Digital Piracy 16

AFGHANISTAN...... 2

AFRICA...... 5

CHINA...... 11

DIGITAL PIRACY...... 16

DRUG APPROVAL...... 21

EDUCATION...... 25

EUROPEAN UNION...... 31

FEDERAL JUDICIARY...... 39

FEDERAL RESERVE...... 43

GLOBAL WARMING...... 45

GOOGLE...... 51

HEALTHCARE...... 55

HOMELAND SECURITY...... 61

INDIA...... 67

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION...... 73

IMMIGRATION...... 77

IRAN...... 81

IRAQ...... 85

KASHMIR...... 91

MILITARY RECRUITMENT...... 93

OBESITY...... 97

OIL...... 101

OPEN SOURCE...... 105

RUSSIA...... 109

SPORTS...... 113

THIRD WORLD...... 117

UNITED NATIONS...... 119 AfghanistanAfghanistan

G OL D FOL DE R CR E AT E D : A UGUS T 2008

“We do know, of certain knowledge, that [Bin Laden] is either in Afghanistan or in some other country or dead.” ~ Donald Rumsfeld

Afghanistan has taken a back role to Iraq in the last few years, ceding the headlines to its neighbor in the Middle East. That will change in the next year. Look for Afghanistan to steal back the attention of news analysts as more troops are sent to this Taliban hotspot and fighting intensifies in this war zone.1 Afghanistan is larger than Iraq in terms of both size and population. Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, guests of the Taliban, plotted the September 11 attacks in Afghanistan. And America went to war there in October 2001, with the international community's blessing, to capture or kill those responsible for the attacks. Yet as of late summer, 2008 there are only about 36,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, less than one-third the number stationed in Iraq. According to Lee Hamilton, director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., the costs of our lack of attention have been high of late. In June 2008, a Taliban prison raid freed 1,000 inmates in Kandahar, 400 of whom were Taliban. On July 13, 2008, Taliban forces nearly overran a U.S.-Afghan outpost in the Weygal Valley near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, killing nine and wounding 15 American soldiers. More U.S. troops died in Afghanistan (52) than in Iraq (43) since between May and July, 2008. Suicide bombings increased by 40 percent during the first half of 2008 as compared to 2007. Afghanistan is producing opium -- used to make heroin -- at record levels, supplying 92 percent of the world's total. Narco-trafficking funds the Taliban's insurgency and undermines the Karzai government, which is weak and rife with corruption.2 While Afghanistan continues to slip into chaos, with a sharp increase in Taliban-led attacks on U.S. troops, a booming opium harvest and stalled reconstruction efforts, questions are being raised about President Hamid Karzai's leadership of the troubled country. Karzai, known for his debonair fashion sense, was hailed as the face of Afghanistan's future when he was promoted by the coalition forces that overthrew the Taliban in 2001. In the early days after he decisively won the 2004 presidential election, he was widely praised for his steady leadership during the country's fragile new era. But in the summer of 2008 Karzai came under fire, literally and figuratively. Karzai, who narrowly survived an assassination attempt in April, 2008, has taken the brunt of the blame for not acting forcefully against a resurgent Taliban and for failing to stem endemic corruption in the security forces and reconstruction teams in the desperately poor country. Things have deteriorated so badly that some Afghans say they preferred the rule of the Taliban, which imposed strict Shariah religious law in the country from 1996 to 2001, according to Afghanistan experts.3 Jonathan Evans, director general of Britain's security service MI5 describes al-Qaeda and its associated groups as, "the main national security threat that we face today." Through a series of attacks and attempted attacks, Evans argues Islamist extremists have declared war on the values that underpin the liberal democracies of Britain, Europe, and the entire West. 4 When the North Atlantic Treaty was signed in 1949, NATO's founding members agreed on the sacred Article 5 clause stipulating that "an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all."5 As a collective defensive military alliance, NATO invoked Article 5 following al-Qaeda's 9/11 attacks on the

1 Malcolm Garcia, "Forgotten war in Afghanistan creeps back to the forefront," Kansas City Star, July 26, 2008, http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/721905.html 2 Lee Hamilton, "Terrorism battleground shifts to Afghanistan," Indianapolis Star, July 28, 2008, http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20080728/OPINION12/807280303/1002/OPINION 3 Marcus Baram, "Slipping Back Into Chaos: Karzai's Afghanistan," ABC News, July 15, 2008, http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=5373191 4 Jonathan Evans, "Address to the Society of Editors," Manchester, November 5, 2007, http://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/Page562.html United States. Evans says the Alliance must now follow through on that invocation and continue to deny al- Qaeda a safe haven in which to operate by winning in Afghanistan. With a catalog of successful and thwarted al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on Britain and Europe since 9/11, it is imperative that all NATO members recommit to the mission in Afghanistan. The terrorist attacks on London and Madrid serve as stark reminders of why NATO undertook the Afghanistan mission in the first place. Europe cannot afford to underestimate the incredible momentum that Islamist extremists—at home and abroad—will gain from signs of weakness by the Alliance in Afghanistan.6 So far, our NATO allies' contributions have been disappointing, with national restrictions on the use of their troops precluding participation in the more dangerous, but most crucial, missions. The provisional reconstruction teams (PRTs), which should be relying on civilian expertise and leadership, are increasingly dependent on military staffing. NATO's commander in Europe, US General Bantz John Craddock, has accused alliance member countries of failing to keep their military and aid pledges to Afghanistan. He said NATO member states had agreed as recently as April at the alliance's summit in Bucharest to fulfill previous promises to the strife-torn country. But he said letters and calls from his office had produced few results. Of 73 units pledged to train Afghan security forces, 19 were still lacking and that funding for NATO operations was also coming up short. The Czech Republic, for example, had made helicopters available but the alliance did not have the capability to transport them to Afghanistan.7 Afghanistan is a crucial front in the global struggle against the al-Qaeda terrorist network and Islamic radicalism. According to Lisa Curtis and James Phillips of the Heritage Foundation, the United States-led coalition was unable to transform an overwhelming military victory in 2001 into a stable postwar political situation because of Afghanistan's fractious politics and shattered economic, state, and civil society infrastructures; a minimalist American approach to committing military forces and foreign aid; Pakistan's failure to crack down decisively on Taliban forces that have taken refuge in Pashtun tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border; the Afghan government's failure to expand its authority and deliver services to rural Afghans; and a shortfall of economic aid, due in part to many countries' failure to fulfill their foreign aid pledges to Afghanistan. The U.S. has pledged to increase assistance to Afghanistan significantly over the next two years (about $2 billion for reconstruction and $8.6 billion for security assistance), and in January extended the deployment of 3,200 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. These are steps in the right direction. But to ensure that Afghanistan does not again become a safe haven for terrorism, Americans must wage a long-term integrated political, military, and economic development campaign to convince Afghans that their interests are better served by an inclusive democratic government than by a radical Islamic regime.8 For all its old-fashioned ideas, the Taliban in Afghanistan is waging a dangerously effective information war using the Internet and other modern communications systems to spread their message among tribespeople and the international Muslim community. A new report by Gareth Evans' International Crisis Group says the extraordinary information campaign being waged by the Taliban is driving a dangerous wedge between the Karzai Government, along with its international backers, and the Afghan people. It warns that along with the traditional "shabnamah" — "night letters" in leaflets that usually contain threats and traditional nationalist songs and poems — the Taliban is using the full range of media to tap into strains of Afghan nationalism and to create the impression it is much stronger than it is. Along with the internet, the Taliban was issuing DVDs, tape cassettes and mobile phone messages to create the impression it is a patriotic organization defending Afghan traditions. It also has its own website and statements from its leaders are put out in five languages, with regular updates. The Crisis Group said the information campaign, complete with exaggerated battle reports, was having a big impact on the largely rural and illiterate population.9

5 NATO, "The North Atlantic Treaty," Washington, D.C., April 4, 1949, http://www.nato.int/docu/basictxt/treaty.htm 6 Sally McNamara, "Why NATO Must Win in Afghanistan: A Central Front in the War on Terrorism," The Heritage Foundation, June 23, 2008, http://www.heritage.org/Research/Europe/bg2148.cfm#_ftn1 7 "Countries failing to keep promises to Afghanistan: NATO commander," Agence France Presse, ABC News, July 28, 2008, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/28/2317048.htm 8 Lisa Curtis and James Phillips, "Revitalizing U.S. Efforts in Afghanistan," The Heritage Foundation, October 15, 2007, http://www.heritage.org/Research/MiddleEast/bg2076.cfm Key Terms Taliban Osama bin Laden al-Qaeda Suicide bombing Hamid Karzai Shariah religious law North Atlantic Treaty Provisional Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) Bantz John Craddock Information war

Research Tips Read the CIA World Factbook entry for Afghanistan: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world- factbook/geos/af.html Read a University of Utah report on Politics, Economics and Society in several countries, including Afghanistan: http://web.utah.edu/meca/2007Conf/2007%20MECA-%20Final%20Program.pdf Check out a Physicians for Human Rights report on the treatment of women in Afghanistan: http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/library/documents/reports/talibans-war-on-women.pdf

9 Brendan Nicholson, "Taliban gets results online," The Age, July 28, 2008, http://www.theage.com.au/world/taliban-gets-results-online-20080727-3lph.html AfricaAfrica

“Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must move faster than the lion or it will not survive. Every morning a lion wakes up and it knows it must move faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It doesn't matter if you are the lion or the gazelle, when the sun comes up, you better be moving.” ~ Maurice Greene

In the United States, we simply do not hear very much about the positive developments in Africa. What we see in the news, what we see in the print media, what we see in the broadcast media are typically the bad news stories: the stories about what's going on in Sudan, the stories about people, women, their families being displaced, having to move to refugee camps. Or we hear about problems of fighting in Somalia, which looks very complicated, very confused. Or we hear about the terrible, very serious economic problems in Zimbabwe where the president is literally running the country and his people into the ground. More recently, we've been hearing a little bit about the post-election violence in Kenya.10 Each year, 515 million people contract malaria. As many as 3 million — primarily young children in sub- Saharan Africa — die from it. But the morbidity statistics associated with malaria represent just one segment of the neglected disease spectrum. The overall numbers are even more numbing and difficult to comprehend. Nearly one out of every six people worldwide is affected by a preventable and treatable disease such as malaria, cholera, tuberculosis, river blindness, dengue fever, or human African trypanosomoiasis (sleeping sickness). That fact translates into 1 billion men, women and children around the world who suffer from neglected diseases. More than a million of them die each year due to this neglect, and for too long they have been invisible casualties. Sadly, despite the fact that one billion people are affected by these diseases, less than one percent of the roughly 1,400 drugs registered between 1975 and 1999 treated these diseases. In some cases, the treatments and medications for these diseases exist, but the affected populations face barriers to access. In other cases, the clinical knowledge and research capacity may exist for the creation of new therapies and diagnostic tools, but hurdles remain that halt progress on the research and development that must take place to deliver new therapies to those in need. To overcome these impediments, global health leaders must mobilize non-governmental organizations, humanitarian aid groups and public and private- sector interests to develop innovative policy solutions to bring newer, more effective treatments to patients with neglected diseases.11 Drug companies that create treatments for the malaria epidemic are slashing prices in an effort to get crucial medicines to needy regions. Drug company Novartis has announced a 20 per cent average reduction in the price of its malaria drug Coartem to help access to treatment in the world's poorest regions. Coartem produces cure rates up to 95 percent and Novartis will provide it to the public sector without profit. Novartis says the reduction will increase access to the drug for millions of malaria patients, especially children in low income regions of Africa.12 Largely as a result of Malaria, the child mortality rate in Africa rates well behind UN targets. Less than a quarter of "priority countries" are on track to reach UN goals for reducing high rates of infant and maternal mortality by 2015. While some nations -- notably China -- have made significant progress, far more, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, have either stagnated or lost ground. One of the objectives is to slash the death rate among children under five by two thirds before 2015, using the beginning of the century as a

10 Karol Boudreaux, "African Development: Promise and Peril," The Heritage Foundation, April 8, 2008, http://www.heritage.org/Research/Africa/hl1074.cfm 11 Editorial, "Neglected Diseases," The Washington Times, April 24, 2008, http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/apr/24/neglected-diseases/ 12 "Drug company Novartis cuts price of malaria drug," In The News (UK), April 23, 2008, http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/world/drug-company-novartis-cuts-price-malaria-drug- $1219919.htm benchmark. Another seeks to improve maternal health. Only 16 of these high-risk nations are on track to meet their goals. Twenty-six have made no progress whatsoever, and 12 -- including Cameroon, Botswana, Kenya and South Africa -- have actually slid backwards. The bottom line is that more than 10 million youngsters die before the age of five every year, most from preventable causes. In at least 15 African countries, one out of four or five children never see his or her fifth birthday, according to UN statistics. In the world's richest nations, the corresponding figure is one out of 200 or less. Maternal and child undernutrition account for 20 percent of maternal deaths and 35 percent of under-five deaths. But at the same time nutrition only accounts for eight-to-13 percent of total aid flow. Routinely scheduled immunization and pre-natal care proved more efficient than relying on 24-hour clinical services for emergency care at birth, or care of ill newborn babies and children. Another critical focus is working to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.13 Despite malaria's death toll, HIV/AIDS seems to always get more press. And in Uganda, the current anti- AIDS strategy does not seem to be working. At the fifth National AIDS Conference in Uganda, the keys for moving beyond the past achievements called for going beyond the ABC (Abstinence, Be faithful and Condoms) strategy. The ABC strategy led to the reduction in the HIV prevalence rate from 18% in 1992 to 6.4 % by 2006. However, there is still a long way to go. About 2.5 million Ugandans are HIV-positive and 2.3 million children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. The challenges of ensuring universal access to care and treatment by those affected by the pandemic, responding to the needs of orphans and minimizing the infection rates, call for a multi-dimension approach beyond the ABC strategy. Critics argue that the ABC strategy focuses more on changing sexual behaviors and ignores social-cultural and economic dimensions that put certain categories of people to a higher risk of getting infected. It is premised on assumptions that every person is empowered to make free choices regarding their sexual behaviors. But opponents claim that poverty, gender imbalances, sexual violence and negative cultural practices deny some people a choice to control their sexual behaviors. This partially accounts for the stagnating prevalence rate of 6.4%. The National AIDS Conference concluded that there is need to supplement the ABC strategy with approaches that target contextual and societal issues that dispose vulnerable groups to HIV/AIDS. The strategy should go beyond ABC to DEFG where D stands for fighting discrimination, E for education and information, F for fighting poverty and G for gender sensitivity.14 Only a quarter of HIV-positive pregnant women in poorer countries receive antiretroviral therapy to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, according to a UN report. Nevertheless, the report found that increasing numbers of HIV-positive children and expectant mothers are receiving anti-HIV drugs. The report, which was jointly produced by the World Health Organization, UNAIDS and UNICEF, found that in 2007, an estimated 290,000 children aged under 15 died because of HIV and that 2.1 million children were living with the virus. The HIV epidemic in adults is also having an effect on children, and 12.1 million children in sub-Saharan Africa have had one or both parents die because of HIV. Focusing on low- and middle-income countries, the report details progress in four key areas: the provision of antiretroviral drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, the provision of pediatric anti-HIV treatment, preventing new HIV infections in children and young people, and the protection and support of young people affected by HIV.15 In 2006, just over a third of a million pregnant women with HIV received antiretroviral therapy to prevent HIV transmission to their babies. Although this represents a 60% increase on 2005, it means that only 23% of expectant mothers with HIV are receiving drugs shown to dramatically reduce the risk of HIV transmission to their infant. Nevertheless, 21 countries are now on track to meet the target 80% coverage of treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission. This includes several countries with a high adult HIV prevalence such as Botswana and South Africa. Other encouraging news is evidence of a decline in HIV prevalence amongst

