of the Negro,” March 25, 1939, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre1939032500; “Race Segregation,” Oct. 8, 1952, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre1952100800; “Negro Voting,” Oct. 14, 1964, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre1964101400; “Desegregation After 20 Years,” May 3, 1974, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre1974050300; “Race and Politics,” July 18, 2008, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2008071800; and “Race in America,” July 11, 2003, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2003071100.

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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The Bleakness of the Bullied
Charles M. Blow, The New York Times, Oct. 15, 2011

Synopsis: Bullying plagues a high percentage of schoolchildren in our country. A disturbingly large number of them are picked on so mercilessly that they commit suicide each year. Times op-ed writer Blow recalls that he too was bullied and in such pain that at the age of 8, he considered taking his own life.

Takeaway: Luckily, the love Blow received from his mother was enough to carry him through, though he suffered in silence. "I never even told my mother, and I am only here to share my gift with you because she coaxed me to sleep with t gift she didn’t believe she had.”

For background see “Preventing Bullying,” Dec. 10, 2010, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010121000; and “Cyberbullying,” May 2, 2008, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2008050200.

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

This Week’s Report: “Eyewitness Testimony”

2011-10-14T11:28:00.000-04:00

Eyewitness identification can be crucial in bringing criminals to justice, as Associate Editor Kenneth Jost notes in this week’s report. “There isn’t any evidence more powerful than when a witness sits on the witness stand and points to the defendant in court and says, ‘That’s the guy,’” law professor and former public defender Jonathan Rapping tells Jost.

But eyewitnesses can be wrong, too, and their mistakes can lead to grave miscarriages of justice. Misidentifications played a role in three-fourths of the 273 wrongful convictions confirmed in the past two decades by DNA exonerations, Jost writes, citing the work of University of Virginia law professor Brandon Garrett.

Jost’s report delves deeply into this central tool of criminal investigation, providing rich material for classes and papers in civics, criminal justice, psychology, ethics, current events, political science and law.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Abortion Politics and the Millions of ‘Missing’ Girls

2011-10-12T17:27:00.000-04:00

An estimated 160 million Indian and Chinese females who have been either aborted or murdered as newborns – just because they were girls, Rob Kiener reports in “Gendercide Crisis,” the latest CQ Global Researcher. Because they don’t appear in demographic tallies, they are known as the “missing” girls. In recent decades Asia’s traditional anti-female bias has combined with falling fertility rates, China’s one-child policy, new high-tech prenatal gender-detection tools and easy access to abortion to produce unprecedented gender imbalances in the region. Some of Asia’s skewed sex ratios stem from girls’ parents wanting to avoid having to pay exorbitant dowries. Women also leave home to care for their husbands and in-laws, while sons, by tradition, care for their elderly parents. Aside from causing the deaths of millions of baby girls, Asia’s gendercide crisis means that by 2021 India will have 20 percent more men than women, and by 2050, up to 50 million men will be unable to find wives in China.

Abortion politics also enters into the story. “Where are the feminists?” Steven Mosher, president of the conservative Population Research Institute, asked of Kiener. Why aren’t they outraged about this “terrible form of sex discrimination that is killing so many unborn baby girls?” Women’s-rights advocates told Kiener that feminist groups are silent because they don’t want to support any limits on a woman’s right to an abortion. Anti-abortion proponents like Mosher, they say, are using the gendercide issue to push for a ban on all abortions.

Asia’s gender imbalance already has led to increased kidnapping and trafficking in women and higher prostitution rates in the region. And experts worry that having so many unmarried men could threaten stability and security, leading to “the criminalization of society.”

See the report at: http://library.cqpress.com/globalresearcher/cqrglobal2011100400

--Kathy Koch, Managing Editor, CQ Global Researcher

Weekly Roundup 10/10/2011

2011-10-10T16:59:00.002-04:00

Occupy Wall Street (Wall Street Protests, 2011)
Times Topics, nytimes.com (visited Oct. 10, 2011)

A Walk in the Park
Hendrik Hertzberg, The New Yorker, Oct. 17, 2011 (post-dated)

Occupy Wall Street: Newcomers bring their hopes and worries to New York protest
Eli Saslow, The Washington Post, Oct. 9, 2011 (print edition: Oct. 10, 2011)

Synopsis: The loosely organized group calling itself Occupy Wall Street began its protest in the privately owned, open to the public Zuccotti Park on Saturday, Sept. 17, with an outcry against corporate greed and economic inequality. In an online chronicle, nytimes.com provides a succinct overview of events in New York and links to some of its coverage, including stories about the spread of the movement to other cities. Hendrik Hertzberg, a senior editor and staff writer for The New Yorker, gives an impressionistic account of the gathering in Zuccotti Park. And Washington Post political writer Eli Saslow ponders the future of the movement through the eyes of three newly arrived protesters.

Takeaway: As the protest moves into its fifth week, Saslow poses these questions about its future: “Can a leaderless group that relies on consensus find a way for so many people to agree on what comes next? Can it offer not only objections but also solutions? Can a radical protest evolve into a mainstream movement for change?”

For CQ Researcher coverage, see these reports: Marcia Clemmitt, “Income Inequality,” Dec. 3, 2010, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010120300; Marcia Clemmitt, “Financial Industry Overhaul,” July 30, 2010, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010073000; Peter Katel, “Jobs Outlook,” June 4, 2010, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010060400.

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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Everything You Need to Know About the New Facebook
Business Insider, Sept. 26, 2011

Synopsis: Full disclosure: I remain a social-media holdout. Nevertheless -- or therefore? -- I watch with fascination the reshaping of the world according to Mark Zuckerberg’s dream of radical transparency. This piece appears to be a pretty thorough summary of current and imminent Facebook changes that aim to create a complete virtual you on the Internet, along with tips about how to tailor some features to your liking or opt out of them.

Takeaway: “Do you remember Facebook Beacon? Originally, when it launched in 2007, it caused a lot of controversy because it pushed people into sharing actions with their friends that they might not necessarily want to share. For example, if you bought movie tickets from MovieTickets.com, it would share that with all your Facebook friends via your news feed. The service was shut down in September 2009 due to privacy concerns. Now, people are a lot more used to sharing their activities with their friends. We ‘check in’ to places, we share photos, etc. Facebook is banking on this new type of sharing to be less scary, and something you can opt into, just once. For example, if you join the new Guardian Facebook app, you'll add it to your Timeline, and share any article you read on the Guardian website with your friends.”

For more, see my Sept. 17, 2010, report on “Social Networking,” http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010091700, and Patrick Marshall’s Nov. 6, 2009, report on “Online Privacy,” updated in September 2010, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2009110600.

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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Taken by Pirates
Jeffrey Gettleman, The New York Times Magazine, Oct. 9, 2011

Synopsis: This nail-biting story by the Times’ Africa correspondent describes the year-long torment that British sailors Rachel and Paul Chandler endured at the hands of the Somalian pirates who took them hostage in the Indian Ocean. It is a classic of the your-worst-nightmare genre that also provides a fascinating insider’s look at the out-of-control pirate “industry.”

Takeaway: The Chandlers’ almost miraculous survival is a testament to both their amazing courage and strength and the kindness and concern of others, including many Somali immigrants in England.

For additional reading see Alan Greenblatt, “Attacking Piracy,” CQ Global Researcher, August 2009, http://library.cqpress.com/globalresearcher/cqrglobal2009080000

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

This Week's Report: "Legal-Aid Crisis"

2011-10-07T14:20:00.001-04:00

As the economy teeters on the edge of recession, many poor and even middle-class people facing legal problems – mortgage foreclosure, bankruptcy, spousal abuse, divorce and so on – are finding it hard to afford a lawyer. Yet, government-financed legal-aid programs are being slashed because of state and federal budget cuts.

Veteran reporter Barbara Mantel takes a careful look at the problem in this week’s CQ Researcher report, “Legal-Aid Crisis.” She notes that as legal-aid programs shrink, more and more people are trying to represent themselves in court – and often coming out on the losing end. Meanwhile, big law firms that provide free legal help for the poor have been cutting back on such “pro bono” services as they too try to cope with bad economy.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Weekly Roundup 10/3/2011

2011-10-04T11:39:00.002-04:00

Secret memo sanctioned killing of Alauqi
Peter Finn, The Washington Post, Oct. 1, 2011

Judging a Long, Deadly Reach
Scott Shane, The New York Times, Oct. 1, 2011

On Due Process and Targeting Citizens
Benjamin Wittes, Lawfare, Oct. 1, 2011

Synopsis: President Obama hailed he Sept. 30 killing of the American born radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in a CIA drone strike in Yemen as a “significant milestone” in the effort to defeat Al Qaeda and its affiliates. But the targeted killing of a U.S. citizen raises significant legal issues. Indeed, the American Civil Liberties Union charged that the killing violates both U.S. and international law. Washington Post reporter Peter Finn reports on the secret Justice Department memo authorizing the killing, while the New York Times’s Scott Shane describes the debate over its legality. On the national security law blog Warfare, Brookings Institution senior fellow Benjamin Wittes says due process does limit the targeted killing of a U.S. citizen, but he proposes a three-part test that he believes the attack on al-Awlaki satisfies.

Takeaway: The administration has so far declined to detail the legal basis for the attack on al-Awlaki, but the debate will continue.

For background, see Thomas J. Billitteri, “Drone Warfare,” CQ Researcher, Aug. 6, 2010, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010080600.

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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Why Wikipedia Blocks Social Media
Bianca Bosker, Huffington Post, Sept. 26, 2011

Synopsis: You won’t find a Facebook “Like” button or a “Google-plus” link on Wikipedia. Co-founder Jimmy Wales doesn’t embrace the “radical transparency” movement championed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and many other Internet gurus. What we choose to learn and explore remains our personal business, Wales argues.

Takeaway: “Things like sharing what you’re reading, that’s where Facebook bumps up against the line of what people find slightly weird and creepy,” Wales said. “If I go to read something on Wikipedia, that’s my own personal business…You should feel safe and private knowing that whatever you want to learn, you go to Wikipedia to learn it and you don’t have to worry that you’ve accidentally told Facebook you want to learn it.”

For more, see my report on “Social Networking,” Sept. 17, 2010, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010091700; and Patrick Marshall’s Nov. 6, 2009, report on “Online Privacy” (updated Sept. 14, 2010).

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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Super People
James Atlas, The New York Times, Oct. 2, 2011

Synopsis: Thanks largely to their parents’ affluence, an increasing number of high-achieving students have accomplishments that are simply off the charts -- from perfect test scores to Mother Theresa-equivalent volunteer work in far-off nations to multiple ability in foreign languages and musical instruments. And much, much more too depressing to think about if you are just a “normal” student, like most of us.

Takeaway: Maybe, just maybe, all that striving is counterproductive, Atlas suggests. “In the end,” he writes, “the whole idea of Super Person is kind of exhausting to contemplate…A line of Whitman’s … has stayed with me; ‘I loaf and invite my soul.’ ”

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

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Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on the Famine in Somalia
Mwai Kibaki, Foreign Affairs, Sept. 30, 2011

Synopsis: The economies of many African nations are growing, and many have implemented economic and political reforms to enhance openness and transparency. And despite the conflict and famine in Somalia, there exists an opportunity for the country to escape the regional mess, according to the president of Kenya.

Takeaway: Somalia must first recognize that ethnic and tribal differences are not easily bridgeable. Efforts must be made to decentralize power to the country’s different ethnicities and geographical regions. To this end, Somalia can learn lessons from the independence of nearby South Sudan.

For background see the CQ Global Researcher report “The Troubled Horn of Africa” by Jason McLure, June 2009, http://library.cqpress.com/globalresearcher/cqrglobal2009060000

--Darrell Dela Rosa, Assistant Editor

This Week's Report: "Prolonging Life"

2011-09-30T10:24:00.004-04:00

Life expectancy has been rising steadily in the United States, and by 2050 more than 1 million Americans will be at least 100 years old – 20 times the total in 2000. The trend has some politicians and policymakers worried about the impact of an expanding elderly population on Social Security and Medicare costs.

Nonetheless, as freelancer Beth Baker explains in this week’s fascinating report, scientists are working to prolong human life even more, with some envisioning a day when people routinely live far past the century mark –independently and in good health. Some futurists even talk of using therapies and technology to help humans remain hearty for hundreds – if not thousands -- of years.

But many gerontologists and ethicists say such notions are far-fetched. The human body has a limited lifespan, and the goal of science should be quality – not unbounded quantity -- of life, they argue. This report is ideal for classes focusing on the ethics of science, Social Security and Medicare policy, U.S. and global demographics and the sociology of aging.

(For other recent reports on aging, see Alan Greenblatt, “Aging Population,” CQ Researcher, July 15, 2011, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2011071500; and Greenblatt, “The Graying Planet,” CQ Global Researcher, March 15, 2011, http://library.cqpress.com/globalresearcher/cqrglobal2011031500.)

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Privacy on Court's Docket; Health Law Cases in Wings

2011-09-29T00:46:00.007-04:00

By Kenneth Jost
Supreme Court Editor, CQ Press
The U.S. Supreme Court opens a new term on Monday with two closely watched privacy cases already on its docket and challenges to President Obama’s health care plan in the wings.
Among other cases, the court will consider for the second time whether the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) can punish broadcasters for “fleeting expletives.” And in a case being closely watched by advocacy groups across the ideological spectrum, the justices will consider whether to allow private suits challenging state laws on federal preemption grounds.
More important than any of the 48 cases already granted review are the multiple challenges to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that Congress passed and Obama signed in March 2010 after a fiercely partisan legislative battle. Moves by both sides Wednesday in one of the cases appeared to make it all but certain that the justices can take up the issues in time for a ruling before the term ends next June, midway through a presidential election year.
Three federal appeals courts have issued different rulings on the key issue in the cases: the constitutionality of requiring everyone to have health insurance or pay a penalty. The Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati upheld the law. The Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va., rejected the challenges on procedural grounds. But the Atlanta-based Eleventh Circuit ruled the individual mandate unconstitutional in separate cases filed by Florida along with 25 other states and by the National Federation of Independent Business.
Challengers have already filed their petition, Thomas More Law Center v. Obama, 11-117, asking the justices to review the Sixth Circuit decision. In separate moves on Wednesday, both sides in the Eleventh Circuit case asked the Supreme Court to review the decision in time to decide it this term. “We hope the Supreme Court takes up the case,” White House domestic policy adviser Stephanie Cutter wrote on the White House blog in late afternoon, “and we are confident we will win.” The government’s petition is U.S. Dep’t of Health and Human Services v. Florida, 11-398.
Court watchers are anticipating two other major issues that the justices may decide to review this term. In Arizona v. United States, 11-182, the government is challenging Arizona’s immigration-related law known as SB 1070 that, among other things, makes it a state crime to fail to carry federally issued documentation. Critics call it the “show me your papers” law. The San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court injunction blocking major provisions of the law. The state has appealed to the Supreme Court.
In a second case, Fisher v. University of Texas, 11-345, an unsuccessful white applicant to the University of Texas’ flagship Austin campus is challenging UT’s admissions policy of treating race as a “plus factor” for minority applicants. A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, upheld the policy; the full court rejected an en banc hearing by a 9-7 vote, over a forceful dissent.
Even without those potential cases, the court starts with a challenging array of issues following a term that many observers rated as lacking blockbuster decisions. The new term opens with the same lineup as last year’s with a generally conservative bloc of five Republican appointees, headed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and a liberal bloc of four Democratic-appointed justices, including Obama’s two appointees: Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. In closely divided cases, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, a moderate conservative, sometimes votes with the liberal bloc to give it a majority.
The two privacy cases may test the conservative-liberal fault lines. In United States v. Jones, 10-1259 (argument: Nov. 8), the government is claiming the right to track a drug suspect using a global positioning system (GPS) device attached to his car without first obtaining a search warrant. The D.C. Circuit ruled that a warrant is necessary. In another high-tech search case a decade ago, two conservatives — Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas — joined three liberals in ruling that police need a warrant to use a thermal imaging device to “search” a home for evidence of indoor marijuana cultivation (Kyllo v. United States, 2001).
Former acting U.S. solicitor general Neal Katyal, now in private practice, told a pre-term briefing sponsored by the American Constitution Society that a ruling to require a search warrant for GPS tracking could have “fairly dramatic consequences” for counterespionage and terrorism investigations conducted on U.S. soil. But Steve Shapiro, national legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union, rejected the government’s argument that GPS tracking does not invade personal privacy because it follows a suspect while he or she is out in public.
“In a 21st century digital age, we can no longer think of privacy in binary terms,” Shapiro said at the ACLU’s annual preview session. “We have to think of privacy in a more nuanced way.”
In a second case, Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders, 10-945 (argument: Oct. 12), a New Jersey man arrested in error after a traffic stop is challenging the policy at two county jails of strip-searching all detainees even if held for minor offenses. The Third Circuit in Philadelphia, differing from some other circuits, upheld the policy on grounds of prison security.
The fleeting expletives case, Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television Stations, Inc., 10-1293 (argument: expected in January), stems from the FCC’s appeal of a Third Circuit ruling striking down as unconstitutionally vague its 2004 policy of penalizing even a single use of a vulgarism. The case involves proposed penalties on stations for prime-time broadcasts in which the entertainer Cher and the reality show celebrity Nicole Richie uttered taboo words. The Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that the FCC had a sufficient basis for adopting the strict anti-indecency policy, but sent the case back to the Third Circuit for a ruling on its constitutionality.
The justices open the term on Monday with a seemingly technical case, Douglas v. Independent Living Center of Southern California, 09-958 (argument: Oct. 3), with potential stakes for interest groups of all stripes. Health care providers and Medicaid beneficiaries are challenging California’s decision to reduce reimbursements under the joint federal-state program. The plaintiffs argue the cuts are preempted by federal law.
The Ninth Circuit allowed the suits to proceed, but the government says the Medicaid law does not permit enforcement by private parties. Interest groups ranging from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the ACLU and NAACP Legal Defense Fund have filed friend-of-the-court briefs on the plaintiffs’ side, fearing the potential ramifications of a decision limiting private suits.
Todd Garland, CQ Press legal intern, contributed to this story.

