A Conservative for Obama: My party has slipped its moorings. It’s time for a true pragmatist to lead the country. (Wick Allison, D)
In 1964, at the age of 16, I organized the Dallas County Youth for Goldwater. My senior thesis at the University of Texas was on the conservative intellectual revival in America. Twenty years later, I was invited by William F. Buckley Jr. to join the board of National Review. I later became its publisher. [...]Today it is conservatives, not liberals, who talk with alarming bellicosity about making the world “safe for democracy.” It is John McCain who says America’s job is to “defeat evil,” a theological expansion of the nation’s mission that would make George Washington cough out his wooden teeth. [...]
Most important, Obama will be a realist.
CBS Poll: Presidential Race Tightens (CBS News, 10/06/08)
In a sign that the race for president has returned to about where it was before the first presidential debate, the Obama-Biden ticket leads the McCain-Palin ticket 47 percent to 43 percent among registered voters in a new CBS News poll.The Obama-Biden ticket led by a wider margin, nine percentage points, in a CBS News poll released last Wednesday, before Joe Biden and Sarah Palin faced off in the vice presidential debate. Obama-Biden led by five percentage points on Sept. 25.
In the new poll, the Democratic ticket leads by 3 percentage points, 48 percent to 45 percent, among likely voters. [...]
Roughly one in five registered voters have yet to commit to a candidate, though they may lean towards one or the other. [...]
Twenty-four percent of registered voters are "very confident" that the Democratic nominee would make the right decisions on the economy, down five points from before the presidential debate. Forty-one percent are not confident, up from 34 percent.
Fifteen percent are "very confident" in McCain when it comes to the economy, meanwhile, and 44 percent are not confident.
(1) The record viewership for the VP debate suggests an electorate looking for a reason not to vote against the Republican.
(2) The hysteria with which the Obama camp is reacting to mention of his pal, Bill Ayers, would seem to indicate their own internal polling scares them. They must think McCain/Palin can successfully raise doubts about Senator Obama.
(3) Mr. Obama isn't helped by the economy but by the faith that if things get really bad the liberal Democrat is more likely to crank up the Welfare State and take care of you.
Sources: Taliban split with al Qaeda, seek peace (Nic Robertson, 10/06/08, CNN)
Taliban leaders are holding Saudi-brokered talks with the Afghan government to end the country's bloody conflict -- and are severing their ties with al Qaeda, sources close to the historic discussions have told CNN.The militia, which has been intensifying its attacks on the U.S.-led coalition that toppled it from power in 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, has been involved in four days of talks hosted by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, says the source.
The talks -- the first of their kind aimed at resolving the lengthy conflict in Afghanistan -- mark a significant move by the Saudi leadership to take a direct role in Afghanistan, hosting delegates who have until recently been their enemies.
They also mark a sidestepping of key "war on terror" ally Pakistan, frequently accused of not doing enough to tackle militants sheltering on its territory, which has previously been a conduit for talks between the Saudis and Afghanistan.
According to the source, fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar -- high on the U.S. military's most-wanted list -- was not present, but his representatives were keen to stress the reclusive cleric is no longer allied to al Qaeda.
Dear friends and colleagues in the field of education,It seems that the character assassination and slander of Bill Ayers and other people who have known Obama is not about to let up. While an important concern is the dishonesty of this campaign and the slanderous McCarthyism they are using to attack Obama, we also feel an obligation to support our friend and colleague Bill Ayers. Many, many educators have reached out, asking what they could do, seeking a way to weigh in against fear and intimidation. Many of us have been talking and we agree that this one gesture, a joint statement signed by hundreds of hard-working educators, would be a great first step. Such a statement may be distributed through press releases or ads in the future.
Please click on ENDORSE THIS STATEMENT in order to sign the following statement and, just as importantly, FORWARD it to other friends and colleagues who would like to stand up against these attacks. (*Title/Affiliation will be listed for identification purposes only. Please be assured that we have no intention of using your name for any other purpose than beneath the words on this page.)
Thank you!Friends and supporters of Bill Ayers
EDUCATOR STATEMENT [...]