13 "Africa lags far behind UN goal of slashing child mortality," Agence France Presse, April 10, 2008, http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hVIfqgUqND0br08GRqdJMUhGItjA 14 Joshua Lubandi, "Uganda: ABC Strategy Not Enough in HIV Fight," New Vision, April 6, 2008, http://allafrica.com/stories/200804070653.html 15 Michael Carter, "More HIV-positive pregnant women getting antiretrovirals, but still much more to do, says report," AIDS Map, April 3, 2008, http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/AA3D6165-A438-4B59- AC63-DB7AFFB59B8C.asp women attending antenatal clinics. Between 2001 and 2006, prevalence declined in eleven Eastern and Southern African countries.16 A 70% increase was observed in the number of HIV-infected children in poorer countries who received antiretroviral therapy between 2005 and 2006 (127, 300 children up from 75,000). Treatment capacity has expanded in many settings, and advocacy has secured reductions in the price of several drugs. Donors, including PEPFAR, the Global Fund and the Clinton Foundation, have provided funds allowing the purchase of drugs. Another important advance has been the approval of a fixed-dose generic combination antiretroviral pill specifically for pediatric treatment. An estimated 5,400,000 people aged between 15 and 24 are living with HIV and 40% of new HIV infections in 2007 were in this age group. UNICEF figures suggest that, between 2000 and 2006, the proportion of young women with a good knowledge of HIV increased 17 middle- and low-income countries with a high prevalence of HIV. But in only three of these countries were over 50% assessed as having a comprehensive knowledge of HIV. There is also evidence of increasing levels of knowledge of HIV amongst young men. But of the five countries surveyed, in only one, Rwanda, did over 50% have a good knowledge of the virus. The number of children orphaned by HIV in poorer countries continues to increase, and in sub-Saharan Africa an estimated 12.1 million children in 2007 had lost one or both parents to HIV.17 There is evidence that HIV-positive mothers are sometimes unable to care for their children. In some countries of the former Soviet Union, an estimated 10% - 20% of HIV-positive babies are abandoned at birth by their mothers at hospitals and other state institutions. These facilities are often unable to provide the support and facilities required by these children. But 21 countries in sub-Saharan Africa now have action plans for orphans and other vulnerable children.18 The World Bank cautions that higher food and fuel costs, together with poor infrastructure and falling aid levels, threaten to undo several years of strong growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is the season to find means of cushioning the impact of the pain that comes from these rising trends, but it is also a time to stay focused on reforms and embracing transparency, staying with the rules of the game, and understanding that markets are very important for growth. In some farm-rich areas, poor roads and railways hampered farmers' ability to get food to market. The World Bank estimates that Africa needs $22 billion annually in new infrastructure investments to meet its need for better roads, railways and electricity, and an additional $17 billion to $18 billion to maintain existing infrastructure. The continent's economy is growing 5.4 percent annually on average, not yet the threshold pace to produce a decline in poverty. The World Bank warns that any kind of exogenous shocks such as rising food and rising energy prices can potentially derail that trajectory of growth. The World Bank cites a number of current drawbacks to agricultural production, from the aging population of farmers and policy neglect to a lack of technology and water. However, the current food crisis could be an opportunity for Africa. Rising food prices should stimulate supply. In the majority of Africa we see a commitment to reforms that surpasses what was in the past. The private sector is the most important engine of growth, replacing what used to have been government-led growth.19 Robert Zoellick, World Bank president, has urged sovereign wealth funds to invest 1 percent of its approximately $3B in assets in equity in Africa. Zoellick’s advice comes in spite of aid agency concerns that a surfeit of state-owned capital could lead to dangerous economic imbalances on the continent and distract from rich countries’ slipping commitments to increase aid to Africa. The issue of sovereign wealth funds is particularly sensitive given widespread criticism that some lack transparency, and amid China’s already substantial investments in sought-after commodity resources in Africa. Although African economies are 16 Editorial, "Access to antiretroviral treatment in Africa," British Medical Journal, January, 2004, http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/328/7434/241 17 "Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy in Sub-Saharan Africa and North America," Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 296, No. 6, August 9, 2006, ABSTRACT: http://jama.ama- assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/296/6/679 18 Ruth SoRelle, "Treating HIV's youngest victims around the world," Baylor College of Medicine, 2005, http://www.bcm.edu/findings/vol3/is2/05feb_n1.htm 19 Press Release, "Higher Prices Could Undo Africa Growth- World Bank," The World Bank, April 16, 2008, http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,date:2008-04- 16~menuPK:34461~pagePK:34392~piPK:64256810~theSitePK:4607,00.html expected to continue growing by about 6.5 per cent this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warns of a risk that foreign direct investment could weaken amid a global economic slowdown, threatening efforts to overcome poverty. Private capital flows in 2006 overtook official aid as the main source of external finance for sub-Saharan African countries, quadrupling to $48 billion between 2000 and 2006, compared with $40 billion in official aid flows. Private equity and debt flows have grown rapidly and were estimated at about $53 billion in 2007. However, they remain comparatively small and the bulk is currently channeled to South Africa and Nigeria.20 The IMF has said that the world economy will grow much more slowly in the next two years as a result of the credit crunch. In its latest economic forecast, the IMF says that world economic growth will slow to 3.7% in 2008 and 2009, 1.25% lower than growth in 2007. The downturn will be led by the US, which the IMF believes will go into a "mild recession" this year. Growth in the UK will slow sharply to 1.6% in both 2008 and 2009. It said that the UK economy would be affected by a weakening housing market, the contraction of the financial sector, and the impact on UK exports of weaker growth in the US and Europe. Its UK forecast is substantially below the Treasury forecast of around 2% growth this year and 2.5% next year made at the time of the March Budget. The IMF admits that the global downturn might be still more severe than it is currently predicting, and says that there is a one in four chance of a "global recession" when world growth falls below 3%. The world downturn will be led by problems in the US housing market, but the IMF warns that excessive house price inflation in some European countries, including Spain, Ireland and the UK, has made them more vulnerable to a slowdown. House prices have already fallen by around 10% in the US by some measures, and the IMF says that they may be over-valued by more than 20% in the UK, Ireland and Spain. Aid to African countries often does not end up helping the recipients, according to the Heritage Foundation. Sadly, all too often official aid doesn't work very well, and there are a variety of reasons why our traditional approach to giving aid to people in Africa and other parts of the world has not led to the kind of results that people intended. People had all the best intentions when aid efforts got underway, but what we know is that much aid money over the course of the years has gone to do things like support authoritarian leaders who have been able to stay in power despite the protests of their citizens because they've been propped up by aid money. Or we know that aid has provided a source of revenue that people can use for corrupt purposes. If there is a pile of money sitting in a national treasury in Africa, it is almost begging people to engage in corrupt activities to get access to that aid money. Or we know that simply through inefficiencies and other sorts of ill-conceived plans, the aid money doesn't lead to the kind of outcomes that we would have liked. For over 50 years, billions of dollars have been transferred from the Western developed world to Africa, and we still see that despite some good progress, Africa is the poorest continent on the face of the Earth. It is tended to have negative economic growth rates over the past 30 years; many people are still illiterate; there are still serious problems with health; there are still serious problems with dealing with disease in Africa.21 Despite this fact, the G8 is pledging additional aid moneys to Africa. The Group of Eight rich nations vowed to step up cooperation with emerging donors such as China and India and said they remained committed to a goal to double their own aid to Africa by 2010. The G8 agreed on the need for "concrete cooperation with emerging donors," Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura told a news conference wrapping during the G8’s last meeting. G8 nations hope to see more transparency in aid policies by new donors along with efforts to encourage good governance, sustainability of aid and consideration for democratization. China has made major diplomatic and economic inroads in mostly resource-rich nations in Africa and Latin America by giving aid without imposing any conditions. A report published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development showed that aid to developing countries fell in 2008 and most donors are falling behind on their pledges to boost assistance. The G8 -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- expressed concern at the decline and vowed to strive to fulfill their pledge made in 2005 to double aid for Africa by 2010.22

20 Chris Bryant, "African Super-Fund suggested by World Bank," The Financial Times (UK), April 14, 2008, http://en.afrik.com/article13189.html 21 Ibid at 207. 22 Shenichi Takeuchi, "G8 to double aid to Africa by 2010," Agence France Presse, April 6, 2008, http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jQJe_YkkTPk9Wq_bvKUfnl0dnwjg The G8 may make overtures of increasing aid, but not all of its members have shown a willingness to follow through. International aid groups named Canada as a laggard on development aid for Africa and accused Stephen Harper's government of trying to water down a G8 statement on support for healthcare in the world's poorest continent. As the 2008 G8 summit opened in Tokyo, Japan, aid groups Oxfam and One said that Canada's own 2005 promise to double aid to Africa was small compared to other countries in the Group of Eight, placing it in a group of laggards with Italy, France and Japan. They also said Canada is trying to water down a draft communiqué on supporting health measures, backed by U.S. President George W. Bush – so that instead of G8 leaders saying they will "commit" to the measures, they would only acknowledge that health experts recommend them. Harsh words for Canada's commitment; time will tell if the maple leaf will change its ways.23 Although it is not a G8 member, India is trying to get more of an international voice and sees aid to Africa as a mantle of First-World legitimacy. India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says the country will invest heavily in development projects in Africa to bolster economic ties. He was speaking in the Indian capital, Delhi, at the first summit aimed at strengthening trade and diplomatic ties between India and Africa. Mr. Singh said India would provide more than $500M for projects in Africa. Correspondents say India is increasingly interested in Africa, as it looks for new sources of energy. India is also said to be trying to counter the influence of China, which is building ties with African countries that are traditionally close to India. India will also give easier access for exports from the world's poorest countries, many of which are in Africa.24 The future of Africa's development lies in the hands of private investors. Private capital investment in Africa now exceeds the region's level of official development assistance and that is transforming the African development process, a senior U.S. Treasury official told the seventh annual African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum. Investment flows to Africa have been increasing at a notable rate. This growth is attributed to better macroeconomic policies, high commodity prices, and a renewed interest by investors seeking opportunity on the continent. Private capital flows to the region have increased from just $11 billion in 2000 to $53 billion in 2007 - almost five-fold over seven years. As investors expand their horizons, more and more countries in Africa are being transformed by the flow of private capital. Ghana is another country that is now making great development strides with the use of private capital. The country issued an external bond in September 2007. This was the first such issuance by a sub-Saharan African country outside South Africa in nearly 30 years. The $750 million, 10-year bond was four times oversubscribed and continues to trade well. Gabon issued its own Eurobond in December 2007, and other countries, including Kenya, are developing bond initiatives to help finance infrastructure development.25 There certainly seem to be reasons for encouragement regarding sub-Saharan Africa. Disease, poor infrastructure and weak economies continue to hold the continent back, but improvements are being made. As first world nations commit to more humanitarian assistance, private industry begins to see a reason to invest in Africa and as the AIDS and malaria epidemics are corralled, look for more growth and the relocation of industry to Africa. Key Terms Malaria Sub-Saharan Africa Non-governmental organization Humanitarian aid group Novartis

23 Campbell Clark, "Canada a laggard on African aid: groups," Globe and Mail, July 7, 2008, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080707.wafrica_aid0707/BNStory/Internati onal/home?cid=al_gam_mostemail 24 "India pledges African investment," BBC, April 8, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7335882.stm 25 Charles W. Corey, "Private Investment Is Transforming African Development," News Blaze, July 19, 2008, http://newsblaze.com/story/20080719111801tsop.nb/topstory.html Child mortality rate Benchmark Undernutrition HIV/AIDS ABC Strategy Antiretroviral therapy World Health Organization UNAIDS UNICEF Antenatal clinics World Bank Infrastructure Exogenous shocks Robert Zoellick International Monetary Fund Private capital flows Credit crunch Recession Negative economic Growth Rate Group of Eight Masahiko Komura Sustainability Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Oxfam First-World Manmohan Singh Private capital investment External bond Oversubscribed Research Tips Read a very informative round table from the Heritage Foundation on this subject here: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Africa/upload/hl_1074.pdf Read the World Bank's economic report for in-depth analysis of African growth prospects: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/09_04_08_imf_full.pdf Check out the Wikipedia entry on the Group of Eight: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G8 Read about what UNAIDS is doing to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic here: http://www.unaids.org/en/ 6 ChinaChina

“ There are a billion people in China. It's not easy to be an individual in a crowd of more than a billion people. Think of it. More than a BILLION people. That means even if you're a one-in-a-million type of guy, there are still a thousand guys exactly like you.” ~ A. Whitney Brown

China is coming to its own as a world superpower. The country, once an impoverished expanse with a largely rusticated population is urbanizing and gaining a global foothold economically. With that new dominance come responsibilities and expectations that the newly minted power sometimes struggles to undertake. China is now the world leader in carbon dioxide emissions. According to a study by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, China produces 6,200 million tons, the U.S. 5,800 million tons, and Britain 600 million tons of CO2 annually.26 Despite breathless media reports about the World Bank revising downward its estimate for the size of China's economy, what the figures really show is that China has indeed overtaken the United States in manufacturing output. China has been the world's leading producer of steel, copper, aluminum, cement, and coal for several years. As a consumer, China surpassed Japan as the globe's second largest importer of petroleum in 2005. In 2006, China surpassed Japan as the world's No. 2 auto market, with total sales of 7.2 million vehicles and production of 7.3 million. In 2007, China also became the world's top producer of merchant ships. Now that China's manufacturing sector has nosed past the United States, America's political leaders must begin to contemplate what China's economy will look like in another five years, says John J. Tkacik Jr., a senior research fellow in the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation. It will likely be half-again bigger than America's industrial sector, giving China the capacity to assemble the building blocks of a military superpower.27 But Tkacik does not think that China's boom is necessarily bad news for the United States. But it does mean that Washington can no longer condescend to China as a "developing" nation in need of U.S. tax dollars for programs relating to energy, environment, and the like. China has ample money and resources to pay for these programs by itself. It also has the potential to build a superpower military. The Central Intelligence Agency suggests that China spends 4.3 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on arms. Therein lies the real downside of China's economic boom.28 The rapidly rising U.S. trade deficit with China is quickly becoming a political issue. Many members of Congress are warning that China needs to take action, such as raising its exchange rate, to deal with this problem before it leads to protectionist legislation. According to Bruce Bartlett, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis, however, a closer examination of the Chinese trade problem, suggests that there is less here than meets the eye. In a very short time, Chinese goods have become the largest component of America’s trade deficit. From virtually nothing in the 1980s, our trade deficit with China jumped to $103 billion in 2002. We exported just $22 billion worth of goods to China while importing $125 billion. By contrast, our trade deficit with Japan last year was 30 percent lower than that with China. It is important to put these numbers in perspective. Although China represented 22 percent of the U.S. trade deficit last year, that is down from 27.5 percent in 1997. Also, China runs a net trade deficit with the rest of the world. In 2001, China’s total surplus was $33 billion while its surplus with the U.S. was $83 billion. Among those countries running surpluses with China are Taiwan ($25 billion) and Korea ($11 billion). This 26 "China Surpasses US As Top CO2 Emitter," National Center for Policy Analysis, June 21, 2007, http://eteam.ncpa.org/news/china-surpasses-us-as-top-co2-emitter 27 John J. Tkacik Jr., "China's Superpower Economy," Heritage Foundation, WebMemo No. 1762, December 28, 2007, http://www.heritage.org/Research/AsiaandthePacific/wm1762.cfm 28 CIA World Factbook, China, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world- factbook/geos/ch.html suggests that China is not running a trade policy aimed at subsidizing exports or keeping out imports, otherwise it would be running a surplus with everyone.29 A recent Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland study concluded that China has the largest surplus of any country in its bilateral trade with the United States, not because its market is closed, but largely because it has emerged as a major global production base for labor-intensive manufactured goods. The study goes on to note that most of our imports from China have not displaced domestic manufacturing, but rather displaced imports from other Asian countries. For example, it notes that our imports of footwear from China previously came from Taiwan and Korea, and many of the toys and games we import from China were imported from Hong Kong in the past.30 Further evidence that Chinese goods are not replacing domestic production comes from the foreign direct investment (FDI) data published by the Commerce Department. The latest figures published in the July Survey of Current Business, show that China is far from the magnet for U.S. investment that many imagine it to be. At the end of 2002, U.S. companies had just $10.3 billion invested in China, a decline of $1 billion over the year before. By contrast, American companies had $255 billion invested in Britain, $152 billion in Canada, and $145 billion in the Netherlands. Looking just at foreign direct investment in 2002, 55 percent went to Europe, only 26 percent to all of Asia.31 China is heavily investing in technology and human capital and it is quickly outstripping the developed world in professional engineers. In the mid-1980s, the United States produced some 80,000 new engineers, while China produced only 70,000. In 2004, China graduated over 200,000 engineers -- equal to the output of the United States, Germany and Japan combined. In the 1990s, three of four mainland Chinese graduates of Stanford University remained in the Bay Area -- now that ratio is reversed. It is estimated that information technology's share of China's economy will reach 7 percent of GDP by 2010 and create 20 million jobs. To facilitate this, China created 53 technology parks (business clusters that are home to knowledge-intensive industries) to convert its scientific abilities into industrial muscle. In the past, the norm was to evaluate management performance according to how well state-owned enterprises met centrally-planned output. Consequently, the nuances of market-oriented management strategies are still alien concepts in China. The Shanghai Education Commission estimates that China needs some 40,000 new MBA graduates per year, but only 10,000 such students are currently enrolled at recognized business schools.32 This economic development is pressuring China toward capitalist reforms. China has one of the highest investment rates in the world -- over 40 percent of its GDP in recent years - which could be helping to keep the country's return to capital low. The real rate of return to capital in China was around 25 percent during the period of 1978-93. It fell during 1993-98 and has fluctuated around 20 percent since 1998. When adjusted to include inventory, exclude all taxes on businesses and exclude the residential housing sector, the estimated real return to capital in China since 1978 has fluctuated between 8 percent and 12 percent and rose to new highs in recent years. In both estimates, the aggregate real return to capital in China does not appear to be low by comparison with other economies.33 Why have China's high investment rates not reduced returns to capital? A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that output growth driven by growth in total factor productivity appears to have been quite rapid. Therefore, the capital-output ratio does not appear to have risen by much, despite the