On the Web: The U.S. Supreme Court provides docket information on cases: www.supremecourt.gov. The private SCOTUSBlog provides comprehensive coverage of pending cases, including links to all briefs: www.scotusblog.com. The ACA litigation blog has comprehensive information about challenges to the Affordable Care Act: http://acalitigationblog.blogspot.com/.

Weekly Roundup 9/26/2011

2011-09-26T17:44:00.003-04:00

Is Junk Food Really Cheaper?
Mark Bittman, The New York Times, Sept. 25, 2011

Synopsis: People eat junk food from fast-food restaurants because it’s cheap, right? Wrong, says Bittman, the New York Times’ food and nutrition op-ed columnist. “In general, despite extensive government subsidies, hyperprocessed food remains more expensive than food cooked at home,” he writes. Example: $28 for happy meals for four at McDonalds; $14 for roast chicken and veggies for four at home (or $9 for rice and beans). And, with more calories, junk food is contributing to the obesity epidemic.

Takeaway: Bittman advocates cultural and political changes: celebrate “real food” in family settings and agitate to limit the marketing of junk food.

For background on food and nutrition issues, see these CQ Researcher reports: Peter Katel, “Food Safety,” Dec. 17, 2010, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010121700; Marcia Clemmitt, “Global Food Crisis,” June 27, 2008, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2008062700; and Sarah Glazer, “Slow Food Movement,” Jan. 26, 2007, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2007012600.

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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The Shame of College Sports
Taylor Branch, The Atlantic, Oct. 2011

Synopsis: Civil-rights historian Taylor Branch lays out a compelling, detailed history of the NCAA. The system that dubs college players “amateurs” and “student-athletes” – and reaps billions for colleges, TV networks and professional sports franchises while many players get, at most, watered-down degrees for their pains -- was corrupt and unjust from the start and should be dismantled, Branch argues.

Takeaway: The term “student-athlete” came into play “in the 1950s, when the widow of Ray Dennison, who had died from a head injury received while playing football in Colorado for the Fort Lewis A&M Aggies, filed for workmen’s-compensation death benefits. Did his football scholarship make the fatal collision a ‘work-related’ accident? Was he a school employee, like his peers who worked part-time as teaching assistants and bookstore cashiers? Or was he a fluke victim of extracurricular pursuits? Given the hundreds of incapacitating injuries to college athletes each year, the answers to these questions had enormous consequences. “The Colorado Supreme Court ultimately agreed with the school’s contention that he was not eligible for benefits, since the college was ‘not in the football business.’ The term student-athlete was deliberately ambiguous. College players were not students at play (which might understate their athletic obligations), nor were they just athletes in college (which might imply they were professionals). That they were high-performance athletes meant they could be forgiven for not meeting the academic standards of their peers; that they were students meant they did not have to be compensated, ever, for anything more than the cost of their studies.”

For more, see Tom Price, “Reforming Big-Time College Sports,” CQ Researcher, March 19, 2004, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2004031900; and Kenneth Jost, “Professional Football,” Jan. 29, 2010, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010012900.

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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A Brutal Afghan Clan Bedevils the U.S.
Mark Mazzetti, Scott Shane and Alissa J. Rubin, The New York Times, Sept. 25, 2011

Synopsis: Just when you probably thought things couldn’t get much worse in Afghanistan, the Times, in a front-page, above-the-fold story on Sunday draws the curtain on “the Sopranos of the Afghanistan war, a ruthless crime family that built an empire out of kidnapping, extortion, smuggling, even trucking.”

Takeaway: The Haqqani crime empire is an Islamist force that acts as Pakistan’s proxy and will remain influential and destabilizing after American forces depart.

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

This Week’s Report: “Military Suicides”

2011-09-22T16:40:00.001-04:00

Almost a decade after the United States went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, suicides among active-duty soldiers and veterans are rising sharply, and military leaders are struggling to help service members cope with the pressures of deployment, combat and military life in general. Yet, as CQ Researcher staff writer Peter Katel notes in this week’s report, “Military Suicides,” experts view the government’s grasp of the problem as “uncoordinated” and inadequate. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has come under especially harsh criticism from politicians, judges and veterans’ families for what they say have been insufficient steps to help service members get counseling and other aid. The suicide problem is “spiraling out of control,” Tom Tarantino, senior legislative associate for the advocacy group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told Katel. This important report is especially relevant for classes and papers on current events, government policy, military history, public administration and suicide prevention.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Weekly Roundup 9/19/2011

2011-09-19T15:55:00.002-04:00

Ever-increasing tax benefits for U.S. families eclipse benefits for special interests
Lori Montgomery, The Washington Post, Sept. 18, 2011

Synopsis: With President Obama set to announce a tax increase for millionaires as part of a plan to rewrite the U.S. tax code, Post congressional correspondent Lori Montgomery details the costly tax benefits that flow not mainly to corporations but to middle-class families. Tax breaks such as the exemption for employer-provided health insurance and the deduction for home mortgage interest cost the government more than $1 trillion a year; corporate tax breaks total only $93.5 billion. The number of broad tax breaks has nearly doubled since the last major rewrite of the tax code in 1986, Montgomery writes. And many are considered politically untouchable.

Takeaway: “The big money is in the middle-class subsidies,” an economist told Montgomery. “You’re not going to balance the budget by eliminating ethanol credits. You have to go after things that really matter to a lot of people.”

For CQ Researcher coverage of related issues, see Marcia Clemmitt, “National Debt,” March 18, 2011,
http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2011031800; Kenneth Jost, “Campaign Finance Debates,” May 28, 2010, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010052800; and Thomas J. Billitteri, “Middle-Class Squeeze,” March 6, 2009, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2009030600.

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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Rick Perry, Uber Texan
Gail Collins, The New York Times, Sunday Review, Sept. 18, 2011

Synopsis: By any definition, Rick Perry is a piece of work. To put a finer point on it: He’s a West Texas piece of work, and that’s saying somethin.’ (I’ve been there, my wife’s people are from there, so I know a little about the breed.) It’s a good bet that we are going to be hearing a lot about Rick Perry in the months ahead, and one way to begin learning about him is by reading clever writer extraordinaire (and card-carrying liberal) Gail Collins, the former editorial editor of The Times. Life revolves around Texas, Collins notes, and, correspondingly, about belittling the federal government. Collins writes: “We have had several Texas presidents, but none so deeply, intensely Texas as this guy would be. (Walking on the stage with the other debate candidates, Perry is so much broader of chest and squarer of shoulder and straighter of spine than the rest of the pack that he looks as if he might have been stuffed.) Dwight Eisenhower, who was born in Texas, moved out before he was 2. Lyndon Johnson had long since become a man of Washington when he entered the White House, though he worried that Northerners would make fun of his twang — which they sort of did. George H. W. Bush was basically an Easterner who had moved to Texas for his job. His son was much more of a Texas product, but his parents sent W. off to boarding school to erase some of the evidence.”

Takeaway: Collins notes “the real question isn’t how Texas is doing but whether Perry’s experience there has led him to think about the federal government at all, except as a sinister force that can be identified as the villain when anything goes wrong.”
She ends by commenting: “Having an interest in national government that’s mainly limited to disliking it might work fine if you’re the governor of a state that has always regarded itself as “low-tax, low-service” anyway. It’s a little more problematic if you’re the guy in charge of keeping the dollar stable, the food supply safe and the national defense ready.

We could live with a president who named his boots ‘Freedom’ and ‘Liberty.’

“Not sure about one who has contempt for the job he’s running for.”

For related coverage, see Kenneth Jost, “Campaign Finance Debates,” CQ Researcher, May 28, 2010, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010052800; and Thomas J. Billitteri, “Government and Religion,” CQ Researcher, Jan. 15, 2010, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010011500.

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

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Bubble Boys
Christopher Beam, New York Times Magazine, Sept. 11, 2011

Synopsis: Just like in ancient times – in Information-Age terms, that’s the 1960s and ‘70s – young computer hackers today spend countless hours trying to turn their individual passions into high-functioning software code. And that hobbyist mindset may still be one of the best resources for achieving advances in computer technology, even in the days of mega-companies like Microsoft and Apple. Having just finished my report on “Computer Hacking,” I’m fascinated by the complex changes in our world that the digital age may be accomplishing almost entirely without our notice. This piece provides an intriguing window into the widening opportunities for invention that a networked digital world provides for the most technologically savvy among us.

Takeaway: “Coding isn’t about making money or scratching some OCD [obsessive compulsive disorder] itch. It’s about doing what you love and, yes, changing the world. Engineers shopping their talents talk about impact; they say they want to work wherever their contribution will make the most people happiest…. The result is that in order to recruit young talent, companies try to seem smaller while getting bigger.” Google, for example, “seduces free spirits by famously letting employees spend 20 percent of their time on projects they are passionate about—some of which turn into major Google products, such as Google News and Gmail.”

For more, see my Sept. 15 report, “Computer Hacking,” http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2011091600

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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Coming Apart
George Packer, The New Yorker, Sept. 12, 2011

Packer, a staff writer for the magazine who covered the early years of the Iraq War, has produced the most original take on the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 that I’ve seen. The site of his reporting is the town of Mount Airy, N.C., known to many vintage TV fans as the inspiration for Mayberry, the fictional site of the endearing “Andy Griffith Show.” Now, Packer writes, the town has become another deindustrialization site, its textile mills closed, its population down and its remaining citizens desperate for work. A sizeable number of them are veterans, Packer notes. Job hopes soared when an ex-military contractor in Iraq opened a factory to upgrade Humvees with armor – to shield troops from the roadside bombs that Pentagon planners hadn’t foreseen. The contractor’s design got high marks, Packer reports, but Congress and the Defense Department still haven’t issued any contracts to re-armor existing Humvees. And the Mount Airy company can’t afford the contingent of lobbyists his competitors can deploy. For Packer, the tale reflects a massive failure of the Bush administration to mobilize the country to fight the post-9/11 wars. “Without a draft,” he writes, “the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been fought by less than 1 per cent of the population. The Pentagon, which wanted to keep those wars limited and short, avoided planning for large-scale manufacturing, even after its necessity became obvious.” The Obama administration has only belatedly awoken to the need to offer employers incentives to hire vets, Packer writes. His tone throughout resonates with barely restrained anger.

For background on some of the issues Packer examines, see: Kenneth Jost, “Remembering 9/11,” CQ Researcher, Sept. 2, 2011, pp. 701-732, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2011090200
; Peter Katel, “Reviving Manufacturing,” CQ Researcher, July 22, 2011, pp. 601-624, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2011072200.

--Peter Katel, Staff Writer

This Week's Report: "Computer Hacking"

2011-09-15T18:03:00.001-04:00

Staff writer Marcia Clemmitt delves into the secretive worlds of computer hacking and cyber crime in this week’s CQ Researcher report. Malicious cyber attacks are causing billions of dollars in damage per year to corporate, government, military and other computer systems, and hacking skills are in rising demand as tech companies and police try to fight back, Marcia reports. “Ironically…,” she writes, “the only way to thwart the attacks is to hire people possessing many of the same technical skills and personality traits as the perpetrators. The trick, though, is to hire hackers who want to do good rather than ill.”

One telling fact: One computer-security company finds that in just three months of Web surfing, the average computer user has a 95 percent chance of visiting a site infected by malicious software. Technology classes and students writing papers on cyber ethics and online security will find this report of special interest.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Weekly Roundup 9/12/2011

2011-09-12T17:12:00.003-04:00

The 9/11 Decade: Three views

The 9/11 Decade
The Wall Street Journal, Sept. 10, 2011

Don’t underestimate what America has achieved since 9/11
The Washington Post, Sept. 11, 2011

Get smarter on security
Los Angeles Times, Sept. 11, 2011

Synopsis: The 10th anniversary of Al Qaeda’s Sept. 11, 2011, attacks on the United States prompted an outpouring of remembrances of that awful day and analyses and commentaries of the decade since. In editorials, three of the nation’s leading newspapers offer differing views. The Wall Street Journal praises the Bush administration’s “serious and sustained response,” including the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” that the newspaper credits with producing much of the intelligence collected about al Qaeda; it credits President Obama with carry having preserved “the most part” of the Bush policies. The Washington Post acknowledges “some truth” to the critique of U.S. policy as an “overreaction,” but it sees “no large-scale assault on personal freedoms” and finds achievements overall outweighed mistakes. But the Los Angeles Times says the country has done “some things” right and “many things” wrong and has been “remarkably disinclined to learn from our mistakes.”

In addition to their regular daily news coverage, both the New York Times and Washington Post published special 9/11 sections on terrorist attacks.

For CQ Researcher coverage, see my report “Remembering 9/11” (Sept. 2) and the 9/11-related reports cited at the end, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2011090200.

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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The Last Moderate
Joe Nocera, The New York Times, Sept. 5, 2011

Synopsis: Veteran Blue Dog Dem Rep. Jim Cooper, Tenn., a House member since 1982, mostly blames former Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., for the era of intransigence that’s gradually taken over Congress since the mid-1990s. As House speaker, Gingrich ushered in an era of party unity and lockstep legislating that led directly to today’s take-no-prisoners “Lord of the Flies”-style congressional battles, Cooper argues. Emblematic of the change is the fact that, in the past, each party introduced multiple versions of legislation on hot issues, leading to both intra- and inter-party debate on which provisions to approve. Under Gingrich, Republicans were expected to unite immediately in support of a single, ideologically focused bill – and battle to the death for its passage in full. Today, both parties take this tack, greatly diminishing the complexity of legislative debate and the possibilities for compromise.

Takeaway: “Gingrich was a new kind of speaker: deeply partisan and startlingly power-hungry,” Nocera writes. As Cooper recalls, “ ‘His first move was to get rid of the Democratic Study Group, which analyzed bills and was so trusted that Republicans as well as Democrats relied on it. This was his way of preventing us from knowing what we were voting on. Today, the ignorance around here is staggering. Nobody has any idea what they’re voting on.’”

For more, see my report on “Gridlock in Washington,” April 30, 2010, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010043000; Peter Katel’s “Democrats’ Future,” Oct. 29, 2010,
http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010102900, and “Tea Party Movement,” March 19, 2010, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010031900; and Alan Greenblatt’s “Future of the GOP,” March 20, 2009, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2009032000.

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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Christopher Hitchens: A Man of His Words
Bill Keller, The New York Times, Sept. 9, 2011

“Christopher Hitchens: A Man of His Words”
A review of Hitchens’s new book, “Arguably”

Synopsis: Bill Keller’s writing is simply sublime, and the essays by the prolific Hitchens – “who writes as fast as some people talk”-- are mind-boggling in their scope and erudition. Keller is the former executive editor of the Times who stepped down to become an op-ed columnist and writer for the Times’ Magazine. As Keller writes: “Anyone who occasionally opens one of our more serious periodicals has learned that the byline of Christopher Hitchens is an opportunity to be delighted or maddened — possibly both — but in any case not to be missed. He is our intellectual omnivore, exhilarating and infuriating, if not in equal parts at least with equal wit.” Hitchens, the feisty, hard-drinking Brit who became a U.S. citizen, is fighting what is likely a losing battle with esophageal cancer, and this may be his last book.

Takeaway: If you are familiar with Hitchens, just read it; you know what I’m talkin’ about. If you’re new to Hitchens (or Keller), read it. That’s an order. You’ll thank me.

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

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The Buck Stays Here
Daniel W. Drezner, Foreign Policy, Sept. 7, 2011

Synopsis: The 2008 financial meltdown and the recent political meltdown in Washington have many questioning the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency. Some banks have predicted that the Chinese yuan will rival the dollar sometime within the next decade.

Takeaway: The obstacles to shifting away from the dollar are formidable. The amount of official dollar currency reserves in the world and the frequency of international transactions using the dollar confirm that the dollar by far surpasses any other currency in providing a medium of exchange. Thus, the dollar doesn’t seem to be fading anytime soon.

For background see Peter Behr’s CQ Global Researcher report “The Troubled Dollar” (subscription required), http://library.cqpress.com/globalresearcher/cqrglobal2008100000

--Darrell Dela Rosa, Assistant Editor

This Week's Report: Extreme Weather

2011-09-08T10:21:00.001-04:00

This week’s CQ Researcher report, “Extreme Weather,” comes on the heels of Hurricane Irene, which ravaged the Eastern Seaboard – particularly New England – and, according to experts, ranks among the costliest catastrophes in U.S. history. The United States has endured a drumbeat of severe weather in recent months: massive floods along the Mississippi River; deadly tornadoes, including one that devastated Joplin, Mo.; blinding blizzards in the Midwest and New England, and drought conditions in the Southwest that have led to catastrophic wildfires in Texas. Why all this is happening is a matter of debate among scientists. Some point directly to human-induced global warming as the reason. Others caution that while warming is real, no definitive link exists between it and, for instance, the hurricanes and tornadoes we’ve been seeing. That robust debate plays out in our pro/con “At Issue” between scientists Jay Gulledge of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and Richard A. Muller of the University of California, Berkeley. This report may be a good entry point for discussions or papers on climate change, environmental history and the economics of natural disasters.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Weekly Roundup 9/6/2011

2011-09-06T14:49:00.004-04:00

Top Secret America: A look at the military’s Joint Special Operations Command
Dana Priest and William M. Arkin, The Washington Post, Sept. 4, 2011

Synopsis: The team of U.S. Navy SEALS who took out Osama bin Laden was part of the military’s Joint Special Operations Command – known by the acronym JSOC – that has grown tenfold over the past decade in near complete obscurity. Priest, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner with the Post, and Arkin, a Post columnist and reporter, detail the expanded role that this elite force has played in capturing, imprisoning or killing suspected terrorists. JSOC has grown, they write, from “a rarely used hostage rescue team into America’s secret army.”