All citizens, but particularly teachers and scholars, are called upon to challenge orthodoxy, dogma, and mindless complacency, to be skeptical of authoritative claims, to interrogate and trouble the given and the taken-for-granted. Without critical dialogue and dissent we would likely be burning witches and enslaving our fellow human beings to this day. The growth of knowledge, insight, and understanding--- the possibility of change--- depends on that kind of effort, and the inevitable clash of ideas that follows should be celebrated and nourished rather than crushed. Teachers have a heavy responsibility, a moral obligation, to organize classrooms as sites of open discussion, free of coercion or intimidation. By all accounts Professor Ayers meets this standard. His classes are fully enrolled, and students welcome the exchange of views that he encourages.
The current characterizations of Professor Ayers---“unrepentant terrorist,” “lunatic leftist”---are unrecognizable to those who know or work with him. It’s true that Professor Ayers participated passionately in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s, as did hundreds of thousands of Americans. His participation in political activity 40 years ago is history; what is most relevant now is his continued engagement in progressive causes, and his exemplary contribution---including publishing 16 books--- to the field of education.
So, I wonder if you could clarify your position here: Should we just forget about Mr. Ayers's terrorist bombings, even though his only regret about them is that he didn't do enough or are these educators somewhat out of touch with American values, which require repentance before forgiveness?
MORE:
Obama dogged by links to 1960s radical (Judy Keen, 8/25/08, USA TODAY)
When Obama was asked about Ayers in an April debate, he said, "the notion that … me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense."After that debate, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley released a statement saying he doesn't condone what Ayers did in the 1960s. "It was a difficult time, but those days are long over," he said.
Ayers and Obama have moved in some of the same circles:
•In 1995, Ayers hosted a brunch for Obama, who was running for the Illinois Senate.
The ad says this meeting launched Obama's political career. Quentin Young, a physician who was there, says it was a typical Hyde Park event and to imply otherwise is "guilt by simultaneously being in the same place."
•In 1997, they were on a juvenile justice panel sponsored by the University of Chicago. They were on a 2002 panel on intellectualism that was co-sponsored by the Chicago Public Library.
•In 1997, the Chicago Tribune published a blurb from Obama about books he was reading. Obama said he was reading Ayers' A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court.
•From 1999-2002, both men were on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago foundation that makes grants to arts and civic groups. Obama left the board in 2002; Ayers remains on it.
Laura Washington, chairwoman of the Woods Fund board, says suggestions of close ties are "an attempt to demonize Bill as a way of damaging Barack Obama."
•Ayers gave $200 to Obama's 2001 state Senate campaign.
No regrets or apologies?
Ayers did not respond to interview requests. Federal charges for crossing state lines to incite riots and conspiracy were dropped because of prosecutorial misconduct. He was in hiding for years after three Weathermen died in 1970 when bombs they were making exploded.
In a New York Times story published by coincidence on Sept. 11, 2001, about his memoirs, Fugitive Days, he said, "I don't regret setting bombs. … I feel we didn't do enough." After that comment was raised in the April debate, Ayers posted his 2001 reply to the New York Times story on his blog. "I said I had a thousand regrets, but no regrets for opposing the war with every ounce of my strength," he wrote.
In March, Ayers wrote on his blog about demands that he apologize for his past: "In some part, apologizing is rejecting."
Ayers is married to Bernardine Dohrn, who was once on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List for inciting a riot and conspiracy. She is an associate law professor at Northwestern University.
Tom Hayden, an anti-war activist who met Ayers in the 1960s and later was elected to the California Legislature, says Ayers' past should be forgiven.
"I have met and like John McCain, but he bombed, and presumably killed, many people in a war I opposed," Hayden says. "If I can set all that aside, I would hope that Americans will accept" that Ayers has changed, too.
Brazil's Lula takes center stage in Latin America: The Brazilian president has emerged as the chief mediator in the region, riding a wave of popularity and galloping economic growth at home and acting as a counterweight to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. (Chris Kraul and Patrick J. Mcdonnell, 10/05/08, Los Angeles Times)
A moderate with an unassailable leftist background, Lula has become the point man for healing regional crises such as the current turmoil in Bolivia and the recent escalation of tensions among Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador.Lula, who survived overlapping corruption scandals, exudes the persona of a level-headed leader who eschews ideology for solutions. The can-do image and the country's economic prosperity have helped win him soaring popularity at home and abroad.
"Lula is the ultimate pragmatist," said former Finance Minister Delfim Netto, an advisor.
The president seems intent on fulfilling Brazil's long-unrealized economic and political potential and making it a recognized world power, starting by asserting its role as South America's preeminent presence.