29 Bruce Bartlett, "Trade Deficits With China," National Center for Policy Analysis, September 2, 2003, http://www.ncpa.org/edo/bb/2003/bb090203.html 30 Patrick Higgins and Owen Humpage, "The Chinese Renminbi: What's Real, What's Not," Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Economic Commentary, August 15, 2005, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5294/is_200508/ai_n24305027 31 "International Data," Survey of Current Business, Bureau of Economic Analysis, July, 2008, http://www.bea.gov/scb/#data_international 32 Rob Koepp, "Institute View: China on the Brink," Milken Institute Review, Milken Institute, December 2004, http://direct.bl.uk/bld/PlaceOrder.do? UIN=159639226&ETOC=RN&from=searchengine 33 Les Picker, "The Return to Capital in China," National Bureau of Economic Research, July 2007, http://www.nber.org/digest/jul07/w12755.html high investment rate. Additionally the capital share of aggregate income has increased steadily in China since 1998, precisely the period that witnessed a significant increase in the investment rate. One explanation might be that a gradual restructuring of China's industrial sector has moved it toward more capital-intensive industries, requiring higher aggregate investment rates in the steady state.34 Many charge that China's rapid rise in the foreign exchange reserve is a consequence of its mercantilist policy, exporting like mad by relying on a deliberately undervalued currency, cheap labor, and foreign investors, particularly from the United States. A paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research argues that this is not the case. The authors argue that the focus on an undervalued currency is off the mark. During the 1980s and 1990s, China's currency was more likely to be overvalued than undervalued. As recently as 1997 and 1998, China chose not to devalue its currency even though such a move would have aided exports. Most of China's FDI is not coming from the United States or nations with a current account deficit with China. The main contributors of China's FDI come from advanced Asian economies such as Japan, Korea and Singapore. Europe and the United States combined account for only about 30 percent of China's FDI at most.35 While foreign investors appear smitten with China, it seems that this infatuation has not lessened their affection for many other developing countries, contrary to conventional wisdom. Researchers Barry Eichengreen and Hui Tong say that China's alluring qualities may be making certain other nations, particularly China's Asian neighbors, more attractive than ever. Indeed, the growing FDI in China encourages greater investment in other countries, to the extent that they are part of the same interconnected global production network, say the authors. They find that this complementary relationship is particularly evident in Asia, where China's economic explosion seems to be driving investors to support a regional supply chain for feeding China's burgeoning and varied enterprises. For example, the authors observed that in order "to reap the full benefits of building assembly plants in China, firms may also need to invest in component production" -- such as electronic components used in Chinese manufacturing plants -- "in Singapore or Malaysia." Eichengreen and Tong point out that the positive effects of China's expansion may also extend beyond Asia as other developing nations take advantage of the China boom.36 With its firmer economic foothold, China has been empowered to position itself against the United States on occasional foreign policy matters. U.S. President George Bush said he was "displeased" with Russia and China for blocking UN sanctions against Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe after Moscow and Beijing vetoed a US-sponsored draft at the UN Security Council that called for an assets freeze and a travel ban on President Mugabe and 13 of his associates as well as an arms embargo. Jendayi Frazer, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's Africa envoy, told senators that China may have won African support with economic aid but was also perceived as enabling authoritarian government in Zimbabwe.37 The Zimbabwe Independent finds China's role in Africa's politics "appalling." In an opinion editorial, the regional paper noted that while China played a critical role in supporting African decolonization struggles, its current laissez-faire policy in Africa’s post-independence struggles for democracy raises more questions than answers about the country’s moral and ethical commitment to Africa’s sustainable socio-economic and political development. For example, regardless of Zimbabwe’s international isolation due to its human rights abuses, China continues to be Zimbabwe’s biggest investor strategically positioning itself to exploit the 34 Chong-En Bai, Chang-Tai Hsieh and Yingyi Qian, " The Return to Capital in China," National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper #12755, December 2006, elsa.berkeley.edu/~yqian/return%20to%20capital%20in%20china.pdf 35 Mathew Davis, "Is China Mercantilist?" NBER Digest, December 2005; based upon: Eswar Prasad and Shang-Jin Wei, "The Chinese Approach to Capital Inflows: Patterns and Possible Explanations," National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper No. 11306, May 2005, http://www.nber.org/digest/dec05/w11306.html 36 Matthew Davis, "Foreign Investment in China," NBER Digest, October 2005; based upon: Barry Eichengreen and Hui Tong, "Is China's FDI Coming at the Expense of Other Countries?" National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper No. 11335, May 2005, http://papers.nber.org/digest/oct05/w11335.html 37 "US 'displeased' with China, Russia over Zimbabwe," Agence France Presse, July 16, 2008, http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gYbmjjdvlb9vTvlFnqKAd-RnICVQ country's valuable natural resources to develop its ever burgeoning economy at the expense of the basic freedoms and entitlements of the ordinary citizens of Zimbabwe. In the midst of a what others have dubbed a genocide in Darfur, China continues to be not only the biggest importer of Sudan’s oil (importing about 80% of the precious liquid), but also to illegally deliver weapons that include ammunition, tanks, helicopters and fighter aircraft that, according to the UN, the Arab government has allegedly used to bomb and massacre poor and defenseless people living in grass huts. The Independent continues by saying that as long as Chinese state companies continue to harvest profits in Harare and Khartoum and sell their shares on the New York and London stock markets, then the fight for democracy by the ordinary people in Zimbabwe and other countries like Sudan continues to be peripheral to China. The Independent concludes that given this uncritical and immoral stance on the violation of human rights by China, perhaps the time has come for Zimbabweans and all conscientious Africans to see China as part of the problem that calls for political action in their legitimate quests for democracy on the continent.38 The United States can no longer push China around. Our trade deficit, reduced military superiority and the number of technology-knowledgeable students produced by China all give Beijing more sway at international forums like the Security Council and the World Trade Organization. Expect the United States to do more to appease our Asian neighbor, especially when that country's interests are in the balance. Key Terms Urbanization Carbon dioxide emissions World Bank manufacturing output Gross Domestic Product Exchange rate Trade deficit Trade surplus Export subsidy Foreign direct investment (FDI) Human capital Information technology Technology park MBA Returns to capital Factor productivity Capital-output ratio Investment rate Aggregate income Capital intensive Steady state Mercantilist policy Undervalued currency Assembly plants Sanctions

38 Last Moyo, "China's Role in African Politics Appalling," Zimbabwe Independent, July 17, 2008, http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/index.php? option=com_content&view=article&id=20751:chinas-role-in-african-politics-appalling- &catid=45:opinion-&Itemid=64 Robert Mugabe UN Security Council Condoleezza Rice Laissez-faire policy Research Tips Check out the CIA World Factbook's entry for China: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world- factbook/geos/ch.html The Heritage Foundation has an excellent page of content about China, complete with policy analysis and research. You can access it here: http://www.heritage.org/Research/AsiaandthePacific/china-taiwan.cfm DigitalDigital PiracyPiracy

"I'm rich, so sure it's OK to steal my music. Oh, and while you're at it, steal everything. Steal an iPod, Steve Jobs is a billionaire, he'll never miss it. Get yourself a Toyota, they're foreign." ~ Kid Rock

You would never steal a car or hold up a convenience store, but the odds are pretty good that you have stolen music or film from an artist. Digital piracy is an almost untraceable crime against a victim who lives thousands of miles away, you will never meet and whose public persona you may find despicable. The crime is not victimless – recording artists, actors, movie studios and producers are all footing the bill for your extravagance or, as the case may be, miserliness – but the victim is in a different social class which mitigates feelings of guilt. If you like the public persona of the artist you robbed, you may "atone" for your offense by buying the CD, a post facto apologetic act that puts but a dent in the free-falling revenue of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Let us take a closer look at this intriguing issue. Here's a scary sign of the times: Nearly a third of youths ages 9 to 14 may be accomplices in an ongoing multibillion-dollar Internet music heist. I am going to rephrase that, because most of you were still thinking about holding up a convenience store: 26 percent of tweens are downloading music illegally. Not young adults or older teenagers, these are people who were born during the 1990s! They are tapping into free file- sharing programs like LimeWire, which operate as a so-called peer-to-peer network. This "P2P" technology, which allows users to download or upload music, videos and other media, has been at the center of often- confusing copyright battles in recent years. It has resulted in high-profile lawsuits by the recording industry aimed at everyone from sixth-graders to college students.39 Young pirates are not the exception. They are the biggest offenders! According to a UK study published by American software giant Microsoft Corp, kids between the ages of 11 and 16 are the country’s worst offenders when it comes to illegally downloading potentially dangerous files from Internet P2P services. The "Real Thing" survey, which sampled 270 children and 1,200 adults (16 and older), revealed that a whopping 54 percent of kids aged between 11 and 16 frequent file-sharing Web destinations, compared to only around 15 percent of adults. Redmond-based Microsoft’s study into online piracy and the purchasing of counterfeit products also found that approximately 61 percent of children have knowingly bought illegal goods through online stores or auction sites. What’s more, around 25 percent of those children said they would be willing to continue purchasing illegal items from the Internet despite being aware that it was wrong. An additional 60 percent claimed their downloads or purchases were prompted due to authentic and legal products such as software, music and film being overly expensive. Conversely, while over a third of the adult participants in the survey did admit to having bought fake online products (including everything from sports jerseys and designer bags to music and computer software), 43 percent of them saw the purchase of counterfeit goods as bordering on theft and would never knowingly repeat their actions.40 So how bad is the piracy problem? The scale of the problem was uncovered by a recent survey conducted by the University of Hertfordshire that left the music industry surprised. On average every iPod or MP3 digital

39 "Use Illegal Music Downloading To Give Kids A Lesson On Ethics," The Tampa Bay Tribune, February 24, 2008, http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/feb/24/bz-use-illegal-music-downloading-to- give-kids-a-le/ 40 Steve Smith, "Microsoft piracy report slams download-crazy kids," The Tech Herald, July 16, 2008, http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200829/1505/Microsoft-piracy-report-slams-download- crazy-kids music player contained over 800 illegally copied songs.41 In an attempt to channel parental awareness and help curb the user dangers connected with illegal downloads and the purchase of fake online software, software makers warn that the volume of malware detected across the internet increased 253% in 2007. They also point out that 2007 was the worst year for data breaches, with 125 million personal financial records compromised. Virus infested pirated software could very well be a root cause of this malware spread.42 Airports are joining in the enforcement efforts. IPods, mobile phones and laptops could be examined by airport customs officials for illegal downloads under strict new counterfeiting measures being considered by G8 governments. The measures form part of an international agreement aimed at stamping out piracy and they coincide with plans by the European Parliament for Internet Service Providers to be held liable if their users download illegal content, and in extreme cases, forced to disconnect people who are doing so.43 A more traditional, and thus more likely, enforcement reform is a crack down on Internet service providers (ISPs). The UK government is repeating its threat to introduce laws to force ISPs to control illegal music and film sharing. Malcolm Wicks, a business, enterprise and regulatory reform minister told members of Parliament that he thought a voluntary agreement would not work. He called them "too ambitious " but said the Government would continue to have meetings with ISPs, intellectual property holders and consumer groups about the issue. This rule would bar internet access to anyone who persisted in illegally downloading music or films. The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) was unable to say if such a draconian measure would be implemented. A representative for the ISP trade body said: "Whilst ISPA recognizes the need to combat online copyright infringement, our belief is that the future lies in creating business models that will form mutually beneficial partnerships between ISPs and right holders."44 For several years, pirates were able to resist the legal efforts of the RIAA to enforce copyright laws and bring file uploaders (the demographic that is specifically targeted by piracy law) to justice. It was not until the summer of 2008, that a jury verdict against a pirate was finally found. The defendant in the case, 21-year-old Mark Shumaker, faces a maximum prison sentence of five years and a maximum fine of $250,000, but had not been sentenced when Gold Book went to press. "For the first time ever, a criminal online music piracy case went to trial, and the jury rendered a swift and unanimous verdict," said Brad Buckles, executive vice president for the RIAA. "The crimes committed here -- as well as the harm to the music community -- are severe, and so are the consequences. We congratulate and thank the U.S. Attorney's office for its work on this case."45 The dearth of successes have not discouraged the RIAA from filing more than 26,000 suits against potential pirates. Minneapolis attorney Brian Toder, who represented one alleged pirate in Federal District Court, argued the RIAA is trying to bully decent citizens. He said that "[t]he plaintiffs are gang members calling themselves the RIAA, whose campaign is solely one of revenge, extorting millions of dollars from thousands of families demanding that they should be able to do this without having to prove liability, because they claim that it is so difficult to prove. They try to accomplish this repulsive goal by arguing that the courts should add language to the Copyright Act that Congress never intended." While Mr. Toder’s comments are probably simply carrying on the courtroom argument, he does make an interesting point. The RIAA is a