Takeaway: “We’re the dark matter,” an unidentified Navy SEAL is quoted as saying. “We’re the force that orders the universe but can’t be seen.”

Note: The article is excerpted from Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State by Priest and Arkin, being published Sept. 6 by Little Brown. A four-part series that formed part of the basis of the book was published by the Post in 2010.

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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Europeans Talk of Sharp Change in Fiscal Affairs
Louise Story and Matthew Saltmarsh, The New York Times, Sept. 5, 2011

Synopsis: America’s failed early effort to operate as a loose confederation of 13 states appears increasingly relevant for many officials in Europe. They are beginning to realize – as experts suggested in our May 17 CQ Global Researcher -- that the lack of strong central coordination of economic policies in the eurozone’s member states is a major reason why Europe has been unable to resolve its financial crisis.

Takeaway: Europe’s leaders appear to be inching closer to a more centralized approach, with some even saying so publicly. “If today’s policy makers want to successfully stay the course, they will have to press ahead with structural changes and deeper economic integration,” António Borges, director of the International Monetary Fund’s European unit, said in a recent speech. “To put the crisis behind us, we need more Europe, not less. And we need it now.”

See Sarah Glazer, “Future of the Euro,” CQ Global Researcher, May 17, 2011 (subscription required).

--Kathy Koch, Managing Editor, CQ Global Researcher

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What the Left Doesn't Understand About Obama
Jonathan Chait, The New York Times Magazine, Sept. 4, 2011

Chait pushes back at the consensus view taking hold among members of President Barack Obama's eroding base. Increasingly, Obama's left-wing and liberal supporters argue that he is allowing himself to be overwhelmed by a more determined Republican opposition. Drew Westen, an Emory University psychologist and political consultant, had summed up that embittered position in a widely read piece in The New York Times last month. Now Chait, an editor of The New Republic - a venerable liberal weekly - takes apart the critique, finding it long on indignation and short on reality. Obama has consistently wrung as much economic stimulus and relief as he can from recalcitrant Republican lawmakers, Chait writes. He acknowledges in passing that he too wanted Obama to call Republicans' bluff during the debt-ceiling showdown -- forcing them to confront the risk of pushing the world into financial meltdown. But Obama's compromise did make economic recovery a priority, Chait argues. He does notdirectly address another source of disillusionment: Obama's seeming lack of enthusiasm for political combat. But Chait does insist that unhappy Democrats focus on the nuts and bolts of legislating and policy-making. Still, he concedes that emotion can overwhelm analytical rigor.

--Peter Katel, Staff Writer

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Letter from Prison: Tim DeChristopher Speaks
Tim DeChristopher, Grist, Aug. 29, 2011

Synopsis: From environmental activist and convicted felon Tim DeChristopher come interesting musings on the power of political protest. DeChristopher was sentenced this summer to two years in federal prison after he disrupted an oil and gas leasing auction in 2009 to protest drilling on public lands.

Takeaway: “As is generally the case with civil disobedience, it was extremely important to the government that I come before the majesty of the court with my head bowed and express regret. So important, in fact, that an apology with proper genuflection is currently fair trade for a couple years in prison…But perhaps we should be asking why the government is willing to make such a deal….By its very nature, civil disobedience is an act whose message is that the government and its laws are not the sole voice of moral authority….Government whose authority depends on an ignorant or apathetic citizenry is threatened by every act of open civil disobedience, no matter how small. To regain that tiny piece of authority, the government either has to respond to the activist’s demands, or get the activist to back down with a public statement of regret. Otherwise, those little challenges to the moral authority of government start to add up.”

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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The Survivor Who Saw the Future
Susanne Craig, The New York Times, Sept. 3, 2011

Synopsis: When American Airlines Flight 11 hit the north tower of the World Trade Center, three out of every four people who worked for Howard W. Lutnick at the brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald died – a total of 658 employees. Lutnick survived; he was taking his son Kyle to his first day of kindergarten. Four days after the attack, Lutnick, who was shown crying on television, cut off payments to the families of his dead and missing employees, before it was known conclusively how many had died. Critics at the time called Lutnick’s actions disgusting and hard-hearted. They scoffed when he promised to give 25 percent of Cantor’s profits over the next five years to employees, and to provide health insurance coverage to families for 10 years. Cantor’s demise was widely predicted.

Takeaway: Lutnick, now 50, defied the critics. Ten years later, he has rebuilt his firm, and enlarged it, in fact. And many of his critics -- especially parents and spouses of employees who had died – now say he did the right thing. And yes, he kept his promises. “By almost any measure,” writes Susanne Craig, “it is a remarkable turnabout.”

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

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9/11 in Perspective
Richard N. Haass, Al Jazeera, Sept. 6, 2011

Synopsis: The 9/11 attacks were a tragedy by any measure, writes the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, but they were not a historical turning point in which terrorists with a global agenda prevailed. Instead, the most notable developments have between the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, globalization and the upheavals in the Middle East.

Takeaway: It would be wrong for responsible governments to make opposition to terrorism the centerpiece of any agenda. Terrorists, as the 10th anniversary of 9/11 shows, remain outliers at best.

--Darrell Dela Rosa, Assistant Editor

CQR Report, "Remembering 9/11"

2011-09-02T12:36:00.001-04:00

CQ Researcher is publishing a special 32-page report this week titled “Remembering 9/11,” and I invite you take a look at it. Associate Editor Ken Jost is the author. The report examines a wide range of issues related to the terrorist attacks a decade ago – whether the U.S. has done enough to prevent new attacks, whether liberty has been sacrificed for safety over the past decade, whether Al Qaeda remains a substantial threat, how 9/11 is being memorialized, and much more. The report includes two chronologies and four sidebars, including a profile of a survivor and an overview of memorials open or planned in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, plus a graphic detailing casualties in the three attacks. Sidebars by Staff Writer Peter Katel and Assistant Editor Darrell Dela Rosa round out the package. Ken visited Ground Zero in August and took four of the photos used in the report. He put many extra hours into shaping, reporting and writing this report, and I congratulate him on his excellent work.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Weekly Roundup 8/29/2011

2011-08-29T14:34:00.002-04:00

American town halls more contentious ever, in part by design
David A. Farenthold, The Washington Post, Aug. 27, 2011 (Aug. 28 in print)

Synopsis: Farenthold, one of the Post’s congressional correspondents, travels to New Hampshire, birthplace of the town hall meeting, to see how members of Congress are interacting with their constituents in the contemporary iteration of retail democracy. Alas, he finds, town halls are often devolving into free-for-alls, discord replacing civil discourse. The intensified partisanship in Congress, Farenthold suggests, mirrors increased partisanship among constituents. But activist groups are also deliberately targeting town hall meetings with their representative in Congress for political confrontations uploadable on You Tube.

Takeaway: “Somehow, an event that was once all about listening has become all about shouting,” Farenthold writes. “It now counts as a defeat if one’s opponent is allowed to make a point in peace.”

For CQ Researcher coverage, see Marcia Clemmitt, “Gridlock in Washington,” April 30, 2010 (subscription required).

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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Medicare Spending Slows Sharply
Maggie Mahar, Taking Note blog, Century Foundation, Aug. 25, 2011

Synopsis: Health-care providers may be taking the hint delivered by the 2010 health-care reform law: Take steps to slow hitherto out-of-control medical cost growth by focusing more on improving people’s health outcomes – or the government will do the cost cutting for you. Even though the cost-trimming elements of the new law won’t begin to kick in until 2014, Medicare spending has been growing at a slower rate than usual since early 2010. Some experts think the unusual slowdown is happening because health-care providers are finally taking cost growth seriously, in anticipation of the law’s operation. Of course, a year and a half of data never tells the tale. But it’s an interesting – and heartening! – development, if it’s true. Stay tuned.

Takeaway: “Medicare spending began to plunge in January of 2010. After levitating by an average of 9.7 percent a year from 2000 to 2009, the Congressional Budget Office’s monthly budget reports show that Medicare pay-outs are now rising by less than 4 percent a year…. This slow-down is not a result of Congress cutting Medicare spending. Instead, as former White House health care adviser Dr. Zeke Emanuel” has pointed out, “Providers are ‘anticipating the Affordable Care Act kicking in 2014.’ They can’t wait until the end of 2013, he explained: ‘They have to act today. Everywhere I go…medical schools and hospitals are asking me, “How can we cut our costs by 10 to 15 percent?” They know that they must trim their own costs if they are going to lower the bills that they send to Medicare.’ ….Emanuel is seeing a ‘shift toward value in the health sector.’”

For more, see my reports on “Health Care Reform” from June 11, 2010, (updated May 24, 2011) and Aug. 28, 2009, and “Rising Health Costs,” from April 7, 2006.

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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Libyan Nation Building After Qaddafi
By James Dobbins and Frederic Wehrey, Foreign Affairs, Aug. 23, 2011

Synopsis: With the fall of Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi imminent, the United States and its allies must establish a strategy for post-conflict stabilization and reconstruction. The ensuing nation-building will be resource intensive and must address the interests of the competing factions vying for power.

Takeaway: As difficult as it is to overthrow an autocratic regime, it is more difficult to create a new government that stands by the ideology of the uprising. Like many things, it is far easier to destroy than to build.

For background see the CQ Global Researcher report “Turmoil in the Arab World” by Roland Flamini (May 3, 2011).

--Darrell Dela Rosa, Assistant Editor

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The Changing Face of the Burning Man Festival
By Jessica Bruder, The New York Times, Aug. 28, 2011

Synopsis: Thanks to my grown sons, who live in San Francisco, at least I had heard about the annual, week-long Burning Man Festival in the Nevada desert. But I didn’t know until yesterday that the celebration of creativity and personal freedom for some 50,000 participants is put on by a for-profit company. I don’t know why it freaked me out when I read that– after all, this IS America, global capital (at least for now) of capitalism. But the festival is indeed underpinned by capitalism. And that isn’t the only change, Jessica Bruder reports.

Takeaway: Perhaps because of the controversy over Burning Man’s lack of transparency about profiting from a decidedly counter-culture event, the operators of the festival have decided to cash out their ownership and convert the festival to a nonprofit operation in the next three years.

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

Earthquake Shakes East Coast

2011-08-23T17:38:00.001-04:00

The walls swayed, the floor shook and pictures rattled against the wall. Who knew? An earthquake in Washington, D.C.?

Up on our office building’s eighth floor, my CQ Researcher colleagues and I had a rude awakening just before 2 p.m. today when a magnitude 5.9 temblor shuddered along the entire East Coast, from Virginia to New York and as far away as New England and perhaps beyond. Another strong quake struck Monday night in Colorado, a magnitude 5.3 temblor that was the state’s biggest in more than a century.

For me, today’s quake in D.C. brought back memories of another I experienced, oddly enough, in Manhattan in the 1980s, when I felt walls shake and china rattle in a cupboard. As I noted in a CQ Researcher report last year on earthquake threats worldwide, the U.S. Geological Survey says earthquakes pose a significant risk to 75 million people in 39 states, from the Pacific Northwest and California to the Midwest, Carolinas and New England. David Applegate, senior science adviser for earthquake and geologic hazards at the U.S. Geological Survey, told me that Manhattan sits atop a zone of ancient faults, including a small one running down Harlem's legendary 125th Street. He called a quake underneath New York City an example of a low-probability, high-consequence event.

So far, the reports in Washington and other cities indicate minor damage and no injuries. And in an hour, we were allowed back in the building.

For background, see my CQ Researcher report, “Earthquake Threat,” April 9, 2010 (subscription required).

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Weekly Roundup 8/22/2011

2011-08-23T17:30:00.001-04:00

13-year-old Uses Fibonacci Sequence to Improve Efficiency
Tyler Lee, Ubergizmo, Aug. 19, 2011

Synopsis: It took a thoughtful 13-year-old to figure out that a well-known numerical sequence that governs how trees branch and leaves sprout along a stem might help solve an important engineering dilemma – how to improve the efficiency of solar panels, which, like leaves in the forest, transform sunlight into a different form of energy.

Takeaway: “His design (or rather nature’s design) yielded 50 percent more efficiency than a regular flat panel solar collector…. Perhaps in the future we will start seeing solar ‘groves,’ which we can imagine are more space efficient as well.”

For more, see “Energy Policy,” May 20, 2011 (subscription required). Excerpts can be found here: http://cqresearcherblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/can-clean-energy-sources-compete.html

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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On the home front, reminders of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq come in small doses
Greg Jaffe, The Washington Post, Aug. 21, 2011

Synopsis: Jaffe, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who has covered the Pentagon since 2000, follows a busload of veterans from Walter Reed Army Medical Center to a baseball game to examine the reception that Americans give to service members returning from the battlefront. “Troops often question,” Jaffe writes, “why their sacrifices are so poorly understood by the people they serve.”

Takeaway: “For most Americans,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates remarked last year, “the wars remain an abstraction. A distant, unpleasant series of events that does not affect them personally.”

For more, see these CQ Researcher reports; “Military Suicides,” forthcoming, Sept. 23, 2011; “Caring for Veterans, Aug. 23, 2010; and “Wounded Veterans,” Aug. 31, 2007 (subscription required).

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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There Ought to Be a Law
Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times, Aug. 21, 2011

A Hollywood Throwback, Serving Stars but Never Dishing Gossip
Guy Trebay, The New York Times, Aug. 21, 2011

What ticks you off? Hipsters still wearing those no-longer-trendy Panama and fedoras hats? Customers in long lines who still don’t know what they want – or have their money ready -- when they reach the order-taker? Those are two of the pet peeves columnist Neil Genzlinger shares in his very funny piece in Sunday’s Times. Back in the day, before color and lively feature stories, The Times used to be known as the Gray Lady because of its long columns of dull type. Now it leavens all the awful news about war and unemployment with some humor and stories that folks actually don’t mind reading, like the delightful profile of celebrity maitre’d hotel Dmitri Dmitrov– on the front page of Sunday’s Times – who elegantly and discretely caters to the likes of Jennifer Anniston and Johnny Depp. But if you must have your fix of serious stuff, see the Times’ lead editorial for the editors’ prescription for the suffering economy.

For more, see “Future of Journalism,” CQ Researcher, March 27, 2009; updated Sept. 3, 2010; and “Journalism Standards in the Internet Age,” CQ Researcher, Oct. 8, 2010 (subscription required).

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

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Climate-change science makes for hot politics
Joel Achenbach and Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post, Aug. 19, 2011

Synopsis: The authors examine the sea change that has occurred in the political discussion of climate change since the 2008 presidential election, when it wasn’t even among the top issues voters said they cared about. Today a GOP presidential candidate must disavow the science behind climate change or risk being dismissed by conservative tea party Republicans. Skepticism about climate change has grown among both political parties over the past four years, but most dramatically among conservative Republicans. This has occurred even though surveys show that 97 to 98 percent of 1,400 climate scientists still agree that humans contribute to global warming – a theory supported by the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA.

Takeaway: “Climate change has become a wedge issue” in presidential politics, said Roger Pielke Jr., a University of Colorado professor who has written extensively on the climate debate. “It’s today’s flag-burning or today’s partial-birth-abortion issue.”

For more, see the following CQ Global Researchers: Climate Change, February 2010, and Curbing Climate Change, February 2007 (subscription required).

--Kathy Koch, managing editor, CQ Global Researcher

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Is the SEC Covering Up Wall Street Crimes?
Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone, Aug. 17, 2011

Synopsis: With a take-no-prisoners approach to covering government and politics, Taibbi has acquired a reputation for occasionally putting hyperbole ahead of reporting. But in this piece, he dials down the rhetoric. The facts, as he presents them, are plenty explosive on their own. Relying on accounts to Congress by a whistleblowing lawyer for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Taibbi reports that the agency – by law the public’s watchdog on Wall Street – has at least since 1993 been shredding thousands of files of preliminary investigations into wrongdoing in the finance industry. The investigations in question didn’t lead to prosecutions. But Taibbi and some of his sources maintain that those files would allow SEC staff looking into current cases to recognize that a present-day case of possible wrongdoing fit a pattern.

Takeaway: The records-destruction policy reflects a general lack of investigative zeal at the upper levels of the SEC, which is heavily staffed with former and future employees of firms under SEC jurisdiction, Taibbi argues. Another possible reason to destroy records? Embarrassment. Among the shredded files were those involving Ponzi swindler Bernard Madoff – about whom the SEC notoriously was warned in vain.

For background, see “Financial Crisis,” CQ Researcher, May 9, 2008; and “Financial Bailout,” CQ Researcher, Oct. 24, 2008 (updated July 20, 2010) (subscription required).

--Peter Katel, staff writer

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Google’s Irresistible Potential as an Alternative to Cable
Adam Clark Estes, The Atlantic, Aug. 22, 2011

Synopsis: Google is cozying up to TV executives at a media conference in Scotland, just days before the company is expected to bid for streaming-video portal Hulu. The move would potentially provide Google with existing contracts and relationships that could bring more premium content into the Google network, which already includes YouTube.

Takeaway: The low satisfaction rates among traditional cable providers such as Comcast and Time Warner give Google a competitive advantage in what has heretofore been an elastic pricing market. The acquisition of Hulu would bring users one step closer to the inevitable convergence of the computer and television mediums.

--Darrell Dela Rosa, Assistant Editor

For background, see “Television’s Future,” CQ Researcher, Feb. 16, 2007 (subscription required).

