AP News, May 2nd, 2007
Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad:
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April 26
The Norwalk (Ohio) Reflector, on Rep. Dennis Kucinich's presidential bid:
There are many reasons to run for president. Some run to raise their profiles. Some hope to get a cabinet post. Some even want to be president.
Some do it to raise issues and improve the debate. These last deserve our thanks and praise. Sadly front-runners cannot always be relied on to discuss the important issues.
Important issues are often, almost by definition, dangerous issues. Therefore the safe play for any front-runner is to stay away from the big stuff and stick with vague platitudes about how the children are our future. As if anyone would disagree.
Right now, one of these candidates is Rep. Dennis Kucinich, R-Ohio. However, when the distinguished gentleman from the great state of Ohio insists on pulling stunts like calling for the impeachment of Dick Cheney, he is less the conscience of the campaign, and more its sideshow.
We urge Kucinich to mend his ways and use what little time in the limelight he has to better the affairs of this nation.
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On the Net:
http://tinyurl.com/yrx6uc
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April 27
The Goshen News, Ind., on horse slaughter legislation:
In a 277-137 split, U.S. House members voted to bar the Bureau of Land Management from selling off for slaughter wild horses or burros that make Western public lands home. The House action would restore a 1971 law that was voided three years ago. Also, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved a bill that would ban horse slaughter at the national level.
Strict vegetarians may have a leg to stand on in the horse-slaughter debate. Other opponents need to re-evaluate their positions.
Americans tend to view horses as companion animals. Horses also enjoy lofty status thanks to popular culture _ chowing down on a serving of Silver, Trigger or Black Beauty is, to many, an unpleasant culinary prospect.
But horses aren't intrinsically better or more noble than steers, pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks or deer _ in other words, animals routinely eaten with few qualms by the meat-eating multitudes. Nor is killing them for food any more or less wrong.
Legislators are tasked to deal with critical issues. Elevating certain segments of the animal kingdom in the food chain shouldn't be one of them. It doesn't make horse sense.
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On the Net:
http://www.goshennews.com
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April 27
The Rocky Mountain News, Denver, on timetables for withdrawing troops from Iraq:
If the polls are right _ and they probably are _ most Americans agree with Congress that this country should begin withdrawing combat troops from Iraq by Oct. 1 with a goal of removing most of them by next April. But leadership sometimes requires ignoring polls, as President Bush is clearly poised to do.
The president argues that the timetables in the Democrats' war-funding bill, which passed the Senate Thursday and the House earlier in the week, could hamstring prosecution of the Iraq conflict. He's right, and he'll be on equally firm ground to veto the measure. ...
Make no mistake: We're not suggesting Americans should be willing to endure year after year of deadly attrition in Iraq without any sign of an end. ...
No, the point is this: No matter when the decision is made to begin withdrawal, even if it were this October, any timetable should be both flexible and secret. ...
Congress should give Gen. David Petraeus the chance it implicitly promised him when he was confirmed as U.S. commander in Iraq. Bush should quickly make good on his veto threat and the two sides should just as expeditiously come to a compromise, cognizant that the timetable on Iraq that matters most may be the 2008 presidential election.
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On the Net:
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/editorials/
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April 30
South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons asking the rap industry to ban three sexist and racist words:
Don Imus did more than blow up his career and offend black women across America with his three-word assault on the Rutgers women's basketball team. He unwittingly launched an open dialogue, especially among black Americans, on how to address the overabundant use of racist and misogynistic words in popular culture, most notably in rap music.
Last week, the debate yielded some action at the highest levels of the industry when iconic rap mogul Russell Simmons described "bitch," "ho" and the n-word as "extreme curse words" and called on rappers to ban them from their songs.
Granted, the pronouncement isn't going to save the world, and by itself, it won't do much to arrest the free flow of offensive spewings that some believe allowed Imus to think he had license (he didn't) to call star college basketball players "nappy-headed hos."
But any sea change starts when someone of note takes a stand. So coming from the founder of Def Jam Records, the reputed "CEO of rap," the call is both noteworthy and laudatory. ...
Coming just a week after saying artistic expression must be protected against censorship, Simmons is being accused of grandstanding. His motivations, though, likely run far deeper than ego. Rap sales have been in a free fall since 2004, according to the Washington Post, and raising the genre's stature may very well be about self-preservation. ...