41 Dan Sabbaugh, "Average teenager's iPod has 800 illegal music tracks," Times Online (London), June 16, 2008, http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/personal_tech/article4144585.ece 42 Barry Collins, "Microsoft: kids are prolific pirates," PC Pro (UK), http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/212508/microsoft-kids-are-prolific-pirates.html 43 Aislinn Simpson, "Airport scans for illegal downloads on iPods, mobile phones and laptops," Telegraph (London), October 7, 2008, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml? xml=/connected/2008/07/10/nairport110.xml 44 Andrea-Marie Vassou, "ISPs may be forced to regulate illegal music and film downloads," Computer Interactive, June 26, 2008, http://www.computeractive.co.uk/computeractive/news/2219817/isps- forced-regulate-illegal 45 Sara Smith, "Feds Win Jury Verdict For Illegal Music Downloads," NewsOXY, July 16, 2008, http://www.newsoxy.com/riaa/feds_win_jury_verdict_for_illegal_music_downloads/article10918.html powerful organization, backed by millionaire recording executives and artists. When it turns its guns on a starving college student, how much power does the defendant have to demonstrate his case?46 Given the historical ineffectiveness of conventional legal solutions and the U.S. Copyright Office, many content creators are trying to warn off potential pirates on their own. Virgin Media stepped up its campaign to combat music piracy by issuing letters to around 800 customers warning them against downloading illegal music files via file-sharing sites. British Phonographic Industry (BPI) teamed up with Virgin Mediato launch an "education campaign" to stop customers illegally downloading music. As part of the campaign, customers whose accounts have been used to distribute music in breach of copyright will receive two "informative" letters -- one from the (ISP) and one from the BPI. The letters include advice on "how to prevent account misuse," "avoid the risk of legal action," and warn customers that peer to peer networks carry "increased threats from viruses and spyware."47 The pirates are having an impact. The global music agency known by the antiquated name "International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI)" has come out with what it says are some depressing numbers for worldwide music sales for 2007 and is using the new figures to lobby for legislation that would force Internet service providers to nab illegal music downloaders. The agency said sales of music last year fell to their lowest level since 1985. That year, total sales of recorded music hit 1.8 billion units (i.e., albums). In 2007, the IFPI says, the equivalent of 1.86 billion units were sold, down from the previous year's 2.09 billion (that figure includes paid downloads, with 10 downloads equivalent to one album). The IFPI blames rampant file swapping for the decline in sales The group mentions the rise of paid downloads - which climbed by almost 35 per cent - but it seems like an afterthought.48 Not everyone is convinced that illegal activity is to blame for the decline in sales. A study commissioned by the Canadian government ministry Industry Canada found that, contrary to the music industry’s assertions, P2P file-sharing does not have a negative affect on the legal purchasing of music. The study concluded that there was "no direct evidence to suggest that the net effect of P2P file-sharing on CD purchasing is either positive or negative." However, it found "a strong positive relationship between P2P file-sharing and CD purchasing" among the subgroup of P2P file-sharers. Specifically, "among Canadians actually engaged in it, P2P file-sharing increases CD purchasing." The study estimates that for every 12 P2P-downloaded songs, music purchases by P2P downloaders increase by 0.44 CDs: "That is, downloading the equivalent of approximately one CD increases purchasing by about half of a CD." As for a relationship between P2P downloading and the purchase of electronically delivered tracks, such as via iTunes, "We are unable to find evidence of any relationship between P2P file-sharing and purchases of electronically-delivered music tracks."49 Anything digital can be placed online and stolen by billions the world over. Anything. Just as illegal music downloading began years ago, so has illegal textbook downloading. You knew it was coming. One Web site that provides this "service" is the aptly named Textbook Torrents, which supplies reportedly more than 5,000 different textbooks in digital PDF format. Just like any other torrent, the books can be downloaded for free, albeit illegally. When the situation worsens to the level of music piracy, some scholars have reported that companies are willing to go as far as release new versions of books every single semester, changing only minuscule portions that go unnoticed. This solution is far from satisfactory, according to the Indiana Daily Student. First of all, any business decision that puts an increased burden on consumers will fail to discourage piracy. They argue the textbook industry should take a few pointers from the music industry before any rash 46 Mark Stodghill, "Music downloading case: Lawyer accuses RIAA of bullying," Duluth News Tribune, July 12, 2008, http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/articles/index.cfm? id=70209§ion=News 47 "Illegal music file-sharers sent warning letters," CNN, July 3, 2008, http://edition.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/07/03/illegal.downloading/ 48 Matthew Ingram, "MUSIC SALES SLIP, ILLEGAL DOWNLOADERS TO BLAME, SAYS INTERNATIONAL AGENCY," Globe and Mail, June 19, 2008, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080619.INGRAM19/TPStory/Entertainment 49 Birgitte Andersen and Marion Frenz, "The Impact of Music Downloads and P2P File-Sharing on the Purchase of Music: A Study for Industry Canada," Industry Canada, ABSTRACT: http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/ippd-dppi.nsf/en/ip01457e.html decisions are made. Consumers are simply fed up with paying exasperating amounts of money for textbooks they may use a handful of times or possibly not at all, much as they were with paying $17 for a CD that includes three worthwhile tracks. If anything, we see textbook piracy only increasing if the publishing companies head down the road of changing their materials more often. The constant republishing and high prices have pushed consumers towards illegal activity already, we can only imagine the results if these steps are taken. If versions get changed more often, bookstores will stop buying back last semester’s textbooks. The prospect of losing even more money on books might push even more people towards piracy.50 The very fact that a song or movie has been downloaded does not automatically make it an illegal copy. Australian music lovers will spend more than $100 million on downloads this financial year. This is a substantial increase over the $100,000 Australians spent on digital downloads just four years ago. In five years their purchases will make up more than half of the market. According to research analysts IBISWorld, the number of digital downloads is set to accelerate over the next few years and record companies are trying hard to keep up with rising internet demand.51 Unfortunately, according to industry experts, the growth in legal music downloading is not keeping pace with its illegal counterpart. The IFPI reported that despite the growth of digital sales in 2007, the format is still not "making up for the decline in CD sales or the effects of piracy." Sales figures for music are the lowest in ten years, as the IFPI did not start publishing sales figures until 1997. Total global sales for 2007 were $19.4 billion, with CDs and DVDs pulling in $15.9 billion (down 13%), and digital downloads $2.9 billion (up 34%). The chairman and CEO of the IFPI, John Kennedy, also revealed that "digital sales are growing healthily but, crucially, not fast enough to arrest the overall decline of the market." The report also noted "physical and digital piracy cost the U.S." arm of the music industry $5.3 billion, with digital piracy counting for 70 percent. Kennedy indicated that 39% of U.S. teenagers used file-sharing networks to illegally download music, with over 30 billion illegal downloads taking place around the globe. Despite digital sales slow growth as physical sales continue to plummet, the advances made in accessibility and quality of music in 2007 should prove beneficial for the industry. With labels and music companies dropping anti-piracy technology in the face of continued illegal downloads, there remains apparent trust and hope in consumers. A 34% increase in one year may seem small, but if digital marketing can continue to improve in that fashion then the music industry may not have too much to lament.52 Pirates may end up biting the hand that feeds them. If they asphyxiate artist’s profits to the point that less music is released or production quality is impeded, the pirates will have suffered a loss. Consumers always hold the cards. The question is whether or not they want to bet their hand. If the recording industry makes legal music choice a more desirable option and starts to attract youth toward the law-abiding side of music appreciation, we may see a turn around in the march toward digital chaos. If self control and new marketing fail to do the trick, we may very well see more draconian solutions, including government intervention, ISP inspection and severe penalties for violators. Key Terms Digital piracy Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) LimeWire Peer-to-peer network Microsoft Malware G8 Governments 50 "A textbook price tragedy," Indiana Daily Student, July 14, 2008, http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=61822&comview=1 51 Katherine Field, "Digital music downloads to top $100 million," Courier Mail (Australia), June 18, 2008, http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23883719-8362,00.html 52 Richard Driver, "Digital sales still too slow for music industry growth," Blogging Stocks, June 18, 2008, http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2008/06/18/digital-sales-still-too-slow-for-music-industry- growth/ European Parliament for Internet Service Providers Internet service providers (ISPs) Uploader Digital Millennium Copyright Act U.S. Copyright Office International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) Textbook Torrents Digital downloads Research Tips Read the entire Industry Canada study showing that illegal music downloading may be beneficial for record sales – here: http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/ippd-dppi.nsf/vwapj/IndustryCanadaPaperMay4_2007_en.pdf/ $FILE/IndustryCanadaPaperMay4_2007_en.pdf Read LimeWire's defense and explanation of its legal purpose here: http://www.limewire.com/about/ The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry may have an old name, but it is online with a very informative webpage. Check it out here: http://www.ifpi.org/ The Recording Industry Association of America has similar information here: http://www.riaa.com/ DrugDrug ApprovalApproval

"I used to have a drug problem, now I make enough money." ~ David Lee Roth

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the unenviable task of approving prescription and over the counter drugs for our consumption. This job combines concern for safety of drug users and efforts to ensure that life-saving medications get to the market quickly so that sick patients can take advantage of the technology. As Gold Book went to press, the FDA’s approval of blood platelet remedy Amgen was dominating FDA drug approval news coverage, but unless this drug is pulled from the market or a new study discredits its effectiveness, the drug should not be in the news for long.53 This section focuses on the process of drug approval and some recent events which make it easier for pharmaceutical companies to get their product approved. When the side effects of a new drug cause little Tommy of 236 Elm Street, Saginaw, Michigan, to become gravely ill, television reporters show the poor lad languishing in a hospital bed, and viewers respond emotionally. When little Tommy dies, reporters interview the grieving parents. Blame falls on the drug company, on the FDA officials who approved an unsafe drug, and maybe on the doctor. FDA reviewers are anxious to avoid such censure, which might damage their careers and reputations. The consequences of error in the other direction, however, are not symmetric. If little Tommy suffered from a disease that would be cured by a drug not yet allowed by the FDA, it is unlikely that Tommy's parents or doctors would even be aware of that fact. If they heard about the not yet allowed drug and inquired into its availability, the FDA may simply say that it "must hold the unproved drug until safety questions and risks to the public health are resolved." No one who could counter such claims would be in a position to make a compelling argument. Thus, the bad consequences of disallowing the drug would not be identifiable and would not revisit the FDA. In consequence, FDA officials are much less concerned about such consequences.54 In the language of decision theory, a "Type I error" occurs when a decisionmaker accepts as true a hypothesis that is in fact false. A "Type II error" occurs when a decisionmaker rejects a hypothesis that is in fact true. The FDA, then, may be said to commit a Type I error when it approves a "bad" drug and a Type II error when it fails to approve a drug that should have been approved. For most of the FDA's history, Type I errors have been more visible than Type II errors.55 Despite this incentive structure, some medical experts are concerned that too many drugs get through the FDA’s regulatory scheme and may put Americans at risk. Several members of the Archives of Internal Medicine recommend the creation of a new agency -- the Center for Drug Safety -- outside of FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. They say that the FDA does not currently have authority to unilaterally pull dangerous drugs from the market, force changes to drug label warnings or penalize companies that do not adequately monitor safety. The group also contends that FDA "lacks the money and structure to insulate itself from the influence of the pharmaceutical industry."56 Unfortunately, Tommy of 236 Elm Street is more than just a hypothetical. Approximately 54,000 patients will be diagnosed with the incurable disease non-Hodgkins lymphoma (NHL) this year. As many as 25,000 will die of it. New, biologically-based, personalized treatments have an excellent likelihood of effectively treating - even curing -- this cancer. But the FDA's usual standard of randomized clinical trials to test the new 53 "Amgen gets FDA approval for platelet disorder drug," Forbes, July 14, 2008, http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/07/14/ap5211211.html 54 "Why the FDA Has an Incentive to Delay the Introduction of New Drugs," FDAReview.org, a project of the Independent Institute, http://www.fdareview.org/incentives.shtml 55 "Drug Review As A Stopping Problem," Medscape, 2004, http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/466261_3 56 Christopher Lee, "Report Faults FDA on Drug Safety," Washington Post, October 10, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/09/AR2006100901029.html treatment will make it unavailable to patients who need it -- and thousands will die while awaiting the results. A cancer vaccine study showed 90 percent of the 22 NHL patients who received it had long remissions -- and 77 percent were in remission up to 74 months post treatment. The National Cancer Institute -- with FDA guidance and consent -- is now planning an extensive five-year, randomized clinical trial of the vaccine involving 563 patients. Since half the participants will receive the active vaccine, and half will get a vaccine with no known activity in lymphoma patients, 282 patients will be denied the active vaccine. Moreover, thousands more NHL patients will die each year during the study without ever having the opportunity to try the vaccine. Medical specialists suggest it would be far preferable to allow individualized cancer therapies to be prepared by biotechnology companies under the guidance of experienced oncologists. One could then judge their long-term effectiveness by standard clinical means.57 The average time to bring a drug to market is now 15 years, that is more than double the average time in 1964.58 The FDA is making efforts to reduce this time by increasing communication with drug makers about the status of the approval research. Companies have been receiving "approvable letters" indicating a drug could win approval later if certain steps were taken. Another option has been a "not approvable letter," which typically meant the FDA wanted a substantial amount of additional data before considering approval. The FDA’s new plan is to instead issue a "complete response" letter for drugs not ready for approval, with a description of deficiencies and recommended actions. 59 The question of what the FDA should do with a dangerous or side-effect prone drug is germane. A case in point is Lotronex, which was taken off the market by the FDA just 10 months after the agency approved it. Lotronex was the only drug in its class designed to treat irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which afflicts approximately 40 million Americans. Before it was withdrawn about 300,000 people had taken it and about 70 patients had developed severe problems. Critics argued that it makes no sense to use a drug with potentially life-threatening side effects for a disease that is debilitating but does not kill. Nonetheless, several thousand patients have contacted the FDA asking them to bring Lotronex back. The demand was higher than that for any other recalled drug. FDA officials suggested ways to keep the drug on the market, but limit access to it to minimize risks and track problems more effectively. The drug would be available through specialists certified by the manufacturer or off-label prescribing could be prohibited.60 Prohibiting off-label prescribing may not be a good idea for all drugs. Economics professors Daniel Klein and Alexander Tabarrok argue that restrictions on the prescription of medicines for treatment of ailments not specifically targeted by the drug may do more harm than good. Most cancer and AIDS patients are given drugs that are not certified by the (FDA) for the prescribed use. According to Klein and Tabarrok, physicians prescribe off-label usage for many reasons. Off-label drugs provide patients with more options when standard treatments fail, patients are heterogeneous -- what works for one person may not work for another -- so a certain level of experimentation is necessary and medical knowledge advances at a faster rate than the FDA's research. On average, off-label uses are widely adopted about 2.5 years before they are recognized by the agency. News of off-label uses travels fast because physicians learn about them through medical research and experience conveyed by peer-reviewed publications, newsletters and conferences. The success of off-label drug usage suggests that the market is best equipped to determine the effectiveness of a drug. The benefits of restricting the FDA to safety-testing would expedite the flow of drugs into the marketplace -- estimated to have been slowed by 60 percent due to efficacy testing -- as well as significantly reducing pharmaceutical costs.61

57 Robert Oldham (South Carolina Biotechnology Association), "FDA Trials Cost Lives," Wall Street Journal, April 3, 2002, http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=6911 58 Henry I. Miller, "Can Dr. McClellan Cure the FDA?" Hoover Digest, Hoover Institute, No. 1, 2004, http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/3050361.html 59 Val Brickates Kennedy, "FDA to do away with 'approvable,' 'non-approvable' letters," Market Watch, July 9, 2008, http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/fda-do-away-approvable-non- approvable/story.aspx?guid=%7BE5520D7A-7D5C-466A-A9EB-4EB28BFAECA5%7D&dist=msr_1 60 Denise Grady, "FDA Pulls a Drug, and Patients Despair," New York Times, January 30, 2001, http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/30/health/30DRUG.html 61 Daniel B. Klein and Alexander Tabarrok, "Who Certifies Off-Label?" Cato Institute, Summer 2004, https://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv27n2/v27n2-8.pdf The United States often ends up importing drugs from other countries, many of which do not share our safety standards. Foreign factories that make products destined for American medicine cabinets are inspected far less frequently than are U.S. facilities by the FDA. On average, foreign medical factories that plan to bring products to the United States are inspected at a rate of once every 13 years, according to 2002 to 2007 figures in a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. American facilities that produce medical products or drugs are required to be inspected every two years per the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, but there is no similar requirement on the frequency of foreign inspections. The disparity is even greater when looking at individual countries: The rapidly-growing number of Chinese factories sending prescription drugs and medical products to the United States are inspected at a rate of about 2 percent annually. That means it would take nearly 50 years to inspect all the Chinese facilities if FDA continues at that rate. This disparity between foreign and domestic inspections -- particularly in China -- has been highlighted by four deaths and hundreds of allergic reactions related to the blood thinner heparin, which Baxter Healthcare Corp. made in part with ingredients produced in China. The facility was mistakenly missed by FDA inspectors who confused its name with that of another facility already inspected. The source of the problem hasn't yet been determined.62 Medical advances need to keep us safe, but they also need to get to us. New drugs often provide hope but can, if not monitored closely enough, bring tragedy. Watch the FDA as it walks the fine line between Type I and Type II errors and seeks to ensure a healthy drug market. Key Terms Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Prescription Over-the-counter drugs Pharmaceutical companies Type 1 error Type 2 error Incentive Structure Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma National Cancer Institute Oncologist Approvable Letters Complete Response Side-effect Specialists Off-label prescribing Government Accounting Office (GAO) Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act Research Tips Check out the FDA’s drug approval list and read about the latest medical advances about to be unleashed on the prescription drug market: http://www.fda.gov/CDER/DA/da.htm Read the Independent Institute’s ideas for reforming drug laws here: http://www.fdareview.org/reform.shtml The FDA has prepared a position statement on the importation of drugs. Read it here: http://www.fda.gov/ora/import/pipinfo.htm

62 Jen Haberkorn, "FDA inspections lag in overseas drug factories," Washington Times, February 28, 2008, http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20080228/BUSINESS/906826390/1001 The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has a good analysis of medical errors and the dangers of side effects. Check it out: www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/t000201a.html EducationEducation

“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” ~ Alexander Pope

We need to educate the next generation. Tell it to parents and get nods. Tell it to voters and get votes. That is the calculus of the domestic education system. Education reform during the first year of the Bush Administration brought us the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which sought to increase accountability for our nations schools by linking resource availability to teacher qualifications and student performance. To call the law controversial would be an understatement. NCLB has created two polar opinion groups on primary education: those for the law and those against it. The American Federation of Teachers, the second-largest teachers' union in the country, argues that the NCLB is broken. Randi Weingarten, the AFT President, says the law puts too much emphasis on testing. US Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, meanwhile, has supported renewing the act.63 Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has called for more funds for special education and for programs that allow school districts to afford incentive pay for teachers who take on difficult assignments. But Senator Obama does not spell out the costs or say which parts of his education platform would be federal mandates imposed on states. He claims more parents need to assist educators by turning off TV and helping children with homework. 64 The fate of NCLB is largely contingent on the results of the November election. Karen Symms Gallagher, holder of the Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean's Chair in Education at the USC Rossier School, makes some key predictions. Either John McCain or Barack Obama will probably take a good look at the funding behind the law. Their scrutiny will be targeted to the funding, since the law has never been fully funded and the math does not add up. Gallagher says that there are both positives and negatives to NCLB as it exists now. The good thing is that it holds schools accountable for children's achievement. Under this program, you can't mask the performance of poorer students by hiding them in separate categories like "special education," she points out. However, the notion that everybody is going to be above average - or even average - by 2012 is not even possible, mathematically. This part of the act needs to be adjusted, so that schools can be realistic about average yearly progress, she says. Gallagher sees another element of No Child Left Behind that could use adjustment. The act currently emphasizes math and reading, which are important, but there are other areas like science that deserve attention, she says. Low performing schools (those with a high percentage of low-income students), have an incentive to spend time preparing for tests to the exclusion of other activities. If Congress becomes even more overwhelmingly Democratic, that will also have an impact. Gallagher identifies two particularly influential figures: Rep. George Miller, who has worked to increase funding for the act, and Sen. Edward Kennedy, who reached across the aisle to work with the Bush administration on NCLB.65 Not everyone thinks the NCLB is too harsh. The Wall Street Journal says that the law lacks bite when it comes to the nation’s worst-performing schools. The more-radical restructuring remedies put forth by the law have rarely been adopted by these schools, many of which aren't doing much to address their problems. For example, about 1,300 schools out of 99,000 public schools were in restructuring during the 2006-2007 school year. About 40 percent of them have not taken any of the corrective actions required by NCLB, according to a 2007 study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Slack in their interpretation of NCLB led some principals to tell the GAO they did not believe restructuring was necessary; others said they thought