Weekly Roundup 8/15/2011

2011-08-15T16:56:00.004-04:00

The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy
Ruth Padawer, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Aug. 14, 2011

Synopsis: Assisted reproduction often results in a multiple-fetus pregnancy – twins, triplets, or more. A so-called megapregnancy can present increased risks for both the mother and the fetuses. Medical technology allows a doctor to “extinguish,” as Padawer puts it, one or more of the healthy fetuses and thereby increase the likelihood of a successful outcome. Early in this development of this medical approach, physicians performing pregnancy reductions adopted a rule of practice to reduce to twins, but not below. Now, however, some physicians believe it permissible to reduce to a single fetus, a change of view driven by parents who fear the demands of twins would be too much for their financial and social circumstances. Is it ethical? Padawer, a writer and teacher and the once overtaxed mother of naturally conceived twins, explores the issues thoroughly and evenhandedly.

Takeaway: “We are in the midst of a choice revolution right now,” one physician remarks, “where we’re trying to figure out where the ethical boundaries should be.”

For an overview of issues in the field, see Marcia Clemmitt, “Reproductive Ethics,” CQ Researcher, May 15, 2009 (subscription required).

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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Chinese Director’s Path From Rebel to Insider
Edward Wong, The New York Times, Aug. 14, 2011

Synopsis: How much do you really know – and understand – about China? If you’re like me, not a whole lot. Or in my case, perhaps less than I think I know. A case in point, Sunday’s front page article about Zhao Liang, director of the acclaimed film “Petition,” about “how the authorities muzzle and brutalize Chinese who…travel to Beijing seeking redress for wrongdoing by local officials.”

Takeaway: I discovered in this fascinating report that, in fact, China does not forbid independent filmmaking. Hence, Wong says, “Petition” was able to debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2009 but was banned in China. As Wong explains, China “does control distribution, so filmmakers who want their work to be widely seen end up submitting themselves to a capricious censorship process. Since then, Zhao has transformed his relationship with the authorities. Last year, for example, he completed a film about discrimination against Chinese with AIDS or H.I.V. It was commissioned by the Ministry of Health.

For background see Roland Flamini, “U.S.-China Relations,” CQ Researcher, May 7, 2010, updated May 24, 2011; and Peter Katel, “Emerging China,” CQ Researcher, Nov. 11, 2005.

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

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FYI: The Markets Don’t Want Austerity
Liaquat Ahamed, The Washington Post, Aug. 14, 2011

Synopsis: Pulitzer Prize-winning financial historian Ahamed argues that Washington politicians are misreading the stock market’s jitters. Instead of doubling down on austerity measures, he writes, “budget cuts are precisely the wrong medicine for what ails us.” Such austerity, he continues, “would only exacerbate a slowdown” and possibly trigger a double-dip recession.

Takeaway: Instead, the government should take advantage of rock-bottom interest rates to repair crumbling infrastructure, which would put people back to work and inject money into the economy, he contends. That view was repeated by Martin Barnes, the chief economist at BCA Research, an investment research firm based in Montreal, Canada, on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” today. “This is the worst time imaginable to have fiscal austerity,” Barnes said. “You do not normally follow a path of fiscal austerity when the economy is skirting the edge of recession.” Acknowledging that Congress is highly unlikely to approve a new stimulus package, given the current political environment, both men suggested stabilizing the housing market instead. Barnes recommended “some kind of national refinancing program” in which all homeowners can refinance at low interest rates without paying penalties. A big refinancing program “would be a long-term stimulus,” he points out. “Homeowners would be saving thousands of dollars a year, for many years to come.”

For background see the following CQ Researcher reports by Marcia Clemmitt, “Aging Infrastructure,” Sept. 28, 2007; “Public-Works Projects,” Feb. 20, 2009 and “Mortgage Crisis,” Nov. 2, 2007, updated: Aug. 9, 2010.

--Kathy Koch, Managing Editor, CQ Global Researcher

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Critics Question Competency of Inspector General’s Office at Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Tom Zeller, Jr., Huffington Post, Aug. 12, 2011

Synopsis: Reports from the Inspector General’s office at the NRC are being rewritten to weaken negative findings and to avoid implicating the commission itself in problems discovered at nuclear plants, a former IG analyst charges.

Takeaway: In one report issued by the IG’s office in 2010 from a draft submitted in 2009 by a now-retired NRC investigator, “many of the most damning findings were excised,” writes Zeller, who interviewed retired investigator George Mulley for his piece. Furthermore, problems that Mulley and his team had identified in their draft report as due to weaknesses in NRC’s oversight procedures are portrayed in the final report as having been caused by lapses on the part of the nuclear-plant owners instead. Mulley and others say there’s substantial evidence that NRC’s IG office is whitewashing problems in NRC inspection processes that cry out for a remedy. “It was a joke,” said Mulley of one recent report. “If I was still employed in my former capacity, this report would have never been issued.”

For more on the nuclear-power industry, see my June 10, 2011, report, “Nuclear Power,” and Jennifer Weeks’ Jan. 28, 2011, report, “Managing Nuclear Waste.”

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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The Americas, Not the Middle East, Will Be the World Capital of Energy
Amy Myers Jaffe, Foreign Policy, Sept./Oct. 2011

Synopsis: The Western Hemisphere, and not the Middle East, may likely become the world’s global energy supply center by the 2020s. Horizontal drilling and other technological innovations are unlocking the potential of hard-to-reach hydrocarbons in offshore deposits and heavy oil formations.

Takeaway: The United States will no longer have to fret about meeting its own energy needs, but will rather have to find a buyer for its surplus. Energy-thirsty China has recognized this potential within the Americas with heavy investments in the United States, Canada and Latin America. Furthermore, the Arab Spring will likely stem the region’s future oil production, turning the global energy arena on its head.

For background see the CQ Global Researcher report “Energy Nationalism” by Peter Behr (July 2007).

--Darrell Dela Rosa, Assistant Editor

Understanding the Economic Crisis

2011-08-09T12:23:00.001-04:00

If you’re concerned about the economy – and who isn’t following the biggest market drop since 2008 – CQ Researcher and CQ Global Researcher can help you make sense of what’s happening at home and abroad. In the past 88 years, we have published literally hundreds of reports on economic matters ranging from the national debt and budget deficits to jobs outsourcing, the role of the Federal Reserve, future of manufacturing and the squeeze on the middle class. The following are just a few of our recent reports (subscription required). (And if you want to take the long view, you can view CQ Researcher reports going back to the Great Depression, and before.) For a complete listing, use the Issue Tracker on the CQ Researcher home page.
--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

“Reviving Manufacturing,” 7/22/11
“Future of the Euro,” 5/17/11 (Global)
“National Debt,” 3/18/11 and 11/14/08
“Income Inequality,” 12/3/10
“Mortgage Crisis,” 11/2/07, updated 8/9/10
“Financial Bailout,” 10/24/08, updated 7/30/10
“Financial Industry Overhaul,” 7/30/10
“Jobs Outlook,” 6/4/10
“State Budget Crisis,” 9/11/09
“Fixing Capitalism,” 7/09 (Global)
“Rethinking Retirement,” 6/19/09
“Vanishing Jobs,” 3/13/09
“Middle-Class Squeeze,” 3/6/09
“Public Works Projects,” 2/20/09
“Regulating Credit Cards,” 10/10/08
“The Troubled Dollar,” 10/08 (Global)
“Financial Crisis,” 5/9/08
“Curbing CEO Pay,” 3/9/07
“Consumer Debt,” 3/2/07
“Budget Deficit,” 12/9/05

Weekly Roundup 8/8/2011

2011-08-08T16:21:00.002-04:00

Origins of the debt limit showdown
Brady Dennis, Alec MacGillis, and Lori Montgomery, The Washington Post, Aug. 6, 2011 (online); Aug. 7, 2011 (print)

Synopsis: The debt-limit showdown that took the government to the brink of default was not “a haphazard escalation of a typical partisan standoff,” the Post’s team of reporters writes, but “the natural outgrowth of a years-long effort by [Republican Party] recruiters to build a new majority and reverse the party’s fortune.” The 5,000-word article chronicles the story chapter by chapter from President Obama’s inauguration in January 2009 through the debt-limit deal enacted into law on Tuesday (Aug. 2), only hours before a potential government default.

For coverage and commentary on Standard and Poor’s decision to downgrade the government’s credit rating from AAA to AA+, see these Aug. 7 stories in the Washington Post and the New York Times.

For CQ Researcher coverage, see two recent reports by Marcia Clemmitt: “National Debt,” March 18, 2011, and “The National Debt,” Nov. 14, 2008 (subscription required). In addition, the CQ Researcher Plus Archive includes more than a dozen past reports on the national debt dating from the first, in 1926.

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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What Happened to Obama?
Drew Westen, The New York Times, Aug. 6, 2011

Anyone who has spent any time talking to Democrats over the past several months can testify to the high-voltage current of dissatisfaction and, in many cases, anger running through their ranks. Its target: President Obama. He has not, to put it mildly, fulfilled the hope he aroused in them during his campaign for the presidency. Westen, an Emory University psychology professor who moonlights as a consultant to Democrats on “messaging,” has written the best explanation so far of why Obama falls short in the eyes of so many who voted for him. To simplify Westen’s careful analysis, Obama at a time of deepening crisis tries to please everyone instead of speaking and acting decisively. “The president seems so compelled to take both sides of every issue, encouraging voters to project whatever they want on him,” Westen writes. Like many other Democrats, Westen wants Obama to fight for a more equitable distribution of wealth. Agree or disagree with that view, there’s no doubt that Westen has laid out the case for why Obama faces trouble not only from his militant Republican foes but from his disillusioned Democratic base.

--Peter Katel, Staff Writer

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Afghanistan: U.S. and Pakistan Seek to Reinforce a Border That Was Arbitrary to Begin With
Conn Hallinan, Foreign Policy in Focus, Aug. 2, 2011

Synopsis: In 1893, Britain’s top colonial officer in India, Sir Mortimer Durand, chopped in two the territory occupied by the Pashtun people, restricting some to the then-Russian-dominated territory that is now Afghanistan and the rest to the British-dominated region that became Pakistan by creating an artificial border between the Pashtuns living west and east of what’s now called “the Durand line.” Running through some of the most treacherous mountain terrain in the world, the artificial border would need little military guarding, yet would increase the colonies’ governability by keeping the fiercely independent Pashtuns from being a majority population in either region, Durand reasoned. Just one problem: the Pashtuns, who’ve lived in the area for at least 2,500 years, have never accepted the line’s validity and, to this day, treat attempts to enforce it as enemy invasions and occupations of their historical territory. From the Pashtuns’ ranks are drawn most of today’s Taliban fighters, in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Takeaway: “Pakistan’s military is currently engaged both in fighting its own domestic Taliban in South Waziristan and maintaining troops in North Waziristan, but the North West Frontier and Federally Administered Tribal Areas—the part of the world we are talking about—are vast tracts of terrain, and ‘pacifying’ them is quite beyond the capabilities of any army in the world, let alone Pakistan’s.”

For more, see my report on “U.S.-Pakistan Relations” (CQ Researcher, Aug. 5, 2011), and Thomas J. Billitteri’s “Afghanistan Dilemma (CQ Researcher, Aug. 7, 2009; updated May 25, 2011).

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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Paying for News? It’s Nothing New
Jeremy W. Peters, The New York Times, Aug. 7, 2011

Synopsis: It’s a basic tenet of Journalism 101 that reputable news-gathering organizations don’t pay sources for information, for interviews or for access. Just isn’t done. Except that it is, writes New York Times media reporter Peters. “News outlets twist themselves into logical knots insisting that they do not pay for interviews,” he explains. “The payment is always for something else, tangible or intangible, like one’s time or the rights to memorabilia. It is a rare but sometimes necessary evil, they say.”

Takeaway: “Checkbook journalism has been part of news coverage since long before the celebrity gossip boom.”

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

Are Pakistan and the United States allies?

2011-08-05T10:51:00.003-04:00

To follow is an excerpt from the CQ Researcher report "U.S. - Pakistan Relations" by Marcia Clemmitt on August, 5 2011.

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After the Abbottabad raid, some Pakistanis complained that the United States routinely violates Pakistan's sovereignty, while some in Congress argued the incident proves Pakistan can't be trusted. However, many South Asia analysts argue that, despite conflicts, the countries do often support each other's interests.

“It is undeniable that our relationship with Pakistan has helped us pursue our security goals,” said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass. [Footnote 7]

“Pakistan has been a critical partner in capturing Al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan,” wrote Georgetown's Fair. Without Pakistan's prior “cooperation, the United States would not have even been in a position to kill bin Laden.” [Footnote 8]

Since the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Pakistan has “given us bases and over-flight rights, and we, in turn gave them aid and debt relief,” notes Dennis Kux, a senior policy scholar at the nonpartisan Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a retired State Department South Asia expert.

Furthermore, despite the Pakistani military's continued conviction that India, to Pakistan's east, is its primary enemy, the army has “moved a number of divisions to the western front,” bordering Afghanistan, at the behest of the United States, says William Milam, a senior policy scholar at the Wilson center and a former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan.

“The help of the Pakistani intelligence services to Britain,” which has a large Pakistani population, “has been absolutely vital to identifying the links” of potential Pakistani militants now living in the United Kingdom to militant “groups in Pakistan, and to preventing more attacks on Britain, the USA and Europe,” wrote Anatol Lieven, a professor of war studies at King's College, in London, and a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation, a centrist think tank in Washington. [Footnote 9]

The United States has greatly increased aid to Pakistan in the past decade, from $36.76 million in 2001 to $4.46 billion 2010, a 2,273 percent increase, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. [Footnote 10]

Nevertheless, the alliance has long been troubled.

For example, the United States has provided and withdrawn economic aid to Pakistan repeatedly over the decades, depending on Pakistan's cooperation with U.S. strategic aims and the level of interest in South Asian affairs shown by various congressional leaders and presidents. In fiscal 2000, Pakistan didn't even rank in the top 15 nations in the amount of U.S. economic aid received (No. 15 Nigeria received $68 million.) But in fiscal 2010, Pakistan leapfrogged to third as the United States sought its cooperation with drone strikes and other targeting of Islamic militants in the region. [Footnote 11]

The ups and downs of U.S. aid have exacerbated Pakistan's difficulties in developing economically and greatly contributed to Pakistanis’ distrust of the United States, many scholars say.

In 1965, the United States walked away from the alliance altogether, says Kux. Pakistan was one of the first countries to recognize the communist government of the People's Republic of China, on its northeast border, and President Lyndon Johnson “was mad over that” as well as generally “sick of South Asia,” where Pakistan and India had squabbled for years, Kux says. Johnson cut off both military and civilian aid, although “he regretted it later, I was told,” Kux says. “To me, that was the turning point for Pakistan. The relationship was all downhill from there.”

“Until recently our South Asia policy has been made because of our anti-Soviet policy,” says Brookings’ Cohen. As a result, the U.S. policy “has been, ‘Let's let them solve their own problems, unless there's a crisis’” or specific U.S interests are at stake, says Cohen.

Because the United States has viewed the alliance as a way to achieve defense goals, it has allied itself primarily with Pakistan's military and “reinforced a message that we're only interested in working with dictators,” not in supporting Pakistan's development into a democracy, says Marvin Weinbaum, a scholar in residence at the Middle East Institute, a nonpartisan research center in Washington. Both countries “gloss over the fact that their interests are often inconsistent.”

In recent years, the United States has stoked Pakistani resentment by building America's relationship with rival India with acts that, many Pakistanis charge, symbolize neglect of the longstanding U.S.-Pakistan alliance.

In 2000, on a South Asia visit, President Bill Clinton “spent five glorious days in India and five cold hours in Pakistan,” observes Kux.

Throughout the Cold War, India was a Soviet ally and Pakistan a friend of the United States, but when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, “the United States said, ‘Oh, look, India's the bigger country! Let's get involved with them,’” says Barry Blechman, cofounder of the Stimson Center, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington that researches security issues. In 2008, for example, President George W. Bush “made that terrible nuclear deal” — allowing India to engage in nuclear-technology trade although it hadn't signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty — “which was a slap in the face to everyone we had hectored over the years” about nuclear nonproliferation, including Pakistan, he says. [Footnote 12]

“We care about a geographical location, not about a country,” says Paula Newberg, director of Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. Talk in the United States of helping Pakistan “reform” is “worse than useless,” since it's accompanied by “actions that do the opposite,” such as channeling aid “to people who shouldn't be in power in the first place.”

Partly because the countries exaggerate the extent to which their interests align, “there's this long story line of desertion” on both sides, says Adil Najam, vice chancellor at Pakistan's Lahore University of Management Sciences. This is exacerbated in Pakistan by “tribal notions of what it means to be a friend — that a friend stands by you even when you're wrong.”

Anti-Americanism is increasing throughout Pakistan, says Aqil Shah, a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University. “Many people feel the United States has let them down, talking about how they support democracy but not protecting them against dictators,” and periodically “washing their hands of us and walking away.” Now, with the United States winding down the Afghan war, Shah says, “it looks to people as if the United States is planning another exit” from its alliance with Pakistan, as it did when the Soviet Union withdrew in defeat from Afghanistan around 1990. Just as occurred then, Shah says, Pakistanis fear that Washington will leave them with another bad situation on their doorstep, this time in the form of an Afghanistan permanently aligned with Pakistan's nemesis, India.

Complicating matters is the fact that Pakistan's military and intelligence agency continue to tell the public that India is the country's chief enemy and that they will defend Pakistan's borders against all foreign encroachments, including U.S. strikes on terrorist targets, says Milam. In fact, they “have played a double game with the public,” acting “in complicity with the United States in the drone program since 2004, but not telling that truth to Pakistanis, who remain largely unaware that the government has been in favor” of many of the drone attacks, he says.

The alliance is like a marriage disintegrating, says Najam. “When things start falling apart, you start promising more than you can deliver” as a misguided way to patch things up, he observes. That's what Pakistan has done by telling the United States that “we will be with you completely in the fight against terror.” Public opinion inside Pakistan makes that politically impossible, but when Pakistan doesn't fully deliver, the United States sees betrayal.