Lula's skills as a mediator probably will be tested as the region enters a renewed period of uncertainty: the prospect of civil war in Bolivia, a shaky leftist government headed by an ex-bishop in Paraguay, Venezuela's emerging alliances with Russia and Iran, and a new U.S. president to be elected in the midst of a financial crisis that probably will continue sending ripples through the hemisphere.
Lula, who began a second term in 2007, has increasingly asserted his influence as he and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez vie for the hearts and minds of contemporary Latin Americans. Venezuela's arms deals and foreign alliances have played a role in Brazil's decision to bolster its military, analysts say.
"Since the beginning of his second term, Lula began to compete vigorously to counter Chavez's aspirations as a regional leader," noted Julio Burdman, an Argentine political analyst.
But Lula's aims transcend any competition with Chavez, whose nation is much smaller than Brazil. Lula has loftier goals, even pushing for a permanent seat for Brazil on the U.N. Security Council, however unlikely.
Whether he's sloughing off Chavez's strident anti-Americanism or privatizing roads and power plants in Brazil, the former union firebrand who emerged from the assembly lines of Sao Paulo has repeatedly defied stereotypes since taking office in 2003 as the avatar of a new generation of leftist leaders. He has gone from being what some considered a radical bent on imposing socialism to a free-market champion who still funds social programs for the poor.
Lula enjoys a warm relationship with President Bush and was a guest last year at Camp David.
Saif al-Islam el-Qaddafi: Heir to Libya, 36 · Tripoli (Esquire: 75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century, 10/06/08)
The second-oldest son of "Brother Leader" Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi would appear to be out of his mind. Reared by the military dictator who admitted responsibility for the Pan Am flight 103 bombing, Saif al-Islam el-Qaddafi believes democracy can take root in Libya. He once told Al Jazeera, "You have to bring democracy to your countries," referring to the Arab world, adding, "The Arabs should either change or change will be imposed upon them from the outside." With him in power, the Western world, and the U. S. in particular, could get what it theoretically wants in Iraq--the conversion of a large, oil-rich extremist Middle Eastern regime to a peaceful democracy--without the in-between step of a war.He's making progress. In 2004, when Libya dismantled its weapons of mass destruction programs and the U. S. lifted economic sanctions, el-Qaddafi hired the Monitor Group, a consulting firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to help him outline a vision for economic reform that would make Libya--which aims to increase its oil production to three million barrels a day by 2012--a Western-friendly player.
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Why Britain must act now in response to German savings guarantee: First Ireland, then Germany, now Denmark, Sweden and Austria. One by one, each country has taken steps to restore confidence in its embattled banking sector. (James Quinn, 06 Oct 2008, The Guardian)
As British savers see their cousins over the water in Ireland or in continental Europe moving protected, so the Government must move to reassure savers that the future of the British banking sector is assured.The latest plan - to invest taxpayer's money in major banks so boosting their balance sheets so as to allow them to begin lending again - is an interesting one.
Not only does it offer a potential solution to the stagnation in the mortgage market, but it will also be viewed as an indirect guarantee of the British banking sector, one that is increasingly needed.
Iceland suspended trading the shares of six major financial institutions today as ministers worked on a plan to help them survive the global financial meltdown.The stock exchange said that it had decided to temporarily suspend trading in the big three Icelandic banks - Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir - plus three other institutions - Exista, Straumur and SPRON - to protect equality between investors while waiting for a government announcement on its plans.
The Wright Stuff (WILLIAM KRISTOL, 10/06/08, NY Times)
Palin also made clear that she was eager for the McCain-Palin campaign to be more aggressive in helping the American people understand “who the real Barack Obama is.” Part of who Obama is, she said, has to do with his past associations, such as with the former bomber Bill Ayers. Palin had raised the topic of Ayers Saturday on the campaign trail, and she maintained to me that Obama, who’s minimized his relationship with Ayers, “hasn’t been wholly truthful” about this.I pointed out that Obama surely had a closer connection to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright than to Ayers — and so, I asked, if Ayers is a legitimate issue, what about Reverend Wright?
She didn’t hesitate: “To tell you the truth, Bill, I don’t know why that association isn’t discussed more, because those were appalling things that that pastor had said about our great country, and to have sat in the pews for 20 years and listened to that — with, I don’t know, a sense of condoning it, I guess, because he didn’t get up and leave — to me, that does say something about character. But, you know, I guess that would be a John McCain call on whether he wants to bring that up.”