63 Mike Rhee, "Teachers Union Leader Takes Aim At 'No Child Left Behind,'" Chicago Public Radio, July 14, 2008, http://www.wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=26561 64 David Roeder, "'Education starts at home,'" Chicago Sun-Times, July 14, 2008, http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1054126,CST-NWS-obama14.article 65 Judith Piazza, "No Child Left Behind as It Exists Now," News Blaze, July 12, 2008, http://newsblaze.com/story/20080712064340tsop.nb/topstory.html their school district had decided against such action. Another 40 percent of schools in restructuring have chosen the "other" change option, which is often abused as a loophole for no meaningful change. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the NCLB does not require states to report in detail what individual schools are doing after they fall into the restructuring category.66 Any change will have to focus on students’ math skills. Multiple reports have found that students across America are not improving their math skills. The Georgia Department of Education said about 40 percent of eighth-graders failed the state's math test. Other states have reported high failure rates on similar eighth-grade math tests. A new study by the Center on Education Policy noted a familiar, and troublesome, trend -- math proficiency declines as students move from elementary school through high school. The National Mathematics Advisory Panel released a report which noted that U.S. students lack a deep understanding of basic skills, including a grasp of whole numbers and fractions. Patrick Welsh, an English teacher at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, blames the under-performance on the fact that kids also are taught the wrong material at the wrong time; for example, middle schoolers are pushed to take algebra, although many of them still lack the necessary abstract thinking skills. The same misguided "acceleration" plays out in high school, with guidance counselors pushing kids to take calculus because they think it will help them get into college. Welsh also says that many elementary school teachers are notoriously weak in their own math skills.67 A handful of schools nationwide have set off an emotional academic debate by giving minimum scores of 50 for students who fail. Their argument is that other letter grades -- A, B, C and D -- are broken down in increments of 10 from 60 to 100, but there is a 59-point spread between D and F, a gap that can often make it mathematically impossible for some failing students to ever catch up. Opponents say the larger gap between D and F exists because passing requires a minimum competency of understanding at least 60 percent of the material. Handing out more credit than a student has earned is grade inflation.68 Tom Pauken, chairman of the Texas Workforce Commission, says that students are not being taught what they need to know in the workforce and that education needs to be market driven. In the 1950s, some 60 percent of jobs could be filled with unskilled workers. Today, 80 percent of high-growth, high-demand jobs require some education beyond high school. Pauken says that it is important for parents and guidance counselors to understand what jobs are begin created and what potential career pathways exist, including good options that require fewer than four years of college. In Texas, Governor Rick Perry has taken steps to better prepare students for future employment. His "Texas Energy Cluster," encourages skills training for good-paying jobs in the following areas: oil and gas exploration and production, power generation, mining, power transmission, and renewable energy sources. Pauken concludes that we must align career and technology education with what is needed in the workforce.69 Others blame the educational woes on media over saturation. Mark Bauerlein, author of "The Dumbest Generation," says that the present is a good time to be young only if you do not mind a tendency toward empty-headedness. He argues that cultural and technological forces, far from opening up an exciting new world of learning and thinking, have conspired to create a level of public ignorance so high as to threaten our democracy. The printed word has paid a price -- from 1981 to 2003, the leisure reading of 15- to 17-year-olds fell to seven minutes a day from 18. In 2003, children were cramming an average of 8½ hours of media consumption a day into just 6½ hours -- watching TV while surfing the Web, reading while listening to music, composing text messages while watching a movie. This daily media binge isn't making students smarter. The National Assessment of Educational Progress has pegged 46 percent of 12th-graders below the basic level of proficiency in science, while only 2 percent are qualified as advanced. Some 46 percent of

66 Robert Tomsho, "No Child Left Behind Lacks Bite," Wall Street Journal, May 13, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121063138674386483.html 67 Patrick Welsh, "Math Meltdown," USA Today, July 8, 2008, http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/07/math-meltdown.html#more 68 Steve Friess, "At some schools, failure goes from zero to 50," USA Today, May 19, 2008, http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-05-18-zeroes-main_N.htm 69 Tom Pauken, "Students Not Learning What They Need To," Dallas Morning News, June 9, 2008, http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN- paukin_09edi.ART.State.Edition1.471822e.html high-school seniors say it's very important to be an active and informed citizen, but only 26 percent are rated as proficient in civics. Only 24 percent of twelfth-graders are capable of composing organized, coherent prose in clear language with correct spelling and grammar according to the NEAP. What frustrates Bauerlein is not these deficits themselves -- it's the way a blind celebration of youth, and an ill-informed optimism about technology, have led the public to ignore them.70 So far, the most popular solution to poor academic achievement has been to throw money at the problem. American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) 2007 Report Card on American Education says that there is no direct correlation between conventional measures of education inputs, such as expenditures per pupil and teacher salaries, and educational outputs, such as average scores on standardized tests. Expenditures have risen nationally to an all-time high of $9,295 per pupil. Yet, student performance has improved only slightly; 69 percent of American eighth-graders are still performing below proficiency in math and 71 percent in reading, according to the 2007 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). Raising student achievement levels and improving our schools must involve new and innovative solutions, not just a budget increase.71 Supporting the almost-universal belief that teachers are underpaid, Education Week published an article stating, "public school teachers nationwide make 88 cents for every dollar earned in 16 comparable occupations," including accountants, architects, clergy, computer programmers, insurance underwriters, physical therapists, and registered nurses.72 The long-lived conventional wisdom is that teachers are underpaid. That belief is virtually unanimous. But it runs contrary to many respectable research studies that conclude teacher salaries are at least equal to, if not in excess of, compensation for comparable occupations. Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters found that the average public school teacher in the United States earned $34.06 per hour in 2005, and the average public school teacher was paid 36 percent more per hour than the average non-sales white-collar worker and 11 percent more than the average professional specialty and technical worker.73 Richard Vedder, an Ohio University professor of economics and senior fellow at the Independent Institute, found that teachers earn more per hour than architects, civil engineers, mechanical engineers, statisticians, biological and life scientists, registered nurses, university-level foreign-language teachers, and editors and reporters.74 Michael Podgursky, an economics professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia and expert on teacher compensation concluded that when adjusted for annual weeks of work, teacher pay and benefits compare favorably with those of other college-educated workers.75 To objectively evaluate teacher benefits relative to other occupations, several relevant conditions need to be factored in. Teachers work about 20 percent fewer days annually than other white-collar workers. Consequently, a teacher paid $60,000 per year is actually being paid $72,000 at the adjusted rate. Add another 25 percent (on average) for retirement and health insurance, and the annual benefit package increases to $87,000. Do you want to be a teacher yet?76

70 David Robinson, "Can U Read Kant?" Wall Street Journal, May 13, 2008; and Mark Bauerlein, "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30)," Tarcher, May 15, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121063808679386853.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries 71 "National Ranking of State Education Released: American Legislative Exchange Council's Report Card on American Education," ALEC, March 13, 2008, http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl? ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-07-2008/0004769884&EDATE 72 Christopher Swanson, " Teacher Salaries, Looking at Comparable Jobs," Education Week, January 10, 2008, www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/01/10/18salaries.h27.html 73 Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters, "Education Myths," National Review Online, September 7, 2005, http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/greene_winters200509070830.asp 74 Richard Vedder, "Comparable Worth," Hoover Institution, Summer, 2003, http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/3347411.html 75 Michael Podgursky, "Is Teacher Pay "Adequate?" Prepared for the conference: "Adequacy Lawsuits: Their Growing Impact on American Education" Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, October 13-14, 2005, www.hks.harvard.edu/pepg/PDF/events/Adequacy/PEPG-05-32podgursky.pdf 76 Richard G. Neal, "Report Finds Teachers' Pay Is More than Adequate Across the Country," Heartland Institute, April 1, 2008, http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=22978 Problems in education do not cease after primary and secondary education. More and more students are looking to college to get an edge in the workforce. The rising cost of college tuition is a source of great concern for students, parents, and politicians. Between 1989 and 2005, college costs increased at double the rate of inflation. Kevin Carey, a research and policy manager at Education Sector, and Frederick M. Hess, the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and editor of "Footing the Tuition Bill," imagine a situation in which instead of borrowing, students could arrange for investors to pay their college bills in exchange for a fixed percentage of their future income. Students would shift the financial risk to lenders who could pool that risk and then package their bonds into bundled securities that could be sold on the open market. Investors who found the hidden gems early would be rewarded, creating incentives for private firms to seek out those institutions and alerting potential students to their value. Costs to new students would decline (since investors would ask for a smaller percentage of future earnings), effectively lowering prices. 77 Unfortunately, many students seeking tuition coverage are hurt by the credit crisis. Just when overseas MBA students thought it was practical to consider returning to US business schools, the credit crunch has begun to hit them hard. Aspiring overseas MBAs who plan to enroll on US programs are facing real difficulties in securing the loans they need to study in the country.78 Going to college became more affordable for millions of lower-income students, thanks to changes to two major financial aid programs. The revisions, spurred by a federal law called the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, include higher maximum amounts for federal grants as well as lower interest rates on some newly written government-guaranteed loans. The federal act also created a new grant program for future teachers, but strings attached to the grants make them quite risky for students.79 Children that are educated today will one day make decisions about our retirement. They will also inherit our nation’s laws and traditions. It behooves us to pay attention to how the next generation of Americans is educated. Key Terms No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) Randi Weingarten Margaret Spellings Barack Obama John McCain George Miller Edward Kennedy Government Accountability Office (GAO) Math proficiency Rick Perry Standardized tests College tuition Inflation Credit crisis College Cost Reduction and Access Act

77 Kevin Carey and Frederick M. Hess, "Popping the Tuition Bubble," The American, June 12, 2008, http://www.american.com/archive/2008/june-06-08/popping-the-tuition-bubble-1 78 Della Bradshaw, "Credit crunch takes toll on student loans," Financial Times (London), July 14, 2008, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/d38237b8-4f72-11dd-b050-000077b07658,dwp_uuid=02e16f4a- 46f9-11da-b8e5-00000e2511c8.html 79 Kathy Kristof, "Student aid changes take effect," Los Angeles Times, July 13, 2008, http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-fi-perfin13-2008jul13,0,6099559.column Research Tips Check out the Department of Education’s webpage which has press releases and other publications for the DOE: http://www.ed.gov/index.jhtml Learn about the No Child Left Behind Act by reading the wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Child_Left_Behind_Act EuropeanEuropean UnionUnion

“It will not be any European statesman who will unite Europe: Europe will be united by the Chinese.” ~ Charles de Gaulle

The European Union (EU) is an intergovernmental organization of 27 Western European nations with its own institutional structures and decision-making framework. Also called the European Community or the Common Market at one time. Its members are Austrlia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom. Its council of ministers and the European Commission are based in Brussels, Belgium, and its parliament is based in Strasbourg, France.80 In 2004, the EU proposed to remove market barriers in an effort to legislate a single market for services, particularly in healthcare. This change came after the European Court of Justice, Europe's highest court, ruled in favor of a German civil servant demanding medical reimbursement after traveling to Italy for healthcare. The court said individual countries can choose their own social-security and healthcare systems, but they must do so in a way that is compatible with EU law, meaning without creating national barriers for services. EU healthcare systems don't have much competition at the moment, and competition is a major source of quick implementation of new innovations, says one European health official. With the euro-zone economy growing at a tepid 1.7 percent and unemployment at 9 percent, legislators in Brussels are interested in eliminating state barriers to boost European competitiveness and economic growth.81 A chief goal for EU economic planners is to increase the productivity of the organization and to make its economy more competitive globally. The EU’s new Central and Eastern European members (Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia), need to cut taxes and do more to attract foreign investment, according to an economic report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The report says the four largest new European Union economies -- the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia -- need to cut labor taxes and do everything possible to encourage foreign investors if they are to follow Ireland's example and catch up with existing EU members in terms of per-capita wealth. To bridge the economic gap with average EU levels of gross domestic product per capita, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia need to raise their employment rates, currently among the lowest in the OECD:82 Poland employs just 50.5 percent of its labor force, putting it near the bottom of a range for all OECD countries run from 46.3 percent to 84.1 percent. To bring more people into work, the report said, these countries will have to cut unemployment benefits and taxes on labor. The OECD also said that the growth gap between the United States and the euro zone will widen this year as the world economy experiences a "strong and sustainable" recovery: The body now expects the U.S. economy to grow at a rate of 4.7 percent this year, up from its forecast last November of 4.2 percent and the fastest U.S. growth rate in five years. But the OECD cut its growth forecast for the 12 countries using the euro to 1.6 percent this year from an earlier forecast of 1.8 percent.83 The EU’s economic woes are not isolated to the new arrivals. The French unemployment rate has hovered around 10 percent for nearly a decade, and almost half of the jobless have been out of work for at least a year. 80 Glossary, Wall Street Journal Interactive, 2002, http://online.wsj.com/documents/glos_e.htm 81 Hannah Karp, "EU Has Healthcare Headache," Wall Street Journal, November 12, 2004, http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110012391199170570-search,00.html 82 Marc Champion, "New EU States Are Urged to Cut Taxes," Wall Street Journal, May 12, 2004, http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108427574370407954-search,00.html?collection=autowire% 83 OECD Economic Outlook No. 75, May 2004, http://www.oecd.org/document/18/0,2340,en_2649_201185_20347538_1_1_1_1,00.html If the United States had an unemployment rate as high as France, there would be about six million more non- working Americans -- the equivalent of placing every worker in Michigan on the jobless rolls. In contrast, the United States has substantially outperformed Old Europe in wealth and job creation:. The economic growth rate of the European Union nations since 2003 has limped along at about half that of the United States. In the 1980s and '90s the United States created about 40 million new jobs; Western Europe created some 10 million, well over half of which were in the public sector. If this divergence in economic performance continues for 40 years, the American worker will be roughly twice as wealthy as his European counterpart. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Europeans have created a vast constellation of domestic policy interventions that are cloaked in the seductive rhetoric of compassion, fairness and cultural sophistication. The Journal says that European nations penalize work and subsidize nonwork and they have gotten a lot of the latter and far too little of the former. By contrast, the U.S. model -- allegedly cruel and "laissez-faire" -- has done much better both by economic growth and worker opportunity, says the Journal.84 Not everyone is convinced the United States economy is superior to the EU’s. The International Monetary Fund rates the EU more highly. Over the past three years, living standards, as measured by gross domestic product per capita, have risen by 5.8 percent in the European Union but by only 1 percent in the United States. While living standards in the United States have risen by a healthy 16.1 percent over the past eight years, they are up by 18.3 percent in the European Union. Sample any year between 1995 and 2000 and the conclusion is the same: Europe's economy has outperformed America's.85 The Conference Board, a New York-based business research group, concurs. Although the average U.S. labor-productivity growth of 1.9 percent per year since 1995 exceeds the EU average of 1.3 percent, five individual European countries have done better than the United States. Belgium managed 2.2 percent per year, Austria 2.4 percent, Finland 2.6 percent, Greece 3.2 percent and Ireland 5.1 percent. If you take a longer time span, 1990 to 2002, not only does the European Union as a whole outpace the United States, so do 10 of the 14 individual EU member states for which statistics are available (the figures do not include Luxembourg).86 A number of large multinationals -- mostly American -- have moved their European headquarters and finance operations out of traditional EU locales to Switzerland and Ireland, aiming to avoid costs associated with so- called tax harmonization. That's the EU's term for its effort to end competitive tax breaks among member states, a practice Brussels regards as harmful. The corporate moves, by such big names as John Deere, Ralph Lauren and General Mills, are fueling concern among business boosters and revenue officials in some EU countries, particularly the Netherlands and Belgium, which are losing their luster as tax havens. High-tax France and Germany are suffering the most defections, but the phenomenon may also be spreading to the so- called Benelux region, whose business-friendly tax regimes have long made it the European base of choice for American multinationals.87 In the World Economic Forum's most recent annual report on global competitiveness, ratings for the Netherlands and Belgium plunged while they surged for Switzerland, a non-EU member. Once a European leader in attracting direct foreign investment, the Netherlands saw its capital inflows slump 43 percent last year to $29 billion (€24.57 billion). This represents one of the biggest drops among 30 industrial countries, tracked by Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The shift is partly attributable to the EU's tax-harmonization drive, lawyers and development officials say. The European Commission, the EU's executive branch, has tried to do away with "harmful tax competition" between

