Excerpts From Editorials in the US and Abroad.

Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad:

Aug. 30

The Blade, Toledo, Ohio, on John McCain's running mate:

No sooner had the echoes stilled from Sen. Barack Obama's stirring acceptance speech in Denver ... than Sen. John McCain made a bold move. He picked as his running mate Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, who was not much known outside her home state and represents a maverick's gamble if ever there was one. ...

There's nothing in her paper-thin resume to suggest she knows anything about foreign affairs, which Republicans have hitherto insisted was essential, and the issues that matter to America's great urban centers, given that Alaska is not typical of the rest of the country. ...

Still, there's no denying her political appeal. A mother of five and staunchly anti-abortion, she will bring those wary Christian conservatives into the McCain camp.

... Whether her right-wing views will attract white working-class women who supported Hillary Clinton is debatable. In her introductory speech, she explicitly said: "The women of America aren't finished yet."

On the issues, there is much to dislike about Sarah Palin — and other Clinton, not to mention Obama, supporters will be the first to point that out. But her candidacy is exciting — and excitement can count for a lot in politics.

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On the Net:

http://tinyurl.com/6ofbbr

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Sept. 2

The Ledger, Lakeland, Fla., on taxpayers and the cost of political conventions:

As voters watch the expensive sets and glitz of the national political parties' conventions, they may wonder who's paying for all this. The answer: They are.

Taxpayers are footing a large share of the bill for the conventions, and they shouldn't have to. To begin with, each convention will get more than $16 million in federal money to help pay for convention operations. To make matters worse, Congress voted to appropriate $50 million in Homeland Security funds to pay for security at each convention.

There's really no reason for this expense when money is tight and the federal government operates at a tremendous deficit.

The conventions are no longer a decision-making part of the election process. Nominees have long been set. The Democratic National Convention last week and the Republican National Convention this week are nothing more than political theater. They are scripted campaign commercials on free network television time.

While the federal government is operating in the red, the campaigns are awash in revenue. Both presidential campaigns are raising tens of millions of dollars each month. They and their parties should pay for their conventions. ...

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On the Net:

http://tinyurl.com/67uvpr

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Sept. 2

The Dallas Morning News, on Latinos and Republicans:

Four years ago, Republicans couldn't have imagined being in this situation.

President Bush and other GOP leaders were working hard to reach Latino voters and succeeded, as Mr. Bush received nearly 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in his re-election campaign against John Kerry.

But the brutal, fruitless immigration debates in Congress in 2006 and '07 damaged the GOP brand among Latinos, and Republicans have seen their standing among Latinos go south.

True, some high-profile Hispanics will be on the GOP convention stage this week in St. Paul, Minn. Still, the latest New York Times/CBS News poll shows only 23 percent of Latinos backing Republican nominee John McCain.

Mr. McCain can hardly afford that huge drop-off. He especially can't afford an exodus of Latino Protestants, a key part of Mr. Bush's base. ...

That this dramatic decline appears to be wrapped up in the immigration debate makes the situation an ironic, unfair blow to Mr. McCain. His presidential campaign almost went into the ditch before the first primary votes were counted because conservatives abhorred his courageous stand on immigration reform. Unlike some of the more vocal in his party, Mr. McCain wanted Congress to pass a comprehensive plan that included giving illegal immigrants a chance to earn citizenship over time.

He since has adjusted his stand to say he wants to secure the border first, but he never has backed away from a comprehensive solution. ...

Mr. McCain has a message for Latinos. He should sell it.

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On the Net:

http://www.dallasnews.com

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Sept. 2

Spartanburg (S.C.) Herald-Journal, on unions:

As the nation celebrates Labor Day, the largest unions in the nation are lobbying as hard as they can to pass a bill that would take away the rights of workers to vote on whether they want to form a union.

The bill is misleadingly named the Employee Free Choice Act. It is supported by Democrats in Congress and represents one of their key priorities after the election.

Big unions are disappointed in their record at organizing employees at companies across the nation. They are disheartened by the fact that when these workers are given a chance to vote by secret ballot, they often vote not to unionize.

So unions want to stop those votes. ...

If the unions truly believe they can offer workers a better deal from their employers, why can't they stand up to a fair election and let workers vote on their proposal? Why do they need to abolish the elections?

The answer is obvious. The unions are more interested in growing their numbers and gaining more members — who are forced to pay the dues that give the union bosses their living — than they are in protecting the rights of workers.

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On the Net:

http://www.goupstate.com/section/opinion

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Sept. 2

The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville, Tenn., on the Republican convention and Hurricane Gustav:

When the Republicans were carefully planning their convention months ago, Hurricane Gustav obviously was not on the schedule.