I guess so. And I guess we’ll soon know McCain’s call on whether he wants to bring Wright up — perhaps at his debate with Obama Tuesday night.
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Pakistan, US await militant showdown (Syed Saleem Shahzad, 10/07/08, Asia Times)
The executive director of the Pakistani Center for Research and Security Studies, Dr Farrukh Saleem, has claimed that 12,000 square kilometers of Pakistan have already been lost to the Taliban, and that their march continues. Pakistan has tried to counter the Taliban through military offensives, local pro-government militias and through the secular Awami National Party (ANP), which governs North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), all without success.Last week, on the second day of Eidul Fitr, the Muslim celebration to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan, a suicide attacker tried to kill Asfandyar Wali Khan, the chief of the Pashtun sub-nationalist ANP, at his home about 20 kilometers from the NWFP capital, Peshawar. Four people were killed, but Wali Khan was unhurt.
Although the main target was missed, the attack had the desired effect - Wali Khan, an important American asset, has taken refuge in the capital Islamabad. Wali Khan had been groomed by the US after the September 11, 2001, attacks through many visits to the US, including this year's trip to Central Command headquarters in Florida.
Pakistan is acutely concerned over the situation in NWFP, as well as in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas which comprise seven tribal areas. Much of the tribal areas is already in the control of the Pakistani Taliban and militants; this is now spreading to NWFP. The attack on Wali Khan was followed on Sunday with rockets being fired on the chief minister's NWFP residence.
With Wali Khan in Islamabad, he attended an urgent meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani and army chief Parvez Ashfaq Kiani.
A special National Assembly session has been called this week for in-camera briefings on the "real situation" in NWFP, that is, that it has virtually fallen into the hands of the Taliban and the government has no option but to wage war against the Taliban - and with American help. Zardari also admitted in the press that a string of US Predator drone attacks on the Taliban in Pakistani territory had been approved by Pakistan. Islamabad initially expressed outrage at the incursions into its territory.
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The View From Damascus (Ayman Abdel Nour, 10.05.08, Forbes)
This notable absence in the coverage suggests a regime that does not want it known that anyone would dare challenge the security apparatus. In the minds of Syrians, the Mukhabarat has a legendarily fearsome reputation, instilled through its crackdowns on intellectuals and journalists on the one hand, and on Islamic movements on the other. The government has kept other recent conflicts quiet too--in recent months there have been government raids, resulting in arrests, on farms outside of Syrian cities that were being used to store arms and ammunition.The regime doesn't want the international attention that the appearance of internal strife would bring. And inside the country, it doesn't want to look as though it is following U.S. orders to attack militants. That would just aggravate its tenuous relationship with Syria's various Islamic movements. A leader of one of those groups, Sheikh Abou Al Kakaa of Aleppo, was assassinated last year by an Iraqi who accused him of selling out the mujahideen to the Syrian government.
In a statement Sept. 29, the government's official news agency said that "the terrorist who blew himself up in a car is a member of an organization, many of whose members have been arrested before." There is speculation in Damascus that this is an oblique reference to Shaker Al Absi, leader of the group Fateh Al Islam.
Members of Al Absi's organization have tried to avenge his capture on several occasions. So the government may have intended to suggest that Fateh Al Islam orchestrated the car bomb.
All of these hushed-up incidents are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what could happen in Syria. The number of extremists in the region is growing, both due to the political situation in the greater region--in Iraq and Palestine especially--and the economic situation inside Syria, where citizens grapple with poverty, unemployment, corruption and growing income disparities.
Even as cracks appear, the government wants desperately for things to look under control. Prominent players in the Syrian economy want more peace and prosperity in the region, which would help them expand into cross-border partnerships. It's hard to do business internationally when you come from a pariah nation and your U.S. assets are in danger of being frozen.
Oil prices fall to lowest in eight months (Graeme Wearden, 10/06/08, guardian.co.uk)
Oil fell to its lowest level in eight months today, offering drivers and companies the hope of lower petrol prices in the weeks ahead.The price of a barrel of US crude oil dropped to $89.38 in morning trading, a fall of $4. This followed sharp falls on world stockmarkets, reflecting concerns that demand for energy will drop as the global economy slows.