84 Editorial, "The European Disease," Wall Street Journal, June 3, 2005, http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111775897564249985,00.html 85 Philippe Legrain, "Juggernaut: Europe's Mighty Economy," New Republic, June 16, 2003 86 Wenguo Cai and Daniel Lemaire, "Lost Over the Atlantic? The Canada–EU Trade and Investment Relationship," The Conference Board, May 2006, http://www.conferenceboard.ca/documents.asp? rnext=1673 87 Glenn R. Simpson and Dan Bilefsky, "EU's Tax Changes Scatter Corporations: Switzerland, Ireland Draw Companies Seeking to Avoid a Rise in Obligations," Wall Street Journal, October 9, 2003, http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106564495251459400,00.html member countries by clamping down on uncompetitive practices -- such as state aid and various shelters -- that have long figured in tax planning by multinationals.88 While its tax structure may not encourage foreign investment, the EU is able to use its massive revenue to subsidize its products abroad and push smaller countries aside economically. Developing countries and the European Union are locked in a bitter trade dispute over EU sugar subsidies. Brazil, Australia and Thailand have challenged EU subsidies of sugar at the World Trade Organization, claiming the payments exceed the WTO-agreed limit. Oxfam, a development organization, gave the WTO challenge a credibility boost by releasing a scathing report on the size and impact of the EU subsidies. Oxfam says that Europe is hiding the magnitude of its subsidies through "economic sophistry." The report points out that while Europe pegs its sugar subsidies at $1.5 billion, there are 833 million Euros in "hidden subsidies." These payments mainly benefit a cartel of six sugar producers, which alone received about $977 million last year. Every euro of sugar exported cost 3.30 Euros in subsidies.89 Oxfam also found that EU subsidies hurt the developing world by generating oversupplies and lowering global sugar prices. The EU subsidies undercut Brazil's sugar export earnings by $494 million in 2002, while Thailand lost $151 million. Since 2001, the cost to Ethiopia, Mozambique and Malawi was $238 million; to put this into context, Malawi's export losses were greater than its primary healthcare budget, while the cost for Ethiopia is equivalent to what it spends on its HIV/AIDS programs. The global impact of Europe's agricultural subsidies is becoming increasingly difficult to sugar-coat, through sophistry or other means. Europe pretends to be the champion of poor countries, but its farm policies threaten to undermine the world trade round, which was supposed to benefit the developing world, says Oxfam.90 Immigration is as touchy a subject for the EU as it is for the United States. The sore point of immigration and asylum has led to rightist political advances in France, Austria, Denmark, Italy and the usually very liberal Netherlands. Last year 350,000 people openly sought refugee status in Europe -- and hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens tried to enter the EU. Greece has more than a million illegal immigrants, while Austria apprehended almost 49,000 illegals and more than 24,000 made asylum applications. There may be 90,000 illegal immigrants in Belgium, 10 percent of all foreigners, and while there were only 10,000 asylum applications in Italy, conservative estimates are that 300,000 are there illegally. France has about 400,000 illegals, and Germany's total could be as high as 1.5 million -- with 100,000 being smuggled in every year. There are up to 1 million illegals in Britain, and even a small country like Portugal has at least 60,000 undocumented workers.91 European immigration policy is a patchwork. In Greece, asylum seekers may work as soon as they apply for recognition, but receive no welfare checks. In France, Britain and Germany undocumented workers receive benefits, but their path to jobs is littered with restrictions. In Germany, for instance, asylum seekers must seek permission for every job they take to ensure they do not take work from a German -- or a foreigner with greater rights. Efforts are ongoing to unify the immigration standards across the continent.92 The European healthcare industry hopes erasing such borders can spur demand for new medical technology and improve care. However, in a bloc with 25 different healthcare systems and pricing schemes, countries fear that allowing people to shop around for health services could be messy, or worse.93

88 "World Economic Forum in Turkey," World Economic Forum, November 23-24, 2006, http://www.weforum.org/en/events/ArchivedEvents/turkey/index.htm 89 Editorial, "European sugar-coating," Washington Times, April 21, 2004, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5244/is_200404/ai_n19587006 90 "Dumping on the World: How EU Sugar Policies Harm Poor Countries," Oxfam Briefing Paper No. 61, March 2004 91 Alan Cowell, "Migrants Feel Chill in a Testy Europe," New York Times, April 28, 2002, http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/28/international/28EURO.html 92 "Towards a common European Union immigration policy," European Commission on Justice and Home Affairs, September, 2007, http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/immigration/fsj_immigration_intro_en.htm 93 Win de Gooijer, "Trends in EU Healthcare Systems," EU Business, September 28, 2006, http://www.eubusiness.com/Health/eu-healthcare-systems Joining the chorus of voices against allowing people to receive free healthcare anywhere in the EU are the larger EU nations, which feel they could end up subsidizing lagging economies. One of those nations is the United Kingdom. Calling it "health tourism," a Department of Health Services (NHS) spokesperson said: "The Government is clear that health tourism will not be funded by the NHS. We are also absolutely committed to ensuring that, where UK patients choose to travel abroad for care, the NHS retains the ability to decide what care it will fund. Equally, anyone from other member states travelling to the UK specifically for healthcare will have to pay the full NHS cost of treatment upfront. The priority for the vast majority of NHS patients is high quality healthcare received close to their homes, and we remain committed to providing this."94 A draft law is being debated by the EU which would allow anyone to receive most healthcare treatment anywhere in the 27-nation bloc without getting prior authorization. But the entitlement applies only to procedures that are publicly funded in EU citizens' home states and reimbursement would be only up to the amount the procedure would cost in that country. The small print of the draft also allows countries to introduce a system under which their citizens abroad would require prior authorization before seeking in- hospital overnight treatment - and some limited outpatient treatment, such as cataract operations. The measures, which have to be approved by governments and the European Parliament, apply to all citizens of the EU and could come into effect in 2010.95 In the interim, the EU has called for more of its citizens to acquire and make use of the European Health Insurance Card (EICH), which facilitates free medical care for all citizens while visiting one of the other 31 European countries participating in the initiative. The European Commission said that four years after its launch, a total of 173 million people already have the card. Citizens from 31 European countries can use the card to get the medical care they need if they fall ill or have an accident in one of the participating countries, which includes all the 27 EU member states together with Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Switzerland. Although individual member states are responsible for the distribution of the EHIC and issue it in their national language, the card shares a common design in order to be easily recognizable by medical staff, even if they do not speak the same language.96 One side effect of making access to healthcare mandatory is that patients may start to receive less information about their treatment options. Countries with national health insurance schemes attempt to deny patients access to information about the newest, most effective drugs for a simple reason: The drugs are expensive, and if patients do not know about them, they will not know what they are not getting. In Europe, tight restrictions prevent drug companies from any consumer advertising 10 years after such ad bans were lifted in the United States. In America, by contrast, in 2002 drug makers spent about $2.6 billion advertising directly to consumers.97 Because of the ban, in most European countries drug makers can not so much as answer consumers' telephone queries about their drugs. Web sites in Europe are not allowed to carry information from drug manufacturers, but European patients are increasingly turning to U.S. Web sites by simply clicking "yes" when asked whether they are U.S. citizens. Europe's drug spending has increased more slowly because its state-run health agencies, which buy most of the medicines, have worked at containing costs. Sales in the European Union grew 8 percent last year, trailing U.S. sales growth of 11 percent and Americans spend about twice as much on drugs as Europeans – and use more of them. The European Commission is considering

94 Geoff Meade, "Hopes calmed over European health deal," The Independent, July 2, 2008, http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/hopes-calmed-over- european-health-deal-858866.html 95 Stephen Castle, "EU expands healthcare treatment," International Herald Tribune, July 2, 2008, http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/02/europe/health.php 96 Ivan Camirreli, "One third of Maltese have EU health card," The Times of Malta, July 17, 2008, http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080717/local/one-third-of-maltese-have-eu-health-card 97 "Impact of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising on Prescription Drug Spending," Kaiser Family Foundation, June, 2003, http://www.kff.org/rxdrugs/loader.cfm? url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=14378 changing the ad restriction. In the meantime, patient advocacy groups and drug companies are funding research that shows patients want more control over their treatment.98 Asphyxiating regulations imposed on them by Brussels similarly puts off European drug companies. Governments across Europe are trying to crack down on soaring healthcare budgets in part by cutting drug prices. Also, differences in prices lead to "parallel trade," where wholesalers buy drugs in bulk in countries with low prices then ship them for sale in countries with higher prices. Prices in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Nordic countries are usually higher than those on the southern tier of the continent. Pfizer estimates as much as 20 percent of some of its drugs sold in the U.K. come via middlemen who bought them in other European countries, then pocketed the difference. European Union officials say they will not block anything that enhances cross-border trade -- and national officials say they have no choice but to rein in prices with artificial price controls. Meanwhile, it can take a long time to get a drug product on the market in Europe after it has been granted marketing authorization. Belgium, Central and Eastern Europe and Greece have 360-day waits. Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands and France have waits between 248 and 293 days. Drug companies are even intimating they will take investment and research dollars out of Europe and put them in the friendlier U.S. market if Europe remains unfavorable.99 The overarching impetuous behind many of the EU’s policies has been greater unification and centralized power. Europe is trying to establish itself as more of a political entity than an economic one and is centralizing power in Brussels to achieve that end. In 2005, the idea of a continent-wide constitution was voted on by many member countries, but rejected soundly in France. Exit polls showed that the majority of those who voted against the Constitution did so because they believed it would result in an influx of "Polish plumbers"—cheap Eastern European workers lured westward by France’s higher wages and better workplace benefits. With the defeat of the Constitution, leaders of the "no" campaign in France have joined forces with labor unions across Western Europe to oppose an EU Commission plan— the Services Directive —that is widely seen as an attempt to open a backdoor for Eastern workers into Western markets.100 The European Union seems to be open to more expansion and Turkey is positioning itself for ascension into the organization. "It is out of the question for Turkey to accept an alternative other than full EU membership or to give up the reforms needed in this process," Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told at a conference attended by Turkey's ambassadors, in a statement expressing the opportunity joining the European club presents. With economic and labor advantages that could push the Mediterranean nation to the front seat of international policy discourse, there are clear reasons for Turkey’s desire to join.101 France is the key opponent of any Turkish inclusion. France gave green light to continuation of the EU- Turkey talks but ruled out that these talks will result in membership, according to France’s Ambassador to Armenia Serge Smessov. In the summer of 2008, France’s Senate dropped a measure from a proposed law that requires a referendum on Turkey’s membership in the European Union. It was one of the most sensitive parts of a broader institutional reform package going through the French Parliament and required a referendum before France could approve EU membership for any country whose population exceeds 5 per cent of the population of the entire 27-nation union.102 Turkey is trying to prove its worth and is getting the attention of Brussels. The European Union is giving cautious, yet positive, reactions to recent detentions in a widening police investigation into a suspected coup plot against the Turkish government. A statement on the issue by the European Commission, which has constantly repeated in its progress reports on Turkey that civilian-military relations should be reformed in

98 Jeanne Whalen, "European Patients Lobby EC To Ease Its Ban on Drug Ads," Wall Street Journal, April 30, 2004, http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108326943565097620,00.html 99 Vanessa Fuhrmans and Scott Hensley, "Price Controls in Europe Draw Drug Makers' Criticism," Wall Street Journal, December 13, 2001, http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB1008191144635615520.htm 100 Wess Mitchell, "Does Europe Need the Polish Plumber?" National Center for Policy Analysis, October 12 , 2005, http://www.ncpa.org/pub/special/20060922-sp.html 101 "Turk PM says his country rejects any alternatives for EU," Hot News Turkey, July 18, 2008, http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/domestic/9454411.asp?scr=1 102 Serge Smessov, "France attaches importance to Armenian-Turkish relations," Pan Armenian, July 17, 2008, http://www.panarmenian.net/interviews/eng/?nid=108 line with EU principles, was rather cautious, when compared to the reaction of the European Parliament, which in a 2008 report called on Turkey to investigate the shadowy crime network named Ergenekon in order to unearth its "deep connections" within the state and address any ties with the judiciary.103 A ratified constitution may very well rear its head in the near future. Although the election of American- friendly Nicolas Sarkozy in France probably signals an unwillingness to pursue that policy option, the question of a European state is prevalent in the minds of all voters. Whether France would like to share a continental government with Turkey remains the biggest question of all. Key Terms European Union (EU) Common Market European Court of Justice Social Security Euro-zone economy Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Gross Domestic Product per capita Economic recovery Unemployment rate International Monetary Fund Labor productivity Tax harmonization Tax haven Benelux region World Economic Forum European Commission Multinational corporation Foreign investment World Trade Organization Oxfam Immigration Undocumented workers Subsidy Department of Health Services (NHS) Draft law European Health Insurance Card (EICH) Brussels Parallel trade Price controls Constitution Polish plumbers Labor union Turkey Tayyip Erdogan

103 "EU both pleased and cautious over widening of coup probe," Today's Zaman, July 19, 2008, http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=146505&bolum=100 Nicolas Sarkozy Research Tips There is a lot to see and do at the Official Website of the European Union: http://europa.eu/ Read the latest about the European Union’s policy toward the United States by visiting the site of the delegation of the European Commission to the US: http://www.eurunion.org/ The CIA World Factbook has excellent demographic and economic information about the EU: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ee.html FederalFederal JudiciaryJudiciary

"Pat Robertson claimed an out-of-control liberal judiciary is the worst threat America has faced in 400 years - worse than Nazi Germany, Japan, and the Civil War. Yes, I really believe that ... I think they are destroying the fabric that holds our nation together." ~ George Stephanopoulos

The founding fathers created three branches of government, intending to use a system of separated powers with checks and balances over one another to keep the power of the state in check and curb abuses by officials, both elected and unelected. Although all three of these branches of government make the news on a regular basis, only one is so puissant and dominant of today’s current events to warrant its own section. The Judiciary has become infamous for its pattern of assuming unauthorized power. The mantle of authority is granted our judges with little regard to right or constitutional obligation. Article III of the United States constitution vested all judicial power in one Supreme Court, but also said that inferior courts could hold some judicial authority that Congress "may from time to time ordain and establish." 104 While the "inferior courts," make prominent decisions on a regular basis, the nine justices at the Supreme Court are the big headline grabbers. These judges routinely handle cases dealing with such varied issues as fundamental constitutional rights and protections and the limits of the rights to free speech, privacy and the right to keep and bear arms. The Supreme Court’s decisions are an interpretation of the United States Constitution and are therefore binding on the states, the federal legislature and the president. In theory the constitution provides some remedies for the other two branches of government, but few of those protections have been applied recently and most threats to impeach judges are frivolous.105, 106 There are nine members of the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. has served on the court since September of 2005. Although he has not served long, some of his judicial outlook can be discerned from his circuit court decisions or from his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which some Senators and pundits complained was overly evasive. What can be gathered about his likely impact on the Court, however, is the administrative effect he is likely to have. Both during his testimony and in comments made before his nomination, Roberts suggested that he would like to see the Court reverse the trend of decreasing its docket size. While Roberts has no more actual say in deciding to hear cases than any of the other justices - four justices have to agree to hear a case before it is placed on the Court's docket - he is nevertheless able to exert strong influence on other justices from his position as Chief Justice. While this change would not be particularly glamorous or get much media attention, it could lead to a significant strengthening of the Supreme Court's role in interpreting and applying some of the more mundane aspects of American law. In the end, it may help to reshape the Court in Chief Justice Roberts' image: deliberate and well-reasoned, with less emphasis on hot-button issues than the general public has come to expect.107 Associate Justice John Paul Stevens has served on the court since 1975. As a justice, Stevens has avoided simple conservative or liberal labels. As the Court moved toward the right during the Reagan and Bush presidencies, however, Stevens appeared more and more liberal relative to the make-up of the Court. He may have started out as a centrist moderate, but Stevens is now often characterized as one of the court’s more liberal members. Although Stevens is the difficult to predict, his approach to judicial decision-making can be summarized in a general sense. Stevens will typically examine the facts of each case carefully and on its own