Both countries “need to be smarter about what they really want” and more honest about what they can give, says Najam. “I wish Pakistan told the United States ‘No’ more often,” because it would be better “to promise less but deliver better.”

The Issues:

Are Pakistan and the United States allies?
Is Pakistan on the verge of collapse?
Should the United States cut off aid to Pakistan?

Click here for more information on this CQ Researcher report [subscription required] or purchase the PDF.

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Footnotes:

[7] Quoted in Aqil Shah, “Time to Get Serious With Pakistan,” Foreign Affairs, May 6, 2011, www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67836/aqil-shah/time-to-get-serious-with-pakistan.

[8] C. Christine Fair, “The Road from Abbottabad Leads to Lame Analysis,” Huffington Post, June 21, 2011, www.huffingtonpost.com/c-christine-fair/the-road-from-abbottabad-_b_881256.html.

[9] Anatol Lieven, Pakistan: A Hard Country (2011), Kindle Edition, Location 275.

[10] Susan B. Epstein and K. Alan Kronstadt, “Pakistan: U.S. Foreign Assistance,” Congressional Research Services, June 7, 2011, p. 5, www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R41856.pdf.

[11] Curt Tarnoff and Marian Leonardo Lawson, “Foreign Aid: An Introduction to U.S. Programs and Policy,” Congressional Research Service, Feb. 10, 2011, www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R40213.pdf, p. 14.

[12] For background, see Jayshree Bajoria, “The U.S.-India Nuclear Deal,” Council on Foreign Relations website, Nov. 5, 2010, www.cfr.org/india/us-india-nuclear-deal/p9663.

Weekly Roundup 8/1/2011

2011-08-01T15:51:00.002-04:00

Famine in Somalia: world’s largest refugee outpost strained
Kate Snow, NBC News, July 31, 2011

Chronicle of a famine foretold
The Economist, July 30, 2011

Synopsis: A devastating drought has combined with political instability in the Horn of Africa to cause a deadly famine that has affected 12 million people across four countries. NBC correspondent Kate Snow’s report on NBC “Nightly News” on Sunday began a series of reports to continue over the week. Meanwhile, The Economist, the British newsweekly, explored whether the world reacted too late to the coming of the disaster.

Takeaway: “The response by donors has been patchy,” The Economist reports. “Of the $2 billion the UN says the region needs, it has received less than half.”

Note: NBC News provides a list of charitable organizations fighting the drought and famine in the Horn of Africa.

For background, see Jason McLure, “The Troubled Horn of Africa,” CQ Global Researcher, June 2009; and David Masci, “Famine in Africa,” CQ Researcher, Nov. 8, 2002.

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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The Next Election: The Surprising Reality
Andrew Hacker, The New York Review of Books, July 21, 2011

Synopsis: America’s historically low voter turnout, a candidate-nomination process dominated by the strictest party faithful and constitutional checks and balances that help strengthen minority views in Washington have made it possible for a Republican House majority to prevail on many issues, despite attracting far fewer voters in the 2010 elections than President Obama did in 2008. Less clear, however, is whether the wide field of 2012 Republican presidential candidates can capitalize on those gains.

Takeaway: In the 2010 election, “current House Republicans received 30,799,391 votes, compared with Obama’s 69,498,215 total” in the 2008 election, but they turned that apparent overwhelming numerical disadvantage into a strong force to shape future policies.

For more, see the following CQ Researcher reports: Marcia Clemmitt, “Gridlock in Washington,” April 30, 2010; Peter Katel, “Democrats’ Future,” Oct. 29, 2010; Kenneth Jost, “Campaign Finance Debates,” May 28, 2010; and Kenneth Jost, “Redistricting Debates,” Feb. 25, 2011.

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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Life on the Line
Andrew Rice, The New York Times Magazine, July 28, 2011

Rice’s richly detailed piece reports on the latest chapter in the intimate relationship between the twin cities of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Physically speaking, they are really one city split by the Rio Grande River and U.S.-Mexico border. Yet the differences are stark. El Paso is a safe city, a distinction becoming ever more important as war between Mexico’s drug gangs keeps claiming lives – a war in which some military and police have by all evidence taken sides with one syndicate or another (an angle that Rice mentions only in passing). Yet, despite the claims by some politicians of a “spillover” into the United States, Rice makes clear that El Paso, in fact, is benefiting from an exodus of Juarez businesspeople and professionals. He reports on one company owner who manages his Juarez business by remote control because his life would be endangered if he went back home. Rice also notes that El Pasoans don’t forget an element of the Mexican drug business that U.S. politicians tend not to dwell on – the demand that drives the commerce is American. “A generation-long effort to stanch the flow of drugs and desperate people across the border had reached its logical endpoint,” he writes, “the approach favored by ancient empires: the raising of a wall.” Freelance journalist Rice is the author of a book on Idi Amin’s murderous reign in Uganda.

--Peter Katel, Staff Writer

Weekly Roundup 7/25/2011

2011-07-25T17:31:00.002-04:00

"Bad Food? Tax It, and Subsidize Vegetables?"
Mark Bitman, The New York Times, July 24, 2011

Synopsis: “What will it take to get Americans to change our eating habits?” asks Mark Bitman, who regularly writes about food for The New York Times’ opinion section. His answer: a tax, big enough to change buying and eating habits, on unhealthful foods, such as sugary soft drinks, fat-laden French fries and the like. He would use the proceeds to subsidize more healthful foods, such as fruits and vegetables, in the hope that better nutrition could reduce food-related illnesses such as obesity and diabetes.

Other views: For a roundup of developments on soda tax proposals at the local and state levels, see this in the newsletter Corporations and Health. The beverage industry discounts the role that soft drinks play in contributing to obesity. The American Beverage Association’s Web site is here.

For background, see these CQ Researcher reports: Barbara Mantel, “Preventing Obesity,” Oct. 1, 2010; and Kenneth Jost, “Diabetes Epidemic,” March 9, 2001 (subscription required).

-- Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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"Public Schools, Private Budgets"
Ben Jorasky and Mick Dumske, Chicago Reader

Synopsis: Charter schools are funded with public dollars but run by private companies, some of them large. But only 12 of 32 of the biggest charter school management companies operating in charter-heavy Chicago provided budget information in response to a reporter’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Takeaway: "Charter schools are the fastest-growing part of Chicago's public education system, but how they spend our tax money is mostly a secret," although the law does require charter operators to respond to FOIA requests, the journalists say.

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

For background, see my CQ Researcher report, “Fixing Urban Schools,” April 27, 2007, updated Aug. 5, 2010 (subscription required).

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“With This Ring…”
The New York Times, July 24, 2011

Synopsis: Proper etiquette is terra incognita for many of us, especially when it comes to matters gay, marriage and otherwise. The New York Times to the rescue! To mark the first day that same-sex marriage was allowed in New York State, a special issue of the always readable Sunday Styles section looked at the changes the law will bring to many gay and lesbian couples.

Takeaway: A number of articles deal with everything from planning the perfect wedding to dealing with pushy parents.

For background, see Kenneth Jost, “Gay Marriage Showdowns,” CQ Researcher, Sept. 26, 2008, updated Oct. 15, 2010 (subscription required).

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

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"Back on the Bus"
Calvin Trillin, The New Yorker, July 25, 2011

Trillin began his five decades as a journalist with a one-year stint in the Atlanta bureau of Time Magazine in 1960-61. From there, he ventured all over the South as the civil rights movement was gathering strength. In a vivid account, Trillin recalls the dangers as well as the professional issues with which he grappled. Among them was his obligation to remain a dispassionate observer. Hence Trillin never dropped any money in the collection baskets that went around during movement meetings. But when it came to his reports, he didn’t pretend that any equivalency existed between demonstrators demanding their constitutional rights and segregationists who responded to those demands by burning down houses. At a time when journalistic ethics are still being debated, Trillin’s unapologetic reliance on morality has enduring value.

--Peter Katel, Staff Writer

Obama Acts to Repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

2011-07-22T17:12:00.002-04:00

By Kenneth Jost
President Obama has taken the final step necessary to end the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gay and lesbian service members, effective Sept. 20.
Acting according to conditions set by Congress in December in repealing the 1993 law, Obama certified to Congress on Friday (July 22) that ending the policy against military service by out gays and lesbians would be “consistent with the standards of military readiness, military effectiveness, unit cohesion, and recruiting and retention of the armed forces.”
Obama sent letters of certification to the chairmen and ranking Republicans on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. As required under the December repeal, he acted on the recommendation of the top military leaders: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The law imposes a 60-day waiting period after the president’s certification before the policy is officially ended, but the military has been under a court order not to discharge gay or lesbian service members under the policy pending a ruling on its constitutionality.
In a written statement, Obama said the action represented “the final major step toward ending the discriminatory ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law that undermines our military readiness and violates American principles of fairness and equality.”
“As Commander in Chief, I have always been confident that our dedicated men and women in uniform would transition to a new policy in an orderly manner that preserves unit cohesion, recruitment, retention and military effectiveness,” Obama said.
“Our military is ready for repeal,” the president continued. “As of September 20th, service members will no longer be forced to hide who they are in order to serve our country. Our military will no longer be deprived of the talents and skills of patriotic Americans just because they happen to be gay or lesbian.”
The development on “don’t ask, don’t tell” came in a week with other advances for gay rights advocates. In Washington, the Senate Judiciary Committee held the first hearing on legislation to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the 1996 law that denies federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples. Meanwhile, New York prepared for the state’s first same-sex weddings on Sunday as a result of legislation passed by the legislature and signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on June 24.
New York becomes the sixth, and largest, state to allow same-sex couples to marry. It already had decided to recognize same-sex marriages from other states. Along with the District of Columbia, five other states recognize same-sex marriage: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Obama had pushed to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” even while the administration defended the constitutionality of the policy in a challenge brought by Log Cabin Republicans, a gay GOP group. A federal court judge in California ruled the policy unconstitutional, and the case is currently pending before the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Despite the impending repeal, lawyers for Log Cabin Republicans are pressing for the case to continue because service members discharged under the policy continue to suffer “collateral consequences” as a result. The lawyers also argued that without a final court ruling, Congress could be free to re-institute the policy later.
The administration has pleased gay rights groups by refusing to defend the constitutionality of DOMA in constitutional challenges pending in federal courts in Massachusetts and Connecticut. A federal court judge in Massachusetts has ruled the policy unconstitutional, and the case is pending before the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Connecticut case is pending in federal district court.
Legislative repeal of DOMA is unlikely in the current congressional session. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said this week that he would not bring a repeal measure to a vote on the House floor. Gay rights advocates saw the Senate committee hearing as an important initial step to develop support for repealing the measure.

For background, see Peter Katel, “Gays in the Military,” CQ Researcher, Sept. 18, 2009, updated Oct. 15, 2010; Kenneth Jost, “Gay Marriage Showdowns,” CQ Researcher, Sept. 26, 2008, updated Oct. 15, 2010 (subscription required).

Do free-trade agreements with low-wage countries further weaken U.S. manufacturing?

2011-07-22T10:49:00.003-04:00

To follow is an excerpt from the CQ Researcher report "Reviving Manufacturing" by Peter Katel on July 22, 2011.

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The decline in U.S. manufacturing coincided with the rise of free-trade agreements between the United States and a range of other countries, generally nations considered friendly to American interests. Pacts with 17 nations are now in effect. The agreements are designed to boost U.S. exports to partner countries — by allowing U.S. companies to bid for government contracts in free-trade partner nations, for example. Likewise, the United States agrees eventually to drop tariffs against imports from the partner countries. [Footnote 19]

But ever since a long and intense debate leading up to the landmark 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Mexico and Canada, critics have argued that the pacts serve above all to encourage U.S. companies to build factories abroad. Labor unions that portray free-trade agreements as vehicles for expanded offshoring are among the agreements’ main critics. They are playing a major part in holding up congressional approval of pacts with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.

Defenders, including all recent Republican and Democratic presidents and their top officials, call the pacts essential to boosting U.S. job creation by expanding markets in which U.S. companies, including manufacturers, sell goods and services.

“We're in a global economy,” says the National Association of Manufacturers’ Moutray, noting the dynamism of the so-called BRIC nations — Brazil, Russia, India and China. “For multinationals, a lot of their growth in sales is coming from selling manufactured goods to the BRIC countries,” he says, contrasting them to the “relatively mature” U.S. market.

Free-trade agreements, by that logic, play a key role in expanding opportunities for U.S. firms. “Where the growth is going to come from is in trade,” Moutray says. “When you lower barriers, you're going to see more trade going back and forth.”
Manufacturing as a Share of GDP, 1947–2010

But the key to whether an agreement actually benefits the U.S. economy lies in the pact's details, says George Mason University's Hill. “When countries have highly asymmetric social and economic systems, with workplace standards, environmental standards and wage-and-hour standards that are very different,” he says, “that's where problems can arise.”

A deeper source of these problems, Hill argues, is that free-trade agreements often are proposed for political, rather than economic, reasons. He cites the proposed pact with Colombia, which has been awaiting congressional action for seven years. “Making an agreement with Colombia is a way of saying, in part, ‘We appreciate the enormous effort you've made to bring drug cartels under control, and to open your markets,’ ” he says.

But Perry of the American Enterprise Institute argues that the proposed Colombia deal makes considerable economic sense. It would immediately eliminate Colombian tariffs on 80 percent of American consumer and industrial products exported to that country. [Footnote 20] “If Caterpillar is selling to Colombia, the more they sell, the higher the profits,” Perry says. The Illinois-based heavy-equipment maker strongly backs the proposed pact.

The need to step up exports makes trade deals essential, Perry says. “The more [trade agreements] we have, the easier it is for our manufacturers to export,” he says. “That means more output and more jobs here.”

Yet, argues economist Charles McMillion, the evidence is clear that free-trade pacts damage U.S. manufacturing. “After NAFTA, we've gone from a strong manufacturing surplus to a record manufacturing deficit,” with Mexico, says McMillion, president of MBG Information Services, a Washington-based economic consulting firm. U.S. Commerce Department data he analyzed show trade surpluses in manufactured goods of $5.8 billion, $7.9 billion and $1.7 billion for the three years before NAFTA took effect — and deficits of $64.2 billion, $74.6 billion and $64.3 billion in 2006–2008. [Footnote 21]

The Issues:

Is U.S. manufacturing reviving?
Do free-trade agreements with low-wage countries further weaken U.S. manufacturing?
Should the government actively promote U.S. manufacturing and discourage further offshoring?

Click here for more information on this CQ Researcher report [subscription required] or purchase the PDF.

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Footnotes:

[19] The 17 free-trade partners are: Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Jordan, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Oman, Peru, Singapore. “Free Trade Agreements,” Office of the United States Trade Representative, undated, www.ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements.; “U.S. Free Trade Agreements,” export.gov, updated April 26, 2011, www.export.gov/FTA/index.asp.

[20] “Overview of the U.S.-Colombia Trade Agreement,” undated, U.S. Trade Representative, www.ustr.gov/uscolombiatpa/facts.

[21] “U.S. Manufacturing Trade Surpluses With Mexico Plunged to Record Deficits Since Nafta,” CW McMillion/MBG Information Services, undated.

Weekly Roundup 7/18/2011

2011-07-18T16:34:00.002-04:00

"How to cut the deficit – and what happens if we don’t"
Mark Zandi, The Washington Post, July 15, 2011

"Default would dim American power"
James M. Lindsay, The Washington Post, July 15, 2011

"Debt Ceiling Worries Are Way Overdone"
Alan Schram, Huffington Post, July 17, 2011

"U.S. Debt Ceiling Increase Remains Unpopular With Americans"
Gallup poll, July 12, 2011

Synopsis: With President Obama and congressional leaders still at odds over raising the U.S. debt ceiling, most but not all commentators are warning of risks from a possible default. Moody’s economist Mark Zandi says financial markets would unravel and the U.S. and global economy would enter a severe recession. James Lindsey of the Council on Foreign Relations
says a default could harm America’s ability to wield and project its power in the world. But Alan Schram, managing partner of Wellcap Partners, a Los Angeles-based hedge fund, says a default would have minimal consequences that would be far outweighed by the benefit of getting government spending under control.

Takeaway: A plurality of Americans (42 percent) say they want their representative in Congress to vote against raising the debt ceiling, according to the most recent Gallup poll, and only 22 percent want their lawmakers to vote for it. But slightly over one-third of those surveyed (35 percent) say they do not know enough about the issue to say. Despite intensive coverage, the “don’t know” percentage is essentially the same as a month earlier.

For background, see Marcia Clemmitt, “National Debt,” CQ Researcher, March 18, 2011 (subscription required).

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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"Did Data-driven Accountability Cause the Atlanta Cheating Scandal?"
John Thompson, Huffington Post, July 12, 2011

Synopsis: Teacher-blogger Thompson describes teacher-accountability practices that ramp up pressure on schools, potentially leading to the cheating scandals now rocking cities such as Washington and Atlanta. "Humiliation and scapegoating" of teachers who didn't raise test scores enough were "ritualized" in Atlanta, he says. For example, at one end-of-the-year district teacher-recognition ceremony, a "principal forced a teacher who did not raise scores enough to crawl under a table," while teachers whose students had scored high were feted up front.

Takeaway: Such tactics may encourage cheating, and when cheating enters the picture, everybody loses, not least the teachers who don't cheat, Thompson says. In many new accountability schemes -- such as the "value-added" comparisons that many current school reformers tout -- each teacher's success with an individual student is measured relative to that student's success in earlier grades. A teacher is judged successful with a student only if that student performs as well as or better than he or she performed in the previous school year. Thus, when one teacher fakes higher scores, "the teacher who gets the same students the following year is also hurt” because that teacher “is starting from an inflated baseline" of what those students can do, explained Pulitzer Prize-winning education writer Susan Headden.