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On the Net:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/
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May 1
Star Tribune of Minneapolis, on civil rights:
Check most statistics comparing blacks and whites in America, and you'll find too many African-American boys and men lagging. While the number of black men earning college degrees has quadrupled since the 1960s, the number growing up in disadvantaged circumstances has also grown.
That latter group has led to a "crisis" among young black males that threatens the entire nation, according to the National Urban League's State of Black America 2007 report.
According to the report, African-American men are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as white men. In the work force, black males on average earn only about 75 percent of what their white male counterparts make. Blacks are nearly seven times more likely to go to jail, and their average sentences tend to be 10 months longer. ...
To address these problems, the national civil rights group suggests greater emphasis on approaches we have long supported. Among them are expanded opportunities for early childhood education, more experimentation with all-male schools, longer school days and mentoring and additional second-chance programs for high school dropouts and ex-offenders. ...
The group also places responsibility on black communities and parents. The report says adults must constantly reinforce the value of a good education. ...
To help at-risk black boys and men reach their full productive potential, such efforts merit much more support.
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On the Net:
http://www.startribune.com
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May 1
The Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times, on the census:
The next census won't be until 2010, but already special interests groups are lining up to get their place on the questionnaire which every American household will be asked to complete and return three years from now.
The 2000 census brought complaints about the overly intrusive nature of the long form sent to 19 million households. The 53-question form asked Americans about their socio-economic status, housing costs, indoor plumbing, employment status and how they get to work. It went far beyond the original, and only constitutional requirement for conducting a census every 10 years for the purpose of reapportioning congressional seats.
The long form will no longer be used. Instead, a shorter form will be sent to all households asking about the gender, age, race and ethnicity of all members, their relationship to the head of the household and whether the house is owned or rented. The decision has raised objections from some groups that had come to rely on the economic and social data provided by the long form.
Special interest groups have also used the census to advance their cause and gain political clout when seeking government action or funding. ...
The Census Bureau should resist pressure to expand its 2010 questionnaire. Keep it to the basic information needed to do what the census was intended for.
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On the Net:
http://www.watertowndailytimes.com
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May 1
The Star-Ledger of Newark (N.J.), on pollution:
The amount of pollution spewed in the air has dropped by more than half since the United States began stepping up efforts to fight smog in 1970. Those cuts occurred even as America's population grew 46 percent and the nation's energy and vehicle use rose dramatically.
But the hard-won progress will be choked off if the Bush administration gets its way. ...
A new rule proposed by the EPA last week would produce more dirty air by redefining how power plant smog is measured. The result would be old plants running longer and polluting more, sending more dirty air to New Jersey.
The proposed new rule is a shameless attempt to bypass two recent Supreme Court rulings, one coming just yesterday, rejecting looser air pollution enforcement.
The EPA is trying to sell the new rule by saying it will just make electricity production more efficient, not worsen national air quality. But the agency admits pollution could increase in some places. ...
A glance at the American Lung Association's annual review of air quality, released today, shows the magnitude of the problem. ...
The EPA should look at those numbers, take a deep breath and drop its pro-polluter rule proposal.
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On the Net: http://www.nj.com
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May 1
The Decatur (Ala.) Daily on TVA green power program:
With global warming now a worldwide concern, the federal government should take renewed interest in the Tennessee Valley Authority because of its green power program. ...
Still in its infancy, the Green Power Switch program is selling a record amount of renewable power and may soon reach its capacity again. That's because people in the Tennessee Valley are concerned about global warming, acid rain, rising fuel costs and having enough energy. ...
The program offers power in blocks of 150 kilowatt hours, which is about 12 percent of an average household's monthly usage. The cost is slightly higher than traditionally generated power.
The program is small, generating only 37 megawatts of TVA's 35,000 megawatts. But it is significant because the program is demonstrating to the nation the practicality of green power. ...
TVA was a government experiment in pulling the Tennessee Valley out of a primitive lifestyle while it created jobs and recreation on a scale that few people could imagine when President Franklin Roosevelt signed the legislation during the Great Depression. ...
Hopefully, Congress is watching.
One way each of us can help with cleaning up the environment and stopping global warming is to join the Green Power Switch program.
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On the Net:
http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/opinion/index.shtml
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April 29
Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, on the Japan-U.S. summit:
In his first visit to the United States since taking office, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday met with President George W. Bush. Abe offered an apology to the president about the Japanese military's treatment of wartime "comfort women," and Bush accepted it.