104 U.S. Constitution, Article III, Section I, Clause I 105 Alan Nathan, "When the high court violates the constitution," The Washington Times, July 7, 2008, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jul/07/when-the-high-court-violates-the-constitution/ 106 Petition to Investigate and Impeach Supreme Court Members, http://www.petitiononline.com/no2court/petition.html 107 Biography of John G. Roberts, Jr., Oyez, http://www.oyez.org/justices/john_g_roberts_jr/ merits. He also seeks to defer to the judgments of others who he feels are better suited to decide. Given his ideology, he has demonstrated considerable judicial restraint and deference to the Congress.108 Associate Justice Samuel Alito has served on the court since January of 2006. A graduate of Princeton University and Yale Law School (where he served as editor of the Yale Law Journal), he received a unanimous "well qualified" rating from the American Bar Association (the rating measures judicial temperament, not ideology). Moreover, Alito's nomination to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in 1990 was approved by unanimous consent in a Democratic Senate. Historically, the confirmation process for appeals court judges has centered around their intellectual qualifications rather than their judicial ideology, because they are bound by the rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court and therefore have less flexibility in their decision- making. During his confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court, Alito stated that the stories his father told him about being discriminated against for his nationality and Catholic religion and about having to build a comfortable life from humble beginnings had made him more disposed to treat everyone who came before him with respect. These statements were made in response to criticism that, as a Circuit Court judge, Alito had consistently ruled against the poor and minority litigants who came before him.109 Associate Justice David Souter has served on the court since 1990. It has been said that you really cannot know a justice until he is placed on the Supreme Court. David Souter proves this axiom. Souter's first year on the Court was undistinguished. He wrote few opinions and did not display many hints of his judicial predisposition. Since then, he has settled into the moderate camp of the Court as evidenced by his unprecedented 24 similar votes with the centrist Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. With the retirement of O’Connor, Souter has joined Anthony Kennedy to form a moderate bloc in the Court. Souter has maintained his simple, bachelor lifestyle. He brings his own lunch, consisting of apples and yogurt, to work every day and lives in an undecorated apartment. He still returns home to Weare during the summer breaks where he climbs the local mountains and visits his mother.110 Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy has served on the court since 1988. Kennedy joined the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1975 as the youngest federal judge of his day. When President Carter expanded and flooded the Ninth Circuit Court with liberal judges during his presidency. Kennedy soon became the head of the court's Republican-nominated minority. In the turbulent and often divided Ninth Circuit Court of that time, Kennedy often held majorities with few dissents. His narrow case-by-case approach and his refusal to resort to sweeping conclusions and rhetoric won him the support of many colleagues. Kennedy's experience as a federal judge allowed him to make a quick and easy transition to the Supreme Court. Since then, Kennedy has voted consistently with his past record on many issues. He remains conservative on crime issues and still refuses to broaden the scope of his opinions. He has been effective in holding unlikely coalitions on the Court and often been the odd vote on the court’s close decisions.111 Associate Justice Stephen Breyer has served on the court since 1994. He was the freshman member of the court for an unprecedented eleven years, a position that requires being called on last to give views during case discussions. The youngest member of the court also has to serve as the doorman during those sessions, passing messages to the other justices.112 Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has served on the court since 1993. Leaning towards the liberal side of the Court's political spectrum, Ginsburg is an outspoken member of the leftist voting bloc. Unlike other justices, Ginsburg relishes the opportunity to address the public in speeches and often appears in public venues. There is little doubt that Ginsburg's position on women's rights, and civil liberties in general, will play an important role in many controversial issues to come.113 Associate Justice Antonin Scalia has served on the court since 1986. Arguably the Court's most colorful jurist today, Scalia defies simple characterization. Indeed, the often controversial and combative justice

108 Biography of John Paul Stevens, Oyez, http://www.oyez.org/justices/john_paul_stevens/ 109 Biography of Samuel Alito, Oyez, http://www.oyez.org/justices/samuel_a_alito_jr/ 110 Biography of David Souter, Oyez, http://www.oyez.org/justices/david_h_souter/ 111 Biography of Anthony Kennedy, Oyez, http://www.oyez.org/justices/anthony_kennedy/ 112 Gina Holland, "Court's nine-year freshman bides his time," Associated Press, June 10, 2003, http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20030610&slug=breyer10 113 Biography of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Oyez, http://www.oyez.org/justices/ruth_bader_ginsburg/ draws out a wide range of sentiments from his peers and the public. Certainly, no one denies his immense legal brilliance and intellectual abilities. A Supreme Court observer once noted that if the mind were muscle and Court sessions were televised, Scalia would be the Arnold Schwarzenegger of American jurisprudence. Scalia also fills the role of the strong man. His confrontational style has startled many attorneys who have appeared before him. One litigator even described his action as those of a big cat batting around a ball of yarn. Scalia adds a dynamic personality to the Court.114 Associate Justice Clarence Thomas has served on the court since 1991. Since becoming a justice, Thomas has aligned closely with the far right of the Court. He votes most frequently on the same side as the conservative camp of Alito and Scalia. When Thomas began his tenure on the Court, many observers perceived him as a junior version of Scalia. Since then, Thomas has emerged from Scalia's shadow offering hints at his own conservative thinking.115 The next few months could easily see the resignation of a member of the Supreme Court justice. Because of the political power of a judge, many speculate that some current justices may be waiting for a President who is more closely aligned with their own ideology. Likely names include Justices Stevens and Ginsburg. At 88 years old, Stevens has been on the court since 1975 and has had some highly publicized health drama. Ginsburg has also had some health concerns and may want to step down to spend more time in the care of her husband who is fighting cancer. She has also expressed interest in writing a memoir and teaching, both of which would be easier without the obligations of her current position.116 If any Justice retires, the debate over a replacement will be acrimonious, to say the least. A key reason for the intensity of fights over Supreme Court appointments is that they are made for life. This will be the one and only opportunity anyone will have to get it right. A mistake or error of judgment might still be with us 30 or 40 years from now. Historically, people were appointed to the Supreme Court relatively late in life—as a capstone to long careers in law or public service. Today, there is much more of an effort to appoint relatively young members to the court so that they will spend as much time there as possible. There is also greater pressure for those on the court to avoid retiring until severe physical infirmity demands it. Because the court has become so politicized, many justices now time their retirements to suit their politics, often delaying retirement until a president of their party or philosophy is available to nominate their replacement. Given that three of our last four presidents served two terms, this can often force justices to hang on far longer than they would rather have preferred.117 For these reasons, tenure on the court has increased over time and turnover has fallen. According to Northwestern University law professors Steven Calabresi and James Lindgren, since 1971 the average tenure in office for a justice has increased from 12.2 years (1941-1970) to 25.6 years. The average age of a justice upon leaving office has risen from 67.6 years to 78.8 years between the same periods. And the average number of years between appointments to the court has almost doubled from one every 1.67 years to one every 3.27 years.118 All that time on the court is a lot for a bunch of octogenarians. Maybe that is why the highest court in the land is issuing fewer opinions and increasingly refusing to hear petitions brought to it. Judicial observers note that last year, the Court issued 93 signed opinions -- compared to 170 in 1981 and that petitions today are five times more likely to be denied review than they were 20 years ago. The Court accepts just 1 percent of the appeals filed with it -- compared to 5 percent in 1978. When a hearing is denied, the court is not endorsing a lower court ruling. But the effect of the higher court's inaction is to make that lower court ruling the law of the jurisdiction it came from -- even if that law conflicts with what other jurisdictions have decided on the same issue. As a result, some critics say, the Supreme Court is risking one of its core functions -- which is to

114 Biography of Antonin Scalia, Oyez, http://www.oyez.org/justices/antonin_scalia/ 115 Biography of Clarence Thomas, Oyez, http://www.oyez.org/justices/clarence_thomas/ 116 Peggy Noonan, "Conceit of Government," The Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2005, http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110006884 117 Bruce Bartlett, "Life Tenure and the Supreme Court," National Center for Policy Analysis, July 6, 2005, http://www.ncpa.org/edo/bb/2005/20050706bb.htm 118 Calabresi, Steven G. and Lindgren, James T., "Term Limits for the Supreme Court: Life Tenure Reconsidered,” Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Vol. 29, No. 3 bring a measure of consistency to the law, so that legal interpretation on laws ranging from affirmative action to parochial school aid are the same nationwide.119 There is no doubt that the courts will have an impact on current events. The decisions made today will be headline news tomorrow and landmark cases in a decade. They will determine our rights as citizens and liberties as human beings. No branch of government has its finger so close to the pulse of the constitution and no branch of government has as much power. Key Terms Separated powers Checks and Balances Elected officials Unelected officials Judge Constitution Congress John G. Roberts, Jr Circuit Court Senate Judiciary Committee Docket size Chief Justice John Paul Stevens Samuel Alito David Souter Sandra Day O'Connor Anthony Kennedy Stephen Breyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg Antonin Scalia Clarence Thomas Ideology Jurisdiction Research Tips Check out decisions as they are decided by the highest court in the land by clicking on "Latest Slip Opinions" on this site: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/opinions.html Read Article III of the United States constitution. What is the appropriate role of the Judiciary? http://www.house.gov/house/Constitution/Constitution.html

119 Tony Mauro, "Court's Inaction Allows Confusion," USA Today, December 23, 1998, http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=12700 FederalFederal ReserveReserve

“There are two things that can disrupt the American economy. One is a war. The other is a meeting of The Federal Reserve Board.” ~ Will Rogers

Ben Bernanke has a lot on his plate right now. As Chairman of the Federal Reserve, it is his job to balance and stabilize economic growth by controlling the money supply and interest rates. The money supply is the total amount of money held by the non-bank public at a point in time in an economy.120 When most students think of interest rates, they conjure images of their bank balances and the cost of securing a loan. When economists refer to interest rates, they generally mean the Federal Funds Rate, they generally mean the interest rate at which banks lend funds at the Federal Reserve to other banks. Banks only keep a certain percentage of their client's savings on hand. They need the bulk of it to invest and turn a profit. If a bank needs more money, it can exchange with other banks and the Fed at the Federal Funds Interest Rate. Because these exchanges are generally conducted after the bank has closed, this rate is also called the Overnight Rate. The Fed has played a major role in economic change in recent decades. Past Chairmen have become well known and almost iconic figures who earn the confidence of investors and are the face of our nation's financial decision-making. These men have amazing power to influence growth or stagnation based only on what they say. Investors will choose to or not to proceed with their plans, consumers will save or spend more and businesses change their approach as a result of an announcement from the Fed. Economists have even coined a term - Open Mouth Operations - to describe the mercurial confidence of investment and the stabilizing effect of the Federal Reserve. Paul Volcker was the Fed Chairman during the Carter and Reagan Administrations. He is widely credited for increasing economic growth while getting inflation under control during the early 1980s. His successor, Alan Greenspan, was a fixture in current events topics through most of this Author's extemp career. Greenspan's steady hand guided the US economy through the internet boom of the 1990s and the tech bubble bust in 2000 and accompanying recession in 2001. Ben Bernanke, the current Fed Chairman, is viewed as a pragmatist by many observers. His approach to economic crises has been criticized as reactionary and some economists feel he doesn't adhere to any one policy, but moves between different strategies until he finds something with which he is comfortable. So far, Bernanke's policy has focused on cutting interest rates. Under his guidance, the Federal Funds Rate has fallen dramatically, although the drop may be due to slowed economic growth. Despite their influence - or maybe because of it - Fed Chairmen are notorious for their double-speak. In June of 2008, Bernanke remarked that "For now, policy seems well positioned to promote moderate growth and price stability over time."121 His phraseology is so pockmarked by addenda and exceptions that his real meaning is almost impossible to discern. In the Spring of 2008, before the recession was apparent, Bernanke performed many an elaborate tap dance a la Billy Flynn in Chicago. It was an "economic downturn" or "slight financial disruption," but never a "recession" until the words were pulled from his mouth by undeniable facts. Decisions from the Federal Reserve are regular and influential. You will do well to keep up with Bernanke's comments as well as the follow the decisions that come down from the board he chairs. Key Terms Ben Bernanke Federal Reserve

120 Paul M. Johnson. "Money stock:," A Glossary of Political Economy Terms 121 Smith, Aaron, "Bernanke: Gloomy on growth," CNN Money, June 3, 2008 Money Supply Interest Rates Federal Funds Rate Overnight Rate Investors Economic Growth Economic Stagnation Consumers Open Mouth Operation Confidence Paul Volcker Alan Greenspan Internet Boom Bubble Burst Recession Federal Reserve Chairman Reactionary Research Tips Get the double speak from the horse's mouth. Check out the Fed's webpage for press releases and more information. www.federalreserve.gov Employment: Keep an eye on the Bureau of Labor Statistics which comes out with new employment numbers every month. These numbers often have a profound influence on economic decisions. Having the hard data will give you an edge on opponents who just read the pre-chewed analysis. Check out this month's numbers here: www.bls.gov/ces/ Read about the Federal Reserve System in more detail by visiting this site maintained by About.com: http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa081599.htm The European Central Bank (ECB) faces problems similar to our domestic Federal Reserve. It handles the money supply for the countries using the Euro, sets the interest rates and makes rules for lenders. Check the ECB's website here: www.ecb.int GlobalGlobal WarmingWarming

“Back in the 1970s, the hysteria was about global cooling and the prospect of a new ice age. A National Academy of Sciences report back then led Science magazine to conclude in its March 1, 1975, issue that a long 'ice age is a real possibility.' According to the April 28, 1975, issue of Newsweek, 'the earth's climate seems to be cooling down.' A note of urgency was part of the global cooling hysteria then as much as it is part of today's global warming hysteria. According to the February, 1973, issue of Science Digest, 'Once the freeze starts, it will be too late.’” ~ Thomas Sowell

Former Vice President Al Gore has been storming the planet with a message that boils down to two points. First, global warming is the greatest crisis facing mankind. Second, the cost of solving this problem is either not all that big a deal or well worth paying — take your pick. According to Investor's Business Daily, it's a mix of environmental panic and economic complacency. But if Oslo and Hollywood are showing unconditional love, Washington is a tad more ambivalent. The Hill, the daily newspaper covering Congress, reports that some members of Gore's own party were uneasy about him taking his crusade to the nation's capital. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., told the paper that voters are not in a mood to hear about expensive alternative energy schemes. "If it looks like it's just a continuation of an attack on our economy and family budgets, then it starts getting dispiriting," he said. "The fact is," added Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., "the price issue of oil and gas has become a very dominant issue."122 So what is this crisis that has everyone steamed (note the pun!) on Capitol Hill, in Oslo and Hollywood? According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, global warming is caused by emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases that are emitted primarily by the burning of fossil fuels and the clearing of forests. These gases remain in our atmosphere for decades or even centuries. The Union claims that the profound impact rising temperatures have had in the Arctic provides a window into a future we may all experience. With continued warming, we can expect more extreme heat and drought, rising sea levels, and higher-intensity tropical storms. At risk are our coastal property and resources, the livability of our cities in summer, and the productivity of our farms, forests, and fisheries.123 Not all are convinced of the science behind global warming, however. In May, 2008, Noah Keenlyside of Germany's Leipzig Institute of Marine Science, published a paper in Nature forecasting no additional global warming "over the next decade." The Keenlyside team found that natural variability in the Earth's oceans will "temporarily offset" global warming from carbon dioxide. Seventy percent of the Earth's surface is oceanic; hence, what happens there greatly influences global temperature. It is now known that both Atlantic and Pacific temperatures can get "stuck," for a decade or longer, in relatively warm or cool patterns. The North Atlantic is now forecast to be in a cold stage for a decade, which will help put the damper on global warming. Another Pacific temperature pattern is forecast not to push warming, either.124 NASA now begrudgingly confirms that the hottest year on record in the continental 48 was not 1998, as previously believed, but 1934, and that six of the 10 hottest years since 1880 antedate 1954. Data from 3,000 scientific robots in the world's oceans show there has been slight cooling in the past five years, never mind

122 Editorial, "Inconvenient Al," Investor's Business Daily, July 17, 2008, http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=301188009150002 123 "Global Warming Science," Union of Concerned Scientists, May 21, 2007, http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science/ 124 Michael Kahn, "Natural changes may offset global warming briefly," Reuters, April 30, 2008, http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL3084412620080430 that "80% to 90% of global warming involves heating up ocean waters," according to a report by NPR's Richard Harris.125 A Wall Street Journal editorial sees global warming as a guise for other motives, arguing that socialism may have failed as an economic theory, but global warming alarmism, with its dire warnings about the consequences of industry and consumerism, is equally a rebuke to capitalism. Take just about any other discredited leftist nostrum of yore – population control, higher taxes, a vast new regulatory regime, global economic redistribution, an enhanced role for the United Nations – and global warming provides a justification. The Journal wonders what the left would make of a scientific "consensus" warning that some looming environmental crisis could only be averted if every college-educated woman bore six children: Thumbs to "patriarchal" science; curtains to the species.126 Patrick Michaels, a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute, argues that science no longer provides justification for any rush to pass drastic global warming legislation. The Climate Security Act, sponsored by Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and John Warner (R-VA), would cut emissions of carbon dioxide — the main "global warming" gas — by 66 percent over the next 42 years. With expected population growth, this means about a 90 percent drop in emissions per capita, to 19th-century levels. Michaels sees other regulatory dictates as similarly unjustified. He points to computer models, like the one used by Keenlyside, et al., which rely on "positive feedbacks" to generate much of their warming predictions. First, atmospheric carbon dioxide warms things up a bit. Then the ocean follows, raising the amount of atmospheric water vapor, which is a greater source of global warming than carbon dioxide. When the ocean does not warm up, it seems that the additional warming is also delayed. All of this may mean that we have simply overestimated the amount of warming that resulting from increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide. What is "settled" is the politics, not the science.127 Weighing our own prosperity against the chances that climate change will diminish the well being of our grandchildren calls on economists to make difficult ethical judgments, says John Broome, White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Corpus Christi College. Consider that future generations will suffer most of the harmful effects of global climate change. However, if the world economy grows, they will be richer than we are. Economists cannot avoid making ethical choices in formulating their advice.128 A recent report by economist Nicholas Stern and his colleagues at the U.K. Treasury concluded that the benefit that would be gained by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases would be far greater than the cost of reducing them. Stern's discount rate of 1.4 percent found that $1 trillion in today's dollars would be worth $247 billion in 100 years; he concluded the world needs to begin investing 1 percent of total production, or $500 billion, on efforts to reduce greenhouse gases.129 The research is hardly unanimous, however. A contradictory report by economist William Nordhouse of Yale University (which reached its conclusion by using a different discount rate that placed less value on the wellbeing of future generations) did not find sufficient evidence to justify the costs of greatly reducing greenhouse gases. Nordhouse's discount rate of 6 percent found that $1 trillion in today's dollars would be worth $2.5 billion in 100 years, which is not enough to justify the costs of reducing greenhouse gases.130