For background, see my April 29 CQ Researcher report, “School Reform” (subscription required).

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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“How Digital Detectives Deciphered Stuxnet, the Most Menacing Malware in History”
Threat Level blog, Wired Magazine, Kim Zetter, July 11, 2011

Those who follow Middle Eastern politics, or nuclear proliferation, or tech-world developments – or all three – won’t want to miss this detailed and absorbing account. Zetter pulls back the curtain on the discovery of “Stuxnet,” the ingenious computer virus designed to sabotage uranium enrichment in Iran. Exactly who wrote the virus code remains a mystery, though Zetter’s piece does nothing to contradict the conventional wisdom that Israel or the United States – or both countries working together – created the program. But even with Stuxnet’s authorship unconfirmed, the tale of how a few members of the global computer-security community spotted Stuxnet and then laboriously figured out its purpose makes for a great read. Not surprisingly, the more that the principal decoders figured out, the more nervous they got for their own safety. Nothing in their careers of countering cyber-bandits had prepared them for the cyber-battlefield where they found themselves.

--Peter Katel, Staff Writer

Will spending on health care for the elderly bankrupt the United States?

2011-07-15T09:49:00.003-04:00

To follow is an excerpt from the CQ Researcher report "Aging Population" by Alan Greenblatt on July 15, 2011.

*********************

Health care costs already consume more than double the share of the economy that they did 30 years ago. They are expected to consume $2.8 trillion this year, or 17.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), according to the federal Centers on Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). That's up from 8.1 percent of the economy in 1975. [Footnote 16]

Medicare and Medicaid spending have grown at a similar pace. The two programs, which provide coverage for seniors and the poor and disabled, respectively, are on course to grow from about 4 percent of GDP in 2008 to nearly 7 percent by 2035. [Footnote 17]

The 2010 federal health-care law, known as the Affordable Care Act, was designed to cut Medicare costs by nearly $120 billion over the next five years. [Footnote 18] But Medicare's actuaries worry that savings from the 2010 law can't all be relied upon. That's because Congress has frequently canceled plans to lower Medicare fees for hospitals and physicians. [Footnote 19] As a result, the Medicare trust fund is on course to run out of money in 2024 — five years earlier than previously predicted — according to Richard Foster, the chief actuary at CMS.

Rising health care costs are a burden not just for the government but for individuals as well. “We're spending about $8,000 more annually for insurance for a family of four than we did in 2000,” says Paul Hewitt, vice president of research at the Coalition for Affordable Health Coverage, an advocacy group in Washington.

Experts say aging trends are a significant reason for the climb in health care costs and an important source of pressure on the federal budget. “It's worth keeping in mind that a significant share of health care growth is demographically based,” says Jackson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “You're looking at a steep rise in cost just because of the rise in the average age of the beneficiaries — the aging of the aged.”

But health economists say aging trends are far from the whole story. Medical costs are rising largely because of the ever-increasing availability of expensive treatments in the health care system — a system that treats young and old alike. “The real problem is not the aging of the population, but the rise of health care costs,” says Case Western's Binstock, a former president of the Gerontological Society of America. “We don't look at the elephant in the room here, which is the enormous profits of the medical-industrial complex.”

Most experts agree that major alterations are in order. Some are discouraged that the two major parties seem worlds apart on health care issues. “Both parties have to recognize the need to compromise,” says the Urban Institute's Johnson.

That does not appear imminent. Republicans have pledged to repeal the 2010 health care law, considered one of Obama's signature achievements, while Democrats intend to use the GOP's controversial plan to turn Medicare into something resembling a voucher program against them in the 2012 elections.

Even as congressional Republicans seek to slash Medicare and other entitlements, they oppose the Independent Payment Advisory Board, established by the 2010 health care law, which is meant to make recommendations for Medicare spending cuts when its growth exceeds GDP growth by more than 1 percent.

“Cutting providers eventually cuts benefits because they are less available,” said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., the minority whip. “You don't have as many physicians, for example, to take care of Medicare patients, so either people have to wait a lot longer or they never get to see the physician they'd like to.” [Footnote 20]

But if a political deal is not reached, the consequences could be dire, experts warn. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says health care costs, on their current course, could swallow all of GDP by 2082. [Footnote 21]

The risk of bankruptcy from health costs in particular, says Hewitt, are exactly what bond rating agencies have warned about when they have threatened recently to downgrade U.S. debt — meaning the federal government may not be able to borrow money as cheaply because there's more risk that it won't be able to cover its interest payments.

“Three-quarters of the projected deficits over the next 10 years are new health care spending, according to CBO,” Hewitt says. “If you could hold health costs at 2011 levels, you wouldn't have any deficit of note in 2021.”

“There's no question that we're on course for health care costs to bankrupt the country,” says the New America Foundation's MacGuineas. “You can't have anything growing faster than GDP forever, because it consumes more and more of the economy.”

That may be the greatest danger. MacGuineas, like other budget experts, predicts that some sort of change will be made in health care spending, because present trends are not sustainable. But the changes won't come without pain and political difficulty. In the meantime, rising health costs may continue to squeeze spending on other programs.

The Issues:

Should Americans work longer?
Will spending on health care for the elderly bankrupt the United States?
Will the young and old fight over resources?

Click here for more information on this CQ Researcher report [subscription required] or purchase the PDF.

*********************

Footnotes

[16] See Annual Report of the Medicare Trustees, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, May 13, 2011, www.cms.gov/ReportsTrustFunds/downloads/tr2011.pdf.

[17] “Choosing The Nation's Fiscal Future,” National Academies Press (2010), p. 79, available at www.ourfiscalfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/fiscalfuture_full_report.pdf.

[18] “Strengthening Medicare: Better Health, Better Care, Lower Costs,” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, www.cms.gov/apps/files/medicare-savings-report.pdf.

[19] Matthew DoBias, “Medicare's Actuary Paints a Darker Picture Than Trustees,” National Journal.com , May 23, 2011, www.nationaljournal.com/healthcare/medicare-s-actuary-paints-a-darker-picture-than-trustees-20110523.

[20] Emily Ethridge, “Republicans Decry Medicare Cost-Control Panel While Seeking Broad Cuts,” CQ HealthBeat, June 8, 2011.

[21] “CBO'S 2011 Long-Term Budget Outlook,” Congressional Budget Office, www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=12212.

Weekly Roundup 7/11/2011

2011-07-11T12:35:00.002-04:00

"As Shuttle Era Ends, Dreams of Space Linger"
John Noble Wilford, The New York Times, July 9, 2011

"The space shuttle: Portrait of an American era"
Philip Scott Andrews, The Washington Post Magazine, July 10, 2011

Synopsis: Two veteran space-watchers reminisce as NASA prepared for the July 8 launch of Atlantis, the final mission in the agency’s 30-year space shuttle program. In his essay, John Noble Wilford, who covered the space program for the Times since the 1960s, recalls the difficulties that preceded the first launch in 1981 and the gradual routinization of the program as guest lawmakers and others were invited into space flight. Photographer Philip Scott Andrews, who recalls tagging along as his father photographed space missions for Canon, provides a gallery of behind-the-scenes photos taken over the last three years.

Takeaway: “I no longer expect to see boot prints on Mars during my lifetime,” says Wilford, now 77. But he closes by wishing “bigger and braver dreams for us all in the future.”

For our coverage, see Thomas J. Billitteri, “Human Spaceflight,” CQ Researcher, Oct. 16, 2009 (subscription required).

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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“Bradley Manning’s Army of One”
Steve Fishman, New York Magazine, July 3, 2011

A constant flow of major news events has pushed the WikiLeaks story out of the limelight. But the case remains very much alive, with secret U.S. government documents brought to the surface by WikiLeaks still regularly cited in news stories. (Over the weekend, the Miami Herald reported on a WikiLeaks cable that said U.S. medical students in Cuba had been threatened with loss of their scholarships if they had contact with U.S. diplomats in Havana.) Meanwhile, Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army private who faces possible life in prison for allegedly leaking the trove of documents, remains in military custody. Some people who dealt with Manning during his tour of duty as an intelligence analyst in Iraq tell a New York Magazine reporter of a deeply unhappy, highly talented individual who seems to have been completely out of place in the Army. One of his superiors questioned whether Manning was emotionally fit to be deployed to a war zone. A reader may wonder if military manpower needs overcame that concern, thereby arguably setting in motion the still unfolding WikiLeaks saga.

--Peter Katel, Staff Writer

For our coverage, see Alex Kingsbury, “Government Secrecy,” CQ Researcher, Feb. 11, 2011 (subscription required).

Weekly Roundup 7/5/2011

2011-07-05T15:36:00.002-04:00

“An African Adventure, and a Revelation”
Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, July 3, 2011

Synopsis: For the fifth year, New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof took a young student – and this year, a 60-something teacher – with him on a foreign reporting tour to Third World Countries. The 10-day trip in mid-June took the traveling party to five African nations (Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Niger), where Kristof and the first-time Africa visitors witnessed poverty, disease and corruption slow to yield to reform from within or without. Nevertheless, Kristof is bullish on Africa’s prospects, noting that the continent’s economy is growing significantly faster than Europe’s or America’s.

Takeaway: “[T]he poverty is heartbreaking and the insecurity ominous,” Kristof writes in conclusion. “But the giraffes and villagers alike are hugely welcoming, and the progress is now effervescent. The backdrop is a continent that is chipping away at poverty and disease, while doing a better job of educating its young. Africa seems likely to become a much more important part of the global economy in the 21st century — a place to admire, not to pity.”

For our recent coverage, with a mixed report on democratization, see Jason McClure, “Sub-Saharan Democracy,” CQ Global Researcher, Feb. 15, 2011 (subscription required).

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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"Facebook Changes Privacy Settings for Millions of Users – Facial Recognition Is Enabled"
Graham Cluley, Sophos Naked Security Blog, June 7, 2011

"Facebook to Be Probed in EU for Facial Recognition in Photos"
Stephanie Bodoni, Bloomberg/Business Week, June 8, 2011;

and "Facebook Money: Will the Feds Stop Facebook’s Power Play for Online Currency?"
Jamie Court, Huffington Post, June 29, 2011.

Synopsis: Zuckerberg Nation arrives. And Mark knows who you are!

It’s here: Facial-recognition software that can find all your Jello-shots photos – or photos of your doppelganger doing Jello shots – and tag them with your name, without human intervention. Security writer Graham Cluley explains how to opt out of the new, scary Facebook feature, and Bloomberg/Business Week reports that European regulators are not happy.

Meanwhile, American consumer advocate Jamie Court reports that, as of July, all sales conducted on Facebook must use Zuckerberg money – so-called “Facebook Credits.” Up to now, credit cards or PayPal also could be used. “If Facebook's new facial recognition software isn't scary enough, imagine Mark Zuckerberg's face replacing George Washington's on the dollar bill,” says Court. “July 4th may be Independence Day for America, but on July 1st Facebook is making a declaration about its new virtual currency, ‘Facebook Credits,’ that could well put the Internet powerhouse on the road to dominance of all online commercial transactions.” Court’s California-based group, Consumer Watchdog, has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.

For more, see my Sept. 7, 2010, report on “Social Networking.”

--Marcia Clemmitt, staff writer

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"Married, With Infidelities"
Mark Oppenheimer, The New York Times Magazine, July 3, 2011

Synopsis: After nearly 40 years of a wonderful marriage – yet one with the usual ups and downs – I read the Times magazine’s cover story on marriage with considerable interest. The lengthy story by Mark Oppenheimer, who writes the Times’ Beliefs column, takes a look at the institution of marriage through the prism of the Anthony Weiner and Arnold Swarzenegger scandals. Oppenheimer essentially explores the notion, pushed by popular sex columnist Dan Savage, that marriage is hard enough without imposing monogamy on a relationship.

Takeaway: While Oppenheimer notes that Savage says monogamy is appropriate for many couples (count me in!), he seems to support Savage’s enlightened (if that’s the right word) take on marriage. “Although best known for his It Gets Better project, an archive of hopeful videos aimed at troubled gay youth, Savage has for 20 years been saying monogamy is harder than we admit and articulating a sexual ethic that he thinks honors the reality, rather than the romantic ideal, of marriage,” Oppenheimer writes. In place of strict fidelity, Savage “proposes a sensibility that we might call American Gay Male, after that community’s tolerance for pornography, fetishes and a variety of partnered arrangements, from strict monogamy to wide openness.”

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

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“Everything You Think You Know About the Collapse of the Soviet Union Is Wrong”
Leon Aron, Foreign Policy, July/August, 2011

The Moscow-born director of Russia studies at the American Enterprise Institute makes a strong argument that Soviet Union disintegrated above all because of moral outrage, not economic decay nor military weakness. Ordinary citizens’ outrage at corruption and injustice tends to be underestimated as a revolutionary force, Aron writes. But popular anger is proving itself a force to be reckoned with, right now, in the Middle East. And Aron sees signs of that indignation returning to Russia, in response to the inequality, and the impunity for the powerful, that mark Russian life.

--Peter Katel, Staff Writer

Weekly Roundup 6/27/2011

2011-06-28T16:48:00.002-04:00

My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant
Jose Antonio Vargas, The New York Times Magazine, June 25, 2011

Synopsis: The stunning admission by the young Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas that he has lived in the United States since age 12 as an “undocumented immigrant” has provoked widespread comment since it went online at midweek (June 22). Vargas compellingly relates his immigration to the United States on what he later learned was a fake passport obtained by his mother in the Philippines and the difficulties since then while living in the United States with a fake “green card” obtained by his grandfather, a naturalized U.S. citizen. Vargas, now an unaffiliated journalist after having worked for the Washington Post and HuffingtonPost, has created a Web site, http://DefineAmerican.com, to promote immigration law reform.

Takeaway: Vargas’s “coming out” poses a host of questions: most significantly for him, whether the government will move to deport him, as some anti-immigrant conservatives have been urging. For journalists, the episode raises the question whether job applicants of Hispanic or Asian background will be more carefully scrutinized before being hired. The black online magazine The Root compiled some of the reaction here.

For background, see Alan Greenblatt, “Immigration Debate,” CQ Researcher, Feb. 1, 2008, updated Dec. 10, 2010.

-Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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Why Laying Off Ag Reporter Philip Brasher Is Bad for Food
Paula Crossfield, Civil Eats, June 24, 2011

As a veteran of the trade press, I know firsthand that, while reporting intended for an industry audience often breaks significant stories, trade papers’ content is skewed away from the interests of the general public toward the immediate concerns of business. Reporting on health care, I sat in many an overflowing room for a Medicare discussion…and many a nearly empty one for talk about Medicaid, whose low-dollar payments and low-dollar patients are of little interest to most medical providers. Beat reporters in the popular press are the only ones to cover many of the most far-reaching questions in every field, and that’s why this piece on the downsizing of a long-time Washington agriculture reporter from the Des Moines Register caught my eye. From farm subsidies’ effect on economies here and abroad to the conundrum of how to create food policies adequate to sustain us as energy shortages and climate change loom, agriculture policy grows only more crucial. I’m inclined to agree with Civil Eats editor Crossfield when she says: “I fear that without journalists like Brasher to shine a light on food policy, the public will remain critically uninformed and policy decisions will continue to be dominated by industry players in Washington.”

For related material, see my CQ Researcher report, “Global Food Crisis,” June 27, 2008, and Peter Katel’s report, “Food Safety,” Dec. 17, 2010.

-Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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The Invisible Army
Sarah Stillman, The New Yorker, June 6, 2011

Outside military circles – that is, for the vast majority of Americans – the consequences of the wars that U.S. forces have been fighting for nearly 10 years are easy to overlook. Of these consequences, perhaps the least-known involve the tens of thousands of contract employees who cook, clean, build and otherwise keep military bases running in some of the most dangerous places on earth. As Stillman notes in her vivid piece, the vast majority of these workers come from poverty-wracked countries in Asia and the Pacific, and many of them are women. At least some of them, Stillman’s reporting makes clear, are recruited under false pretenses – promised vastly more money than they’re actually paid, and not even told they’ll be working in war zones. And then there’s the serious sexual harassment, including rape, to which some of them are subjected. Told by one woman that she’d been raped repeatedly, Stillman writes that for several days, she called the Army’s sexual-assault hotline. “The number simply rang and rang,” Stillman reports.