When it became clear the storm could lead to disasters along the Gulf Coast, presumptive GOP nominee John McCain did what he had to do: He ordered opening night activities curtailed.

Certain items of business, such as the adoption of the party platform, had to be approved at the start of the convention. Monday, though, was no time for images of people in funny hats whooping it up — not after some two million of their fellow Americans heeded mandatory evacuation orders and fled the Gulf Coast. Many of those ended up in emergency shelters far from home.

McCain surely is sincere in his wish that reaction to Hurricane Gustav be from an American — not partisan — perspective. Still, it did give Republicans the opportunity to get emergency response right this time in contrast to the terrible mishandling of Hurricane Katrina just three years ago.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama also has put country ahead of politics. He said he would not schedule any immediate trips to the Gulf Coast because security details can draw needed emergency resources away from the job.

It will be weeks and perhaps even months before a comprehensive analysis on the government response to Hurricane Gustav will be completed. But both the presidential candidates easily passed the test in their responses to a storm that no one wanted to see.

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On the Net:

http://tinyurl.com/6hs5cq

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Aug. 29

The Denver Post, on the city of Denver and the Democratic National Convention:

Hosting a national political convention is a risky business. The fundraising, peacekeeping and image-making challenges can make or break a local politician's national reputation.

If the host city and state look good — clean, secure, essentially fun but otherwise uneventful — the local officials look good, too. If things go badly, the troubles become the indelible image for history.

Instead, history will remember Denver for something much more significant: as the city where Democrats nominated the first non-white major-party candidate for president of the United States.

It was clear well before the Democratic National Convention that Denver 2008 would make history in any event. It might have been the city where the first female candidate for president was nominated.

How much better to be remembered for that sort of history than for, say, what happened in Chicago in 1968. The protest group calling itself Recreate 68 insisted it didn't mean it literally, but its chilling name choice fueled a sense of apprehension.

Thank goodness those fears never materialized in any significant way. The convention was comparatively peaceful, allowing delegates and others to go about their history-making work with a sense of security. ...

At least that served to remind the rest of the nation that this convention was being held — and very successfully so — in a part of the country that sometimes is overlooked. ...

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On the Net:

http://www.denverpost.com/editorials/ci_10330677

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Sept. 2

Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, N.Y., on the No Child Left Behind Act:

As it returns from its August recess, Congress must very quickly go back to school. The 2002 No Child Left Behind law, one of President Bush's first initiatives, is due for reauthorization by the end of September.

It needs major repair. But there is an opportunity here to write a better law. For many years, too many, the federal government was a silent partner in public education. NCLB changed that significantly. That's progress that must not be sacrificed.

The NCLB statute has many fault lines, not the least of which is its funding stream. But a federal education standards program that complements New York's own can help, as has occurred in this state, identify problem schools and districts so resources may be guided there.

The goal then is to mend, and there's much to do. ...

Congress can't merely tinker under the hood on this one. The mission of NCLB should remain, but its methods must change.

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On the Net:

http://www.democratandchronicle.com

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Sept. 2

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, on Hurricane Gustav:

... Luck was with those who managed the state and federal emergency response teams over the weekend. What was once feared as a monster storm -- Gustav -- certainly seems at first light to be less than that. Maj. Gen. Don Riley, deputy commanding general of the Army Corps of Engineers, says it's "much too early" to declare a success.

It is clear, however, that emergency managers were better prepared this time. The evacuation of city residents was much smoother and more resources were in position to help after the storm.

Luck was also with the Bush administration. The last thing they wanted was a visual reminder about how much the government bungled the Hurricane Katrina effort three years ago. ...

But there's another story. Somewhere along the line the bureaucracy started to get it right. ...

What's the lesson here? First, that government works best when there's cooperation -- the city, state and federal teams as partners. Second, that expertise and core competencies matter. Important government posts like the FEMA director ought to be assigned to people up to those tasks, not political cronies. Third, the country must invest enough to rebuild the infrastructure.

That's the part of the New Orleans story that remains unfinished. ...

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On the Net:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/377463_STORMED.html

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Sept. 2

Eesti Paevaleht, Tallinn, Estonia, on the EU emergency summit and Russia:

The European Union leaders declared ... that talks on a political and economic agreement between Russia and the EU would be postponed unless Russian troops were pulled back from positions in Georgia.

This is certainly a step ahead of previous statements of core EU nations that merely stressed continuing dialogue with Russia and talked about taking control of the situation as if the occupation of Georgia was some sort bird flu epidemic instead of a tragic human conflict.

Otherwise, the old EU nations have been extremely careful in their words and actions (toward Russia). Pointing to Russia's nuclear arms capability and oil resources, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, for example, has urged (EU) not to seek a major quarrel.