Abe likely sighed in relief. But this exchange is very peculiar. Shouldn't the prime minister be saying sorry to the former comfort women? Abe doesn't exactly have a good track record for making statements sympathetic to the victims. He hardly blinks when criticized at home, yet when things get heated in the United States, he immediately turns around and apologizes. ...
Perhaps Abe's apology worked to cool off the current criticism in the United States. But the bigger problem of how Japan should deal with its own history has not been really resolved.
Abe and Bush emphasized the irreplaceable nature of the Japan-U.S. alliance, and at their joint press conference, both wore matching lapel badges symbolizing it. Such showmanship is fine, but from now on, it is substance that counts.
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On the Net:
http://www.asahi.com/english/
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May 1
Lietuvos Rytas, Vilnius, Lithuania, on the riots in Estonia:
Estonia was always few steps ahead of its Baltic neighbors. In Soviet times, when many Lithuanians used to obey the occupant regime, Estonians disrespected it. They were the first to establish a popular front and declare Estonian laws above Soviet ones...
Estonia is often called a leader among Baltic states, and it proved this again last week when Moscow launched a campaign of hysteria. They have a prime minister who is capable of making decisions during difficult times, and police capable of restoring order even in such extreme situations.
After the riots broke out in Tallinn, Lithuania failed to express support to Estonian people and government. Some Lithuanian politicians even said that Tallinn probably made a mistake by moving the statue.
They probably forget that, in Christian countries, people are buried in cemeteries, not on street squares, where the statue of a Soviet soldier reminded everyone of the occupation and the brutal Soviet regime.
Moscow speaks of respect to those who died in World War II. But what does rioting and looting by a drunken crowd have in common with respect? ...
The riots in Tallinn were provoked and fueled by Moscow. It was an attempt to test the Estonian government and find out how many Russian speaking Estonian citizens can be manipulated from abroad. ...
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On the Net:
http://www.lrytas.lt
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May 2
The Daily Telegraph, London, on the political election in Scotland:
May 3 now seems certain to be a day of reckoning for the United Kingdom.
If the opinion polls are correct, and they have consistently pointed to only one outcome, then Scots will this Thursday elect the SNP as the largest party in the devolved Holyrood Parliament for the first time.
No one should be in any doubt: If the separatists seize power in Edinburgh, the consequences for the Union will be seismic. At that point, the very existence of Britain becomes a matter of negotiation. ...
At this stage, though, let us urge caution: Amid the sound and fury, cool heads are required. Many Scots have decided to support the Nationalists as an alternative devolved government, with the intention of voting against full independence when the option is put to them in a referendum, probably in 2010. This gives the SNP three years in which to wreak constitutional havoc.
Not enough attention has been paid to the party's plan for the first 100 days of an administration. It sets out a clear course of conflict with Westminster: over oil revenues, a replacement for Trident and other sensitive areas. Whatever he may claim, Mr. Salmond's aim is to destroy, not build.
The union between England and Scotland has been the most successful in human history. It remains a precious thing. On Thursday, we urge Scots to vote in support of it.
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On the Net:
http://tinyurl.com/2j8ukd
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May 2
The Hindu, Madras, India, on the evolving automobile industry:
Some significant trends are transforming the passenger car industry worldwide, and India seems to be well placed to take advantage of them. Global car production is expected to double to 110 million units, with some 180 new production facilities to be commissioned soon.
In a sharp break with the past, most of the new factories will roll out basic cars rather than the premium saloons (sedans) that have crowded the roads of the developed countries. That development will turn the economics of the passenger car business on its head. ...
Until recently, sales of small cars formed a minuscule part of the global auto sales. However, environmental concerns and higher fuel prices have contributed to a marked shift in favour of the smaller cars even in the West. ...
But across the industry there has been a thrust on improving cost efficiencies. That is precisely where a truly globalised industry is discovering India. As Carlos Ghosn, the head of Nissan-Renault remarked recently, no automaker planning to go in for inexpensive cars can ignore India's low-cost manufacturing abilities and its frugal manufacturing and management practices.
Currently, around 1.4 million passenger cars are sold annually in India, and the smaller version accounts for a bulk of them. ... The seismic shift towards smaller cars may turn out to be the most significant development since Henry Ford introduced the Model T a hundred years ago.
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On the Net:
http://www.hindu.com/2007/05/02/stories/2007050202911000.htm