-Peter Katel, Staff Writer

Ban on Violent Video Games for Minors Struck Down

2011-06-27T12:19:00.005-04:00

By Kenneth Jost
Supreme Court Editor, CQ Press
States cannot ban the sale or rental of violent video games to minors, the Supreme Court ruled in an end-of-term decision on Monday that strongly reaffirmed First Amendment rights for juveniles.
The 7-2 decision struck down a 2005 California law that Justice Antonin Scalia called “the latest episode in a long series of failed attempts to censor violent entertainment for minors.” Noting the violence in children’s literature ranging from fairy tales to comic books, Scalia called the law “unprecedented and mistaken.”
In a second important ruling on Monday, the court struck down an Arizona law that provided matching funds for candidates participating in the state’s public campaign financing system. The measure, approved by Arizona voters in 1998, raised the public subsidy for candidates running against higher-spending opponents. In an opinion by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the court held, 5-4, that the law unfairly burdened the political speech rights of privately funded candidates.
The court issued the rulings and two other decisions that limited U.S. courts’ jurisdiction over foreign manufacturers in product liability suits as it ended the 2011 term and began a three-month recess. The justices will reconvene on the traditional first Monday in October with a docket that includes 40 cases so far, including 11 granted review on Monday. Among the new cases to be reviewed are the government’s effort to reinstate the Federal Communications Commission’s ban on so-called fleeting expletives on television (FCC v. Fox Television Stations, 10-1293).
Scalia spoke for a mostly liberal majority in the video games case, Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association. The ruling struck down the law because it represented what Scalia called an unjustified attempt to create a new exception to the general First Amendment rule against censorship.
The law failed to survive the constitutional standard known as strict scrutiny, Scalia said, because California had failed to show that exposure to violent video games had harmful effects on minors. He also discounted the state’s other main rationale for the law — that it helped parents supervise their children’s use of video games.
Four justices joined Scalia’s opinion: liberals Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan and the moderate-conservative Anthony M. Kennedy, traditionally a strong First Amendment supporter. In an opinion concurring in the result, conservative Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said he would have struck down the law as vague but left other issues to be decided. Roberts joined his opinion.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Stephen G. Breyer dissented in separate opinions. Thomas, part of the court’s conservative bloc, argued that the First Amendment, “as originally understood,” did not give minors speech rights except through their parents. Breyer, a liberal who takes a pragmatic approach to First Amendment issues, said the California law imposed only “a modest” restriction on speech and was justified as an effort to help parents limit their children’s exposure to “potentially harmful, violent, interactive material.”
The rulings on Monday ended a predominantly conservative term that saw the justices shut down a massive sex-discrimination lawsuit against the giant discount retailer Wal-Mart and limit lawsuits against mutual funds and generic drug manufacturers. The court upheld a tough Arizona law penalizing employers who hire undocumented immigrants and blocked states from suing electric utilities in federal court to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
In criminal law cases, the court issued its third ruling in five years broadly limiting the use of the exclusionary rule to keep evidence out of criminal trials if obtained in illegal searches. It also blocked a former Louisiana prisoner from suing the New Orleans district attorney’s office for prosecutorial misconduct that kept him on death row for 14 years because of a wrongful murder conviction later overturned.
Against the string of conservative rulings, the liberal justices’ most important victory came in a decision that ordered California prisons to reduce their population by as many as 30,000 inmates over a five-year period. In an opinion by Kennedy, the court said prison overcrowding resulted in “grossly inadequate” medical care that amounted to cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. Dissenting justices argued that releasing thousands of inmates would endanger public safety.
Many of the most controversial rulings came in 5-4 decisions that featured a conservative bloc of four Republican appointees led by Roberts and a bloc of four predominantly liberal Democratic appointees, including the two justices named by President Obama: Sotomayor and Kagan. Kennedy, appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, held the balance of power between the two blocs, most often voting with the conservatives.
Kagan, in her first term on the court and her first year as a judge, generally lined up as predicted with the court’s liberal wing. But she had to recuse herself in 28 cases, more than one-third of the total, because she had worked on them in her year and a half as solicitor general.

For background, see Sarah Glazer, "Video Games," CQ Researcher, Nov. 10, 2006 (subscription required).

Wal-Mart Ruling Raises Bar for Job Bias Suits

2011-06-20T15:28:00.002-04:00

By Kenneth Jost
Supreme Court Editor, CQ Press
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to throw out a major sex discrimination case against Wal-Mart will make it more difficult to bring job discrimination cases against major employers in the future, according to legal experts.
The high court on Monday [June 20] rejected an effort to bring a class action against the giant discount retailer on behalf of up to 1.5 million women who have worked for Wal-Mart over the past decade.
Dividing 5-4 along ideological lines on the most important issue, the justices said the plaintiffs had failed to produce sufficient evidence of a companywide policy discriminating against women in pay and promotions to justify a class action as opposed to individual suits.
In opposing certification of the case as a class action, Wal-Mart maintained that it has a companywide policy prohibiting discrimination but grants wide discretion on personnel matters to individual managers at the company’s 3,400 stores nationwide. To counter the claim, plaintiffs’ lawyers in the case introduced affidavits alleging sex discrimination by 120 women along with statistics indicating significant gender disparities in pay and advancement.
Writing for the majority in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, Justice Antonin Scalia found the evidence “worlds away” from what would be needed to charge Wal-Mart with a general policy of discrimination. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel A. Alito Jr. joined Scalia’s opinion.
Writing for four liberal dissenters, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg found the evidence more persuasive. “The plaintiffs’ evidence, including class members’ tales of their own experiences, suggests that gender bias suffused Wal-Mart’s company culture,” Ginsburg wrote. Ginsburg was joined in the dissent by Justice Stephen G. Breyer and President Obama’s two appointees to the court: Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
The justices were unanimous on a secondary issue: whether the plaintiffs could seek back pay in the suit as filed. The court ruled that back pay would generally be available only under a more complex class action rule that allows individual plaintiffs to opt out of the case and file their own suits.
Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, could have faced hundreds of millions of dollars in back pay awards if the class action, originally filed in 2001, had been approved with the back pay claims intact. In a statement, the company said Monday it was pleased with the ruling and again claimed it has maintained “strong policies” against discrimination for years.
“The Court today unanimously rejected class certification,” Wal-Mart’s statement read, “and, as the majority made clear, the plaintiffs’ claims were worlds away from showing a companywide discriminatory pay and promotion policy.”
Experts in a telephone conference call arranged by the progressive American Constitution Society stressed that the court did not rule on the merits of the sex discrimination claim. “The ruling doesn’t in any way exonerate Wal-Mart,” said Cyrus Mehri, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who represents plaintiffs in discrimination cases. “The only way that could have been achieved would have been with a trial.”
In the same call, Suzette Malveaux, a civil procedure expert at Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law in Washington, said the court’s decision creates “a new and higher burden” for plaintiffs to meet in job discrimination class actions against big employers. “Given all the evidence the plaintiffs put together, it’s difficult to imagine how any plaintiffs can come forward with a case that could challenge an employer like Wal-Mart,” she said.
From the opposite perspective, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce praised the ruling as protecting companies from the threat of what it called “bet-the-business blockbuster class actions.” Robin Conrad, executive vice president of the chamber’s National Chamber Litigation Center, said the ruling “reinforces a fundamental principle of fairness in our court systems: that defendants should have the opportunity to present individualized evidence to show they complied with the law.”
The suit, originally brought by six named plaintiffs, was certified as a class action by a federal judge in San Francisco in 2004. The federal appeals court for California upheld the decision in 2010 by a 6-5 vote.
The Supreme Court’s ruling leaves the remaining three named plaintiffs in the case, including Betty Dukes, a greeter at the Wal-Mart store in Pittsburg, Calif., free to pursue their individual suits. Plaintiffs’ lawyers were not immediately available to comment on their next steps in the litigation, but Malveaux said the court’s ruling “killed this case as a class action.

For background see, Kenneth Jost, “Class Action Lawsuits,” CQ Researcher, May 13, 2011 (subscription required).

Weekly Roundup 6/20/2011

2011-06-20T14:36:00.003-04:00

Why Europe no longer matters
Richard N. Haass, The Washington Post, June 19, 2011

Synopsis: Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ recent speech criticizing U.S. allies in Europe for lagging support for U.S. policies around the world was misplaced, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations argues, not because it was wrong, but because it was irrelevant. Europe’s influence on world affairs is limited, and it is in other regions – Asia and the Middle East – that the 21st century will be forged and defined.

Takeaway: “The answer for Americans is not to browbeat Europeans for this,” writes Haass, director of policy and planning at the State Department under President George W. Bush, “but to accept it and adjust to it.”

-Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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Where I Learned to Read
Salvatore Scibona, The New Yorker, June 13, 2011

Synopsis: American novelist and my fellow northern-Ohioan Salvatore Scibona, author of The End, a complex, poetic 2008 novel that chronicles immigrant life in early 20th-century Cleveland, describes life at the other venue he and I have in common – “the Great Books” school, St. John’s College (in Annapolis, for me, and in Santa Fe, for him). Couldn’t have said it better myself. (For more about The End, a 2008 National Book Award finalist, see www.nationalbook.org/nba2008_f_scibona.html)

Takeaway: “By senior year at St. John’s, we were reading Einstein in math, Darwin in lab, Baudelaire in French tutorial, Hegel in seminar. Seminar met twice a week for four years: eight o’clock to ten at night or later, all students addressed by surname. On weekends, I hung out with my friends. The surprise, the wild luck: I had friends. One sat in my room with a beer and ‘The Phenomenology of Spirit,’ reading out a sentence at a time and stopping to ask, ‘All right, what did that mean?’ The gravity of the whole thing would have been laughable if it hadn’t been so much fun, and if it hadn’t been such a gift to find my tribe. In retrospect, I was a sad little boy and a standard-issue, shiftless, egotistical, dejected teen-ager. Everything was going to hell, and then these strangers let me come to their school and showed me how to read. All things considered, every year since has been a more intense and enigmatic joy.”

-Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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Black Ops and Blood Money
Matthew Teague, Men’s Journal, June 1, 2011

Raymond Davis was front-page news only recently, the protagonist of a dramatic episode that soon faded from view. But the details that had dribbled out from the tale of a CIA contractor who had killed two armed men following him through the streets of Lahore, Pakistan, were enough to send reporter Teague in search of more. He provides a fascinating portrait of Davis, who grew up poor in the southwest mountains of Virginia, an existence he escaped thanks to the U.S. Army. For all the deprivations of his early, hardscrabble life, it gave him years of practice in hunting and shooting. As for the men whom Davis killed in Pakistan, Teague apparently did his best to dig into their pasts as well. He learned little, though enough to confirm that Davis’ shooting skills saved his life. Teague also fills in some blanks on Davis’ spy work in Pakistan, but precisely what he’d been doing in Lahore remains mysterious. The tracking of Osama bin Laden elsewhere in Pakistan was under way when the Davis case erupted. No direct links have emerged between the bin Laden project and Davis’ work. But the story of his case leaves no doubt about the intensity and depth of the CIA’s work in Pakistan.

-Peter Katel, Staff Writer

Is foreign aid necessary for national security?

2011-06-17T15:15:00.003-04:00

To follow is an excerpt from the CQ Researcher report "Foreign Aid and National Security" by Nellie Bristol on June 17, 2011.

*********************

The importance of the connection between non-military foreign aid and national security is being supported strongly by what may be a surprising group: former and active members of the U.S. military. And the message is coming from the top: Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. “It has become clear that America's civilian institutions of diplomacy and development have been chronically undermanned and underfunded for far too long relative to what we spend on the military, and more important, relative to the responsibilities and challenges our nation has around the world,” Gates said in 2008. [Footnote 11]

Gates sees civilian tools of “persuasion and inspiration” as indispensable to a stable world. “We cannot kill or capture our way to victory,” he said. “What the Pentagon calls ‘kinetic’ operations should be subordinate to measures to promote participation in government, economic programs to spur development and efforts to address grievances that often lie at the heart of insurgencies and among the discontented from which the terrorists recruit.”

Retired Adm. James M. Loy, former deputy secretary of Homeland Security and Coast Guard commandant, traces the shift in approach to September 11. Since the attacks, he says, “the very definition of national security is much broader in scope.” While pre-9/11 security operations might have involved the White House, the National Security Council and the State and Defense departments, they now include participants ranging from the Treasury and Justice departments to the Agriculture Department and Environmental Protection Agency.

“Who would have thought we'd ever pine for the good old days of the Cold War, with the simplistic notion of a couple of superpowers keeping client states under their wing and in order, all fostered by the notion of mutually assured destruction?” says Loy, now co-chair of the National Security Advisory Council at the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, a network of business and nongovernmental leaders that advocates increased use of civilian power. In today's more complicated world, he adds, “We're still trying to understand it.”

Investment in civilian operations is considered a “best buy” by J. Stephen Morrison, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). It is much cheaper to send specialists in health or elections to a country than to fund a military intervention, not to mention saving the lives and limbs of soldiers, he notes. Supporters of development as a national security tool acknowledge that definitive results for the approach are hard to find, mostly because it's difficult to measure what would have happened absent the aid. But, Morrison argues, “there's the kind of presumptive, wise, forward investment in creating a form of human security, accountability and transparency that will make for a better-functioning world.”

Afghanistan is frequently cited as an example of how aid would have protected the United States. When the Russians left in 1989, after nearly 10 years of war and occupation, the United States didn't follow through in rebuilding. Such actions can have serious consequences, comments Adm. Loy, who says, “Often when we've watched [foreign aid] fall, we've paid the price shortly thereafter.”

But not everyone agrees. James Roberts, a research fellow for economic freedom and growth at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, warned that “out of control federal spending” leads to a national security threat and that traditional development assistance “does not work, at least not if the goal is to foster sustainable development in poor countries.” [Footnote 12] He said development is better accomplished through private organizations. He did, however, laud humanitarian aid delivered under U.S. global HIV/AIDS programs.

Justin Logan, associate director of foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, says strategic aid is unnecessary and counterproductive. “I think we're secure, independent of these efforts to try to tinker with the balance of power in other regions,” he says. He calls a lot of aid, especially to problematic allies such as Egypt and Pakistan, “bribery.” “I don't buy the Rube Goldberg theory that regional instability everywhere will always come back to bite us, [a view] I think is quite prevalent in Washington,” he adds.

U.S. willingness to engage throughout the world has made other countries less motivated to provide services for their citizens or even shore up their own defenses, Logan says. The U.S. tendency to pick and choose when and how to get involved in conflicts internationally “taints the image of America as a beacon of liberalism and democracy to the rest of the world and in some cases causes actual animosity and terrorism against the United States,” he adds.

Significantly, among those not fully convinced by the development aid-as-national security argument are lawmakers influential in budget matters. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., developed a 2012 budget plan that would have cut international affairs funding, which includes foreign aid, by as much as 28 percent. [Footnote 13]

And Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, chair of the House Appropriations Committee's State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Subcommittee, said that given the country's constrained economic circumstances, foreign aid needs to be focused on “direct national security.” [Footnote 14]

While she acknowledged the connection between foreign aid and national security in long-term U.S. commitments to Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Mexico, she suggested other, less pressing development investments would be a lower priority in the current climate. “We have to look at our national security, particularly in foreign aid, and say, What is in our national security interest?” she said.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., makes the most extreme case against foreign aid, saying all aid should be cut, even to longtime ally Israel. Citing a Reuter's poll, Paul said, “71 percent of the American people agree with me that when we're short of money, when we can't do the things we need to do in our country, we certainly shouldn't be shipping the money overseas.” In making his case, Paul said that while he's sympathetic to challenges faced by developing countries, aid money too often goes to unscrupulous leaders. “You don't want to just keep throwing money to corrupt leaders who steal it from their people,” he argued.

Moreover, Paul said, U.S. aid to Israel is matched by aid to Islamic countries, possibly contributing to an arms race in the region. “I don't think that funding both sides of an arms race, particularly when we have to borrow the money from China to send it to someone else — we just can't do it anymore. The debt is all-consuming, and it threatens our well-being as a country.” [Footnote 15]

The Issues:

Is foreign aid necessary for national security?
Does the U.S. benefit from foreign aid spending?
Does the United States give too much aid to authoritarian governments?

Click here for more information on this CQ Researcher report [subscription required] or purchase the PDF.

*********************

Footnotes
[11] Robert Gates, speech to the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign, July 15, 2008, Washington, D.C., www.defense.gov/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=1262.

[12] James Roberts, “Not All Foreign Aid is Equal,” Backgrounder, The Heritage Foundation, March 1, 2011.

[13] “The Path to Prosperity: Restoring America's Promise, Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Resolution,” House Committee on Budget, http://budget.house.gov/UploadedFiles/PathToProsperityFY2012.pdf.

[14] Kay Granger, “PBS NewsHour,” March 10, 2011, www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/jan-june11/foreignaid_03-10.html.

[15] Matt Schneider, “Sen. Paul Rand: We Should End all Foreign Aid to Countries, Including Israel,” Medialite, Jan. 30, 2011, www.mediaite.com/tv/rand-paul-we-should-end-all-foreign-aid-to-countries-including-israel/.

Weekly Roundup 6/13/2011

2011-06-13T15:26:00.002-04:00

“Special Report: After Japan, Where’s the Next Weak Nuclear Link?”
Nick Carey, Margarita Antidze and John Ruwitch, Reuters, June 9, 2011

Synopsis: U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks reveal worrisome details about plans for nuclear power expansion in developing countries, such as Azerbaijan and Vietnam, according to a team of Reuters reporters. Political corruption, security issues, a lack of independent watchdogs and a spotty record for competent public services could compromise safety at proposed power plants throughout the developing world, where most nuclear plants currently in planning stages would be located.

Takeaway: Today, Vietnam has one small research reactor in operation but plans to open eight nuclear power plants by 2030. Experts question whether the country has the infrastructure and expertise to run the plant and respond to a nuclear accident, especially given how the Japanese, with a highly developed corporate and governmental infrastructure, struggled after the Fukushima accident, Reuters reports. "The safety of a nuclear power plant does not depend on the equipment, the technical aspects or the design, but mostly on the people who are running the plant,” Pham Duy Hien, one of Vietnam's leading nuclear scientists, told the reporters. Of Vietnam’s plans for eight nuclear plants, Hien said: "This is mad. We don't have the manpower, we don't have the knowledge, we don't have the experience.”

For more, see my CQ Researcher report, "Nuclear Power" [subscription required], June 10, 2011.

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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“Under suspicion: American Muslims search for identity after Sept. 11”
Marc Fisher, The Washington Post, June 12, 2011

Synopsis: The Post’s award-winning enterprise reporter-editor opens a planned series on Muslims in America with a story weaving together portraits of individuals representing the different ways of combining their Islamic faith with an American identity:

- Fawaz Ismail, a Palestinian immigrant who operates a store selling American flags but dropped his Americanized nickname after 9/11 to emphasize his Muslim identity;
- Yahya Hendi, Georgetown University’s first imam, who bristles at the strictures that are being imposed on young Muslims in the name of the faith;
- Sadaf Iqbal, wife and mother of four children, who religiously wears a head scarf in public – conscious of the stares that she gets for doing so;
- Zehra Fazal, an aspiring writer-actress, whose one-woman show, “Headscarf and the Angry Bitch,” equally mocks prevailing attitudes in America toward Muslims and such tenets of the faith as no-sex-before-marriage.