Setting conditions on the partnership deal is a move in right direction, but much more needs to be done. The behavior of many big European nations is reminiscent of the appeasement policies of the 1930s, which called for answering aggression with dialogue and acknowledging spheres of interest.

Instead of solidarity and sticking to common values, the Georgian crisis has repeatedly brought out selfish policies, self protection and economic interests within the EU.

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On the Net:

http://www.epl.ee

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Sept. 3

Dagens Nyheter, Stockholm, Sweden, on McCain and the Republican convention:

Barack Obama ought to have a safe lead in the opinion polls. But John McCain is challenging him and now also seems to draw support from the party's core troops...

The current Republican president is deeply unpopular, many Americans believe the country is heading in the wrong direction, the concern about the future is considerable and dissatisfaction is widespread. But John McCain is very much in the race and could well become the one who moves into the White House.

The reasons are of course many. For example, the personal-centered election system plays a role, there is not the same fatigue over a party's long possession of power as can be seen in Europe. The hole that George W. Bush has dug for his party is simply not as deep as it would have been on the other side of the Atlantic.

But another essential part is the American scale of values, which differs from the European and which means Europeans can be surprised by the fact that a Republican is elected at all.

Hence the Republicans that have gathered in St. Paul can look forward to the election with confidence, despite all the failures of the last eight years.

It is an interesting starting field that they are presenting...

By his side he (McCain) has a young, inexperienced vice presidential candidate whose main task is obviously to mobilize the Christian conservative voters... It is a group the Republicans wouldn't manage without, and it seems like Sarah Palin has managed to tackle the first of the blows expected during the presidential election campaign...

What about McCain? He has long had a reputation for daring to go his own ways and to challenge his own party...

He hardly risks becoming a copy of the current president. But the adjustment reveals the balancing that a candidate, whether he is a Democrat or Republican, has to engage in first to be nominated among his own, and then be elected with the help also of the others.

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On the Net:

http://www.dn.se

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Sept. 3

The Times, London, on Dubai:

Buoyed by the strength of oil prices, the United Arab Emirates is a rapidly advancing actor on the world stage. The sale of Manchester City Football Club to an investment group backed by the Abu Dhabi Royal Family is an indication of the international cultural, as well as economic, significance of the regions wealth. ...

Yet beneath its bright carapace of sunshine, sports and PR, Dubai is not quite what you expect. Michelle Palmer, the British woman on trial at the Dubai Court of First Instance for allegedly having sex on a beach, has smuggled to The Times the first account of her misadventures (see page 5). This bears no relation to the official spin of pretrial accounts. But she has already been sacked from her job, and faces six years in jail.

The most fundamental moral of this episode is to look at earthly paradises through narrowed eyes. Ms Palmers case is not unique. She is among several hundred expatriates who have been arrested for violating "Emirati values". The charges range from indecent standards of dress to alcohol and drug offences.

Modernity takes many forms. Development may easily coexist with conservative norms. Dubai is an emerging force in finance, commerce, sport and tourism. Its juridical standards and cultural mores are part of that phenomenon.

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On the Net:

http://tinyurl.com/5h7ncu

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Sep. 1

Jerusalem Post, on Ramadan:

From Granada in Spain and Aubervilliers in France, to Cairo and Jakarta, more than a billion Muslims are this month marking the "handing down" of the Koran. Through daytime fasting, Ramadan, which this year falls September 1-30, is a time to subjugate the body to the spirit.

The advent of Ramadan, which most Westerners would hardly have noticed a decade ago, now merits coverage in such disparate media as the Dallas News and London's Times. ...

This is also the period when the faithful try to resolve their differences peaceably.

The Pakistani military said it would suspend offensive operations against the Taliban.

As a Ramadan goodwill gesture, Egypt opened the Rafah crossing between Sinai and Gaza. ...

In addition, for this month the opening hours of checkpoints between the West Bank and Israel proper are being extended. ...

To sensitize Israeli soldiers who come into contact with Palestinian Arab civilians during the holiday, the Civil Administration has distributed leaflets explaining the times, dates and customs of Ramadan: "Soldiers (are) directed to show consideration for the population and instructed to avoid eating, drinking and smoking in populated areas, with an emphasis on the crossing points."

Ramadan may be an appropriate time for Muslims to reflect on the challenges of faith and modernity. Much of the bloodletting in the Mideast and other Muslim population centers takes place among believers themselves - between those who appear ascendant, who want to return Islam to its most bellicose and imperialistic path, and those who seek coexistence with the "other."

Only when Muslims who aspire to live in harmony with those who do not share their faith are able to triumph over the fanatics will peace between civilizations become a reality.

For this, we too pray.

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On the Net:

http://tinyurl.com/6avtf3

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