Takeaway: Of the estimated 2.4 million Muslim Americans, Fisher writes, “Some have reacted to a decade of stares, cutting comments, airport humiliations and disturbing incidents of homegrown terrorism by drifting away from their religion, some by deepening their faith, and a few by turning to the very extremism that sparked the mistrust they encounter.”

For CQ Researcher coverage, see these reports: Sarah Glazer, “Radical Islam in Europe,” CQ Global Researcher, November 2007; Kenneth Jost, “Understanding Islam,” CQ Researcher, Nov. 3, 2006.

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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“When It Comes to Scandal, Girls Won’t Be Boys”
Sheryl Gay Stolberg, The New York Times, June 12, 2011

I presume you have been following, or at least are aware of, the sad business of Rep. Anthony Weiner, the newly married Democratic House member from New York who admitted sending salacious photos to young women.

It’s not a joking matter, notwithstanding the (equally salacious) hilarity that comedian and fake newsman Jon Stewart has had with it for several “Daily Show” programs.

So many questions come to mind, perhaps starting with, “What’s wrong with men?” The New York Times’ Sheryl Gay Stolberg has a good take on that question.

But to me, the nagging question is, “What about his poor wife?” Forget the fact that she is a heck of a beautiful and classy lady who was wooed by George Clooney. What gets me is that she is newly married, pregnant and married to a clearly troubled man. As someone who has been married for nearly 40 years (to the same gal), I can only imagine the pain she is in.

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

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“The Monster and Monterrey: The Politics and Cartels of Mexico’s Drug Wars,”
Nik Steinberg, The Nation, June 13, 2011

As barbarous violence in northern Mexico (and some other zones) grinds on, news coverage tends to be episodic. The result is that readers and viewers may not get much of an idea of the forces driving the killing, most of it seemingly perpetrated by semi-militarized drug gangs. But The Nation, a longtime left-liberal weekly, gave Steinberg, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, the space to probe that question. He focuses on Monterrey, Mexico’s industrial and corporate center, long considered the dynamo of the country’s modernization efforts. Steinberg reports that the Mexican military’s response to the drug cartels can be just as horrific as the drug syndicates’ rampages. But Steinberg’s report is no apologia for either side. And he reports growing public support for violent reprisal against the drug gangsters. For anyone trying to follow events in Mexico, Steinberg’s piece is a must-read.

--Peter Katel, Staff Writer

Is nuclear power too dangerous?

2011-06-10T10:49:00.004-04:00

To follow is an excerpt from the CQ Researcher report "Nuclear Power" by Marcia Clemmitt on June 10, 2011.

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Even critics of nuclear power are split: Some argue that because every exposure to ionizing radiation increases one's risk of cancer, nuclear plants are impossible to accept under any circumstance. Others remain open to nuclear plants as long as industry and government take tough safety measures. Meanwhile, nuclear-power advocates contend that accidents involving major radiation releases have been rare worldwide.

“You will never eliminate all risk, but there is tremendous work being done in reducing that risk,” says Neil Wilmshurst, vice president for nuclear activities at the power industry's Electric Power Research Institute. Because it's widely expected that most U.S. power reactors will receive extensions on their operating licenses rather than be replaced by newer designs, the group's current research mainly focuses on safely extending the life of older plants, such as determining how construction materials degrade with age, he explains.

“Nuclear engineers are extremely conscientious, and we teach the culture of safety,” says Georgia Tech's Sjoden. “None of us wants to be the person out there with our name in lights for allowing a major problem to happen.”

Pietrangelo of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) says the industry takes a systemwide approach to safety. “We are all inextricably linked together” because the power industry knows that a problem at one nuclear plant raises public fears about all plants, he says. U.S. nuclear plant operators now spend one week in every six in training, he points out. If 80 percent of NEI's member companies agree that a safety action is of top priority and relates to all plants, “it becomes binding on everybody,” he says.

Consolidation in the power industry has increased safety because with fewer companies managing the same number of reactors, the companies are better able to accrue “the human infrastructure, the software, the knowledge about exactly what's going on” that aids safe operation, says Paul Joskow, a professor emeritus of economics at MIT and a board member at Exelon, the nation's largest operator of nuclear power reactors.

“I don't think there's any question that things are safer than they were 15 to 20 years ago,” says David A. Lochbaum, director of the Nuclear Safety Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), an environmental research and advocacy group. “Near misses,” such as small mechanical breakdowns that could lead to radiation-releasing accidents if they worsened, “are way down” in recent years, he says.

Reforms that followed both the Three Mile Island accident and 2001 terrorist attacks have made nuclear power safer in the United States, some analysts say.

“Most changes involve how employees manage plants,” says Per F. Peterson, a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Today, workers report in writing every problem they notice, such as a slightly sticking valve, and “share it with all the other plants in the country,” he says. Furthermore, “you record why you did a fix in a certain way so that down the line you don't make some other change that inadvertently regenerates an earlier problem.”

Many analysts point out that while nuclear power arouses public dread, other power sources also have dangers — including radiation, which, for example, coal-burning power plants regularly release in small quantities in the form of “fly ash.” [Footnote 10]

The global intergovernmental group Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates that in 2000 alone, 960,000 people around the world died prematurely from lung and heart problems and other diseases caused by airborne particulates, some 30 percent of which came from coal-burning power plants and other energy sources. [Footnote 11]

Furthermore, OECD argues, humans already face a relatively high risk of cancer from naturally occurring background radiation from the sun, foods such as bananas, medical procedures such as X-rays and CT scans and other sources, so that the additional risk incurred from nuclear power is modest. OECD analysts calculated that about 33,000 people will ultimately die because of radiation released by the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe. But they also calculated that “natural background radiation” will cause “about 50 million” cancer deaths over the same period. [Footnote 12]

But none of these arguments is persuasive for nuclear power's staunchest critics. “The idea that the atom is safe is just a public-relations trick,” says Greenpeace's Riccio, quoting a quip often attributed to James Watson, co-discoverer of DNA. “If it were safe, you wouldn't need a whole agency to regulate it, you wouldn't need to try to ensure protection out to 250,000 years or evacuate people out to 50 miles” to avoid it, Riccio says.

Since 1972 the National Academy of Sciences has issued seven reports — dubbed the BEIR, or Biologic Effects of Ionizing Radiation, reports — which make clear that “you want to avoid doses of radiation, period,” says Riccio.

He charges that the NRC has a disturbing record of “rewriting the rules” to make it easier for plants to meet safety standards. That's especially troubling today because U.S. nuclear plants are aging, he argues. As they get older, oversight should increase, he says.

In his 1982 book Killing Our Own: The Disaster of America's Experience with Atomic Radiation, environmentalist and investigative reporter Harvey Wasserman argued that any breach of safety in a nuclear plant poses a dire health threat. “No matter how small the dose, the human egg … or embryo or fetus in utero, or newborn infant, or weakened elder has no defense against even the tiniest radioactive assault,” he wrote. “Science has never found such a ‘safe’ threshold, and never will.” [Footnote 13]

After Three Mile Island, “infant death rates soared in nearby Harrisburg,” and an increase in “the death and mutation rate among farm and wild animals was also thoroughly documented by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture,” Wasserman wrote. [Footnote 14] Pennsylvania's Health and Agriculture departments verified the increases but did not conclude that they were linked to the nuclear accident, however. [Footnote 15]

Many analysts are somewhere in the middle, saying the picture of nuclear-power safety is mixed.

Countries vary in the level of attention they pay to safety issues, says MIT's Lester. “Lots of communication and lots of learning goes on across national borders, but it's voluntary, and some countries pay more attention [to lessons from abroad] than others,” he says.

Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists says different U.S. power companies have very different safety records and, surprisingly, the most financially efficient managers tend to be safest. “We had thought that cost-efficiency might result from cutting corners on safety,” but a UCS study found that, in fact, the most cost-effective plants “were very aggressively looking at safety problems.” It appears that other owners may have let the same problems slide until they worsened, thus likely costing them more to fix while also compromising plant safety, just as a small faucet drip that a homeowner doesn't fix can end up causing extensive damage, he says.

The Issues:

Is nuclear power too dangerous?

Is the United States prepared for a nuclear-plant emergency?

Is nuclear power needed to meet future energy needs?

Click here for more information on the CQ Researcher report on "Nuclear Power" [subscription required] or purchase the PDF.
*********************

Footnotes

[10] For background, see Mara Hvistendahl, “Coal Ash Is More Radioactive than Nuclear Waste,” Scientific American, Dec. 13, 2007, www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste.

[11] “Comparing Nuclear Accident Risks with Those from Other Energy Sources,” Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Nuclear Energy Agency, 2010, www.oecd-nea.org/ndd/reports/2010/nea6862-comparing-risks.pdf.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Harvey Wasserman, “‘Safe’ Radiation Is a Lethal Three Mile Island Lie,” Common Dreams website, March 28, 2011, www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/28-1.

[14] Ibid.

[15] “Report Doubts Infant Death Rise from Three Mile Island Accident,” United Press International/New York Times, March 21, 1981, www.nytimes.com/1981/03/21/us/report-doubts-infant-death-rise-from-three-mile-island-mishap.html, and “Health Studies Find No Cancer Link to TMI,” American Nuclear Society website, www.ans.org/pi/resources/sptopics/tmi/healthstudies.html.

By the Numbers: Yemen and the Arab Spring

2011-06-07T09:07:00.001-04:00

The photo in Monday’s Washington Post of jubilant Yemenis dancing in the streets at the news that President Ali Abdullah Saleh had left the country was dramatically different from the cover photo in the CQ Global Researcher’s May 3 in-depth report on the Arab Spring. Our photo also showed Yemenis in the streets, but they were not celebrating. They were the picture of unmitigated fury as they protested the government’s recent sniper killings of a dozen unarmed protesters. Our report described the underlying causes of the region’s political unrest and the historical context in each country of the different tribal and ethnic roots of the turmoil. As readers of our report learned, the half-dozen Arab leaders being challenged in this year’s uprisings have been in power for a total of 168 years:

No. of years in power for leaders of:

Libya – 42

Syria (Assad family) – 40

Yemen – 33

Egypt – 30

Tunis – 23

More than 13,000 people have been killed this year in the Arab countries with the worst political turmoil, according to media reports and human-rights groups.

Number killed:

Libya – 10,000-plus*

Syria – 1,270-1,546

Yemen – up to 434

Egypt – 846-plus

Tunis – 223

*As of April 19, 2011

--Kathy Koch, Managing Editor, CQ Global Researcher

Weekly Roundup 6/6/2011

2011-06-06T16:13:00.002-04:00

"A Second Look at America’s Economic Reality"
Rachel Martin, All Things Considered, NPR, June 4, 2011

"Average Length of Unemployment at All-Time High"
Catherine Rampell, Economix, NYTimes.com, June 3, 2011

Synopsis: Two downbeat looks at employment and unemployment in the United States follow the government’s monthly job report that shows unemployment ticked up to 9.1 percent in May with a meager 54,000 jobs created. Reuters financial blogger Felix Salmon tells NPR’s Rachel Martin that he cannot foresee the unemployment rate falling below 7 percent. Catherine Rampell, founding editor of The New York Times’ Economix blog, shows that the average length of unemployment – 39 weeks – is now the highest since the government began tracking the figure in 1948.

Takeaway: Despite the downbeat assessments, NPR’s White House correspondent Scott Horsley says not to expect a jobs stimulus from the federal government. “There's really no appetite now in Washington, even among Democrats, for a repeat of that kind of big aggressive government intervention in the economy,” he says.

For background, see these CQ Researcher reports (subscription required): Peter Katel, “Jobs Outlook,” June 4, 2010; Peter Katel, “Vanishing Jobs,” March 13, 2009.

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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“Watching the Murder of an Innocent Man”
Barry Bearak, The New York Times Magazine, June 2, 2011

The Times’ co-bureau chief in South Africa was shown a video of members of a shantytown mob killing a man. Some of the mob members believed that their victim had been part of a criminal gang that had marauded through the settlement, killing two people. Bearak’s exhaustive investigation of the event showed conclusively that the man was innocent. The account of that investigation illuminates not only the horrifying event, but the society in which it occurred. Bearak doesn’t hide his outrage, but doesn’t let it stop him from interviewing two of the mob’s key members to try to understand what impelled them to act as they did. The must-read piece is also a model of journalistic inquiry.

--Peter Katel, Staff Writer

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"The International Education Divide"
John Merrow, Huffington Post, May 26, 2011

Synopsis: A new paper from standards-based-schooling advocate Marc Tucker argues that no country whose K-12 schools are top scorers on international-comparison tests uses any of the “silver bullets” that current U.S. school reformers advocate, such as charter schools, certification of teachers without professional education training or pay for performance. Instead, they focus on drawing their teacher corps from the top ranks of college classes, boosting the status of teaching as a profession and making sure students with the most hurdles to overcome get the best teachers.

Takeaway: “Reporters like me weren't allowed to attend the deliberations” at a May meeting in Washington where the paper was discussed, reports PBS education journalist John Merrow. “But I have been told by several people who were on hand that it was a wake-up call for [Obama Education Secretary Arne] Duncan and his staff to learn that no other country was doing what we are betting on.”

For a related story, see my recent CQ Researcher report, “School Reform,” April 29, 2011.

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

Does decriminalization encourage marijuana use by teens?

2011-06-03T10:42:00.003-04:00

To follow is an excerpt from the CQ Researcher report "Teen Drug Use" by Peter Katel on June 3, 2011.

*********************

Politicians and drug-policy experts have been arguing since the 1970s about whether softening laws against marijuana possession would increase drug consumption by teenagers. Linking decriminalization and rising use seemed plausible because teen consumption was at a record high during the '70s.

However, teen use declined during the 1980s, when the same laws were in effect. And after 1996, when California voters approved what is still the nation's most open-ended medical-marijuana law, researchers found no evidence of increased teenage drug consumption.

The researchers, who run an annual survey of middle and high school students for California's attorney general and the state's departments of Education and Alcohol and Drug Programs, wrote in 2008 that alcohol and drug use rose in the early and mid-1990s but leveled off in 1997. “In 1999, overall prevalence of use … mainly declined, markedly for some of the most commonly used substances,” Gregory Austin and Rodney Skager reported. [Footnote 12]

Since that report was issued, however, California was embroiled in 2009-2010 in an intense debate over legalizing marijuana outright, — and several more states enacted medical-pot or decriminalization measures.

“We have predicted, indeed, that there would be increases in marijuana consumption in surveys because of the significant attention that the potential use of marijuana as a medication has generated in the public,” Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), told a press conference last December at which the most recent MTF results were announced. [Footnote 13]

“We cannot but wonder,” she said, “if the concept of marijuana as medicine could have harmful effects.” And, in fact, “we're seeing a decrease in the number of teenagers perceiving marijuana — regular marijuana use — as harmful.” [Footnote 14]

Yet Beau Kilmer, co-director of the drug-policy research center at RAND, a nonpartisan think tank based in Santa Monica, Calif., says no data confirm that more teens are using pot because they believe that if it's safe for sick people, it must be safe for them. “There is very little research, and none of it is definitive,” he says. “We don't have solid, peer-reviewed evidence to say that that's happening.”

A major reason for the lack of data, Kilmer adds, is that MTF and the National Household Survey don't include questions on where respondents live. That information would allow researchers to examine connections between drug use and, say, the enactment of a medical-marijuana law in some respondents' states, and the absence of such a law where other respondents live.

Like Volkow, many who support prohibition in one form or another concede the absence of hard evidence. But Dr. Andrea Barthwell, an addiction specialist, says her talks with young people back up the thesis that the medical-marijuana boom has led to more consumption. She recalls, “One of the things I heard from kids was, ‘Of course marijuana is safe. It helps sick people; why would it be harmful to me?’” Barthwell, CEO of Two Dreams Outer Banks, a private addiction-recovery center in Corolla, N.C., was a deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in the George W. Bush administration, which took a hard-line anti-marijuana stance.

Now that the medical-marijuana cause has gained greater traction, Barthwell says, advocates have gone further, claiming that marijuana is not associated with domestic violence and traffic fatalities and therefore is safer than alcohol. For teens, she says, the logical conclusion is that pot “is not only helpful but safer than something that's out there and legal.”

Legalization proponents see a strategy at work in attempts to connect marijuana decriminalization with increased teen usage. “The bottom line is always ‘the kids,’” says Marsha Rosenbaum, former San Francisco director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), a national organization advocating decriminalization. “That's why we can't reform our drug policy.”

A medical sociologist and former researcher on heroin addiction and other issues, Rosenbaum argues that teen drug consumption rises and falls for reasons that have little to do with policy developments. But she adds, “Teenagers today have basically grown up in a country where legal medical marijuana has been a reality since they were born, even if not in their state. So of course their views on this substance are going to reflect a kind of growing acceptance that marijuana is not the demon drug it has been portrayed as for decades.”

The Issues:

Does decriminalization encourage marijuana use by teens?
Are anti-drug advertising campaigns effective?
Is “zero tolerance” an effective anti-drug approach?

Click here for more information on the CQ Researcher report on "Teen Drug Use" [subscription required] or purchase the PDF.

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Footnotes

[12] Gregory Austin and Rodney Skager, “Twelfth Biennial Statewide Survey of California Students in Grades 7, 9 and 11, 2007-08,” California Attorney General's Office, Fall 2008, pp. 3, 16, www.adp.ca.gov/Prevention/pdf/CSS_12th_Compendium_Tables.pdf.

[13] “National Institute on Drug Abuse Holds News Conference on Teenage Drug Abuse,” CQ Newsmaker Transcripts, Dec. 14, 2010.

[14] Ibid.