125 Richard Harris, "The Mystery of Global Warming's Missing Heat," Morning Edition of NPR, March 19, 2008, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88520025 126 Bret Stephens, "Global Warming as Mass Neurosis," The Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121486841811817591.html?mod=todays_columnists 127 Patrick Michaels, "Global-warming myth," Washington Times, May 16, 2008, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/may/16/global-warming-myth/ 128 John Broome, "The Ethics of Climate Change," Scientific American, June 2008, http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-ethics-of-climate-change 129 "Interview: 'Nicholas Stern' by Alun Anderson," Prospect Magazine, July 2008, http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=10256 130 Lynne Kiesling, Ronald Bailey and Fred L. Smith, "Carbon: Tax, Trade, or Deregulate?" Reason Magazine, July, 2008, http://www.reason.com/news/show/126851.html The Group of Eight may be waking up to the cost of fighting global warming, but in Australia, the opposite is happening. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has promised to implement an emissions trading scheme by 2010. According to the Wall Street Jrouanl, Rudd just wants to do what every Labor politician likes: tax industry and redistribute the proceeds, at huge cost to the economy. Economist Ross Garnaut released a report on climate change and how to combat it. The report says the solution is in removing the links between economic activity and greenhouse gas emissions and suggests selling artificial permits that allow companies to "pollute." Industry would either fold under the cost burden or pass those costs onto consumers. Meanwhile, the government would haul in huge revenues from the permit sales. Garnaut and Rudd both acknowledge that emissions trading would be costly – especially in a country where natural resources account for around half of all exports. To alleviate this government-created problem, the Garnaut Review suggests some government- directed money shuffling. Up to 30 percent of sales revenues would go to trade-exposed, emissions-intensive export industries; in essence, this means the government would pay companies to stay in Australia rather than move to a country that doesn't impose arbitrary costs on business. Another 30 percent of this indirect tax would go to research, development and commercialization of new, low-emissions technologies. The bulk of the proposed handouts are reserved for households, to relieve the regressive income distribution effects of the emissions trading system.131 In the United States, the Clean Air Act (1970) and its amendments threaten our military readiness, according to the Heritage Foundation. The Clean Air Act, implemented in 1970, aims to regulate air pollutants in the name of public health and welfare. The law recognizes that states should take the lead in carrying out the legislation. In accordance with the Clean Air Act, each state is required to submit to the EPA a State Implementation Plan outlining compliance procedures. For the military, this can place a serious strain on readiness when training exercises and weapons systems are moved, especially in what are called non- attainment areas, where air pollution standards persistently exceed national air quality standards. Under the Clean Air Act's conformity requirements, replacing weapons systems or building new facilities within these areas is prohibited without first demonstrating that the future action conforms to the State Implementation Plan. Heritage claims that the potential for chaos under the proposed regulations is real. The EPA could regulate greenhouse gas emissions from numerous types of engines, including those installed in military tanks, trucks, helicopters, ships, and aircraft. This is an expensive proposition given that the U.S. military is already the country's largest consumer of oil and accounts for over 90 percent of all federal government energy costs. Heritage argues that not only would the EPA notice have dramatic consequences for training and readiness, but it would also impact nearly every military installation in the country and the buildings therein, including residences, commissaries, gyms, movie theaters, and hospitals. According to the Government Accountability Office, the Department of Defense manages and operates about 577,000 structures worldwide (the majority in the continental United States) and over 500 stationary sites such as ranges.132 Others argue that capping and trading emissions could have an impact opposed to its intended consequence. Justin Danholf, a research associate with the National Center for Public Policy Research, writing in the Christian Science Monitor, says that by turning carbon emissions into commodities that can be bought and sold, cap-and-trade policies could remove the stigma from producing such emissions. Under cap-and-trade rules, the government places an artificial cap on the amount of carbon each regulated facility may emit. Facilities producing more carbon than they are allowed are required to purchase additional credits to make up the difference. The opportunity to purchase these credits creates a market where none previously existed. This phenomenon is already seen on an individual level. 133 In the late 1990s, Israeli researchers Uri Gneezy and Aldo Rustichini performed an experiment that provides a useful model. They chose six random day-care centers in Haifa at which parents sometimes arrived late to pick up their children. Intending to reduce the frequency of tardiness, the two imposed a fine on late parents. 131 "Cap and Redistribute," Wall Street Journal, July 14, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121597161575549059.html 132 Mackenzie Eaglen, "'A Glorious Mess:' EPA Notice Would Have Dramatic Impact on U.S. Military," Heritage Foundation, July 11, 2008, http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/wm1988.cfm 133 Justin Danhof, "Why Cap and Trade Could Backfire," Christian Science Monitor, July 16, 2008, http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0716/p09s02-coop.html Gneezy and Rustichini explain that, typically, "when negative consequences are imposed on a behavior, they will produce a reduction of that particular response." But the experiment did not produce the anticipated results. Instead, the incidence of late arrivals increased. In fact, the percentage of parents who were late more than doubled. Behavioral law and economics help explain this counterintuitive result. Prior to the imposition of the fine, parents – recognizing it is wrong to make a teacher stay past normal hours with their children – experienced feelings of guilt and shame when they were late. In other words, some parents were motivated to arrive on time by the stigma attached to arriving late. Imposing the fine reduced the stigma. The fine created a good, and a market where none previously existed. Parents were no longer "arriving late," but rather, purchasing extra child-care hours. As in the example of the fined parents, the purchase of the right to emit greenhouse gases would likely reduce any stigma associated with doing so. Emission levels, consequently, could rise.134 While American politicians mull a carbon cap-and-trade system for industry, the British are already contemplating the next step: personal CO2 rations. According to a Parliamentary committee proposal, all British adults would be given "carbon allowances" that they would be required to spend when buying gasoline, airline tickets, electricity or natural gas. Britons who wanted more credits than they were issued could try to buy them from those who had not spent their allotment. It would cost a country like Britain billions of dollars a year to run a personal cap-and-trade system nationwide. All of this is supposed to give people a financial incentive to shrink their energy consumption and thus their carbon footprint. The Wall Street Journal sees this as the clearest picture yet of how environmentalists want to touch every aspect of modern life, with wartime-like rations for energy. The duration of the global warming fight would make the decade and a half of British rationing for World War II seem like a fleeting moment. Americans have not even embarked on cap-and-trade for industry yet, although both Barack Obama and John McCain say they favor such a system.135 The question of Global Warming is hardly isolated to the United States. The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol is that it sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These amount to an average of five per cent against 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-2012. In theory, the major distinction between the Protocol and the Convention is that while the Convention encouraged industrialized countries to stabilize GHG emissions, the Protocol commits them to do so.136 Rather than ratify the Kyoto protocol, the United States has relied on the arc of domestic energy programs now in place, like fuel-economy standards and efficiency regulations, along with billions in subsidies for low-carbon technology. Europe threw in with the central planning of the Kyoto Protocol -- and the contrast is instructive. Between 2000 and 2006, U.S. net greenhouse gas emissions fell 3 percent. Of the 17 largest worldwide emitters, only France reduced by more. According to the Wall Street Journal, despite environmentalist sanctimony about the urgent need for President Bush and the United States to "take the lead" on global warming, his program has done better than most everybody else's.137 Without the United States to back Kyoto, the Protocol has suffered mightily. David G. Victor writes in his book "The Collapse of the Kyoto Protocol and the Struggle to Slow Global Warming," that now that the United States has formally withdrawn from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, other key nations are facing difficulty in meeting their Kyoto commitments and developing countries face no limit on their emissions of the gases that cause global warming. Kyoto's fatal flaw, Victor argues, is that it can work only if emissions trading works. But starting this trading system would require creating emission permits worth two trillion dollars--the largest single invention of assets by voluntary international treaty in world history. Even if it were politically

134 Uri Gneezy and Aldo Rustichini, "A Fine is a Price," Journal of Legal Studies, Vol. 29, No. 1, January 2000, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=180117 135 Editorial, "British Rationing," Wall Street Journal, June 25, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121434170921901019.html 136 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Kyoto Protocol, http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/items/2830.php 137 Editorial, "Kyoto's Long Goodbye," Wall Street Journal, July 11, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121573566257544347.html possible to distribute such astronomical sums, the Protocol does not provide for adequate monitoring and enforcement of these new property rights. Nor does it offer an achievable plan for allocating new permits, which would be essential if the system were expanded to include developing countries.138 Kyoto's difficulties have not kept nations from ratifying the agreement. Turkey, which needs to be accepted as a legitimate European power in order to join the European Union, is set to join the Protocol and make one more step toward inclusion. Turkish Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Commission has adopted a bill to ratify Kyoto Protocol. Turkey has already completed the process of preparing to sign the protocol but the country had not signed the pact due to concerns about the costs.139 Al Gore says the risk of catastrophic global warming is so great that Americans should act immediately to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Yet his home uses 20 times more energy than the average American home, according to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. Whether or not the science behind global warming is good, the politics behind the issue is fierce. Expect to see a regular debate over ratification of global treaties designed to reduce GHG emissions and push back the specter of rising global heat. Key Terms Al Gore Global Warming Oslo Union of Concerned Scientists Carbon Dioxide Fossil fuels Natural variability NASA Socialism Alarmism Capitalism Climate Security Act Joe Lieberman John Warner Ethical judgments Discount rate Group of Eight Kevin Rudd Pollution permits Emissions trading Clean Air Act (1970) Air Quality Conformity requirements State Implementation Plan Stigma Carbon allowances Barack Obama

138 David G. Victor, "The Collapse of the Kyoto Protocol and the Struggle to Slow Global Warming," Princeton University Press Press, 2004 139 "Report: Turkey to join Kyoto Protocol," Xinhua News, July 2, 2008, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/02/content_8478279.htm John McCain Kyoto Protocol Greenhous gases Fuel economy standards Turkey European Union Research Tips Read the text of the Kyoto Protocol by visiting: http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/kpeng.html Check out the Union of Concerned Scientists' webpage here: http://www.ucsusa.org/ Read a counter argument to the UCS here: http://www.ourcivilisation.com/aginatur/moregw.htm GoogleGoogle

“ Ultimately, Microsoft knows that the software landscape will shift from the desktop to the hybrid of the Internet and the desktop. Google has thrown out warning shots that they will be players in many of the significant areas of software.” ~ Gene Munster

Google, Inc. has grown from a small, startup company in the Silicon Valley to the most powerful search engine on the Internet. In the process, Google has put itself in the center of the current events spotlight, not just for its new innovations and web developments, but for privacy concerns and competition with rival Microsoft. The years from 1998 to 2008 passed very quickly for Google as the company went from startup to behemoth in record time. But there are signs that Google has lost its mojo and become just another fat, happy, and even arrogant company, no longer the lean, industry-changing giant of the past. And that spells good news for Google’s competition. As far as its employees are concerned, Google has prided itself on the many perks it offers those who work for it. The pact has always been clear: Google will treat you like a king, if you in turn work long, hard hours. The company’s free cafeteria, after all, is fuel for those willing to work harder and longer. Those days may be gone. The first sign of a shift in philosophy came with Google’s attitude toward employees' children. Google raised the amount it charged for in-house day care by 75 percent.140 Google has been labeled Fortune magazine’s "Best Company to Work For" the past two years, but that distinction has done little to keep Google from cutting corners and changing its employee-friendly image.141 Having discovered that Google is not, in fact, the promised land, a number of Googlers have left recently to join start-ups, hotter companies like Facebook, Cuil — and even, horror of horrors, Microsoft. Watch Google’s stock value. The ticker is mercurial, flying from $744 to $412 from November of 2007 to April of 2008, a 44 percent swing. Like many technology firms, the price moves radically, but Google may be considering splitting its stock, a move that would make purchasing shares of the company easier for entry level investors and would increase the value of the company overall. Stock value tends to influence news articles' perspective on Google. When a stock was rising as fast as Google’s once was, it was easy to buy the view that there was something truly special about Google. But when the stock is falling, overlooked problems start to loom large.142 Google is big. It is not quite a monopoly in the search business – Yahoo! and Microsoft’s MSN Live! both command noticeable minorities – but it dominates the market like one. There's little disputing that Google dominates Internet advertising, especially regarding search. Google has as much as 70% of all U.S. searches, according to a report by measurement firm Hitwise. Yahoo has just shy of a 20% share. Microsoft, a distant third competitor, has less than a 6% share. Overseas, Google has even greater market share. Hitwise estimates that the company’s dominance in the United Kingdom has reached 87.3% of all search traffic while number two competitor Yahoo has fallen from 8.6% to 4.1% in the last year.143 Perhaps because of its size, or

140 Preston Gralla, "Why Google Has Lost Its Mojo," PCWorld, July 7, 2008, http://www.pcworld.com/article/148036/why_google_has_lost_its_mojo.html 141 Robert Levering and Milton Moskowitz, "Top 50 Employers," Fortune, January 22, 2008, http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fortune/0801/gallery.bestcos_top50.fortune/index.html 142 MG Siegler, "Does the rapid descent of Google’s stock mean anything? Nobody knows," Venture Beat, February 26, 2008, http://venturebeat.com/2008/02/26/does-the-rapid-descent-of-googles-stock- mean-anything-nobody-knows/ 143 Jack Schofield, "Google UK closes in on 90% market share," Guardian (London), June 10, 2008, http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/06/10/google_uk_closes_in_on_90_market_share.html maybe because of its envelope-pushing innovation, Google is under constant fire on a number of fronts, from anti-trust claims and copyright infringement to privacy arguments. Because of the market share it controls, Department of Justice (DOJ) regulators are wary of any plan that allows for Google and Yahoo! to work together, even if the collaboration covers only a small part of Yahoo’s search business. Antitrust officials at the DOJ are about to get an earful on why they should be leery of a partnership between the No. 1 and No. 2 search engines. The two companies are in talks to work together on advertising and other non-search areas while keeping the bulk of their activities separate. Opponents argue the deal will only widen Google's dominance of the online advertising market. Microsoft, of course, is one of the strongest foes of any deal that has its two rivals working together. Microsoft has fought hard to gain control of Yahoo! or even buy it out entirely, but has yet to pull together an offer that is attractive enough to gain control of its rival. The concern for anti-trust regulators is that any deal could entrench Google’s pre- eminence and give the giant even greater share of the search and internet services market.144 If Google were only a search company, this article might be finished here. Perhaps the bulk of the controversy surrounding the Mountain View firm regards the other services Google provides. Google employees are encouraged to give about 20% of their time to developing new concepts and "beta-testing" their innovative babies. A number of valuable and useful projects have emerged from this corporately fostered brainstorm such as an email service and weblog development tools. Google employees have created some humorous projects as well, such as a virtual world chat room.145 Google's mapping tool Street View, where it matches photos of locations to maps, including passers-by who were captured as the photograph was taken, is under attack by privacy advocates. Privacy International, a UK rights group, believes the technology breaks data protection laws. While some individuals have requested images showing them be removed, the tool itself has come under attack as being an inherent violator of privacy rights. In a more traditional search sense, Google holds private search information for hundreds of millions of search users. This information is invaluable to law enforcement agencies and prosecutors who need evidence for their internet-based cases. Enforcing anti-child pornography laws and finding illegal music downloaders is much easier when user’s information is available for subpoena. Google has generally resisted the requests of courts to look at private data, but has, when pressed given up the records sought. In an effort to appease arguments regarding its privacy sensitivity, Google recently placed a link to its privacy policy on its spartan homepage. The word "privacy" has the distinction of being one of the 28 words on the homepage. While this gesture is token, industry observers are hopeful it signals greater respect for the rights and fears of its customers.146 So far, Google’s biggest legal nightmares have surrounded the question of copyright infringement. A federal judge rejected Google’s argument that some photographs simply are not "creative" enough to warrant copyright protections and enforced limits on the reach of the company’s image search. That legal loss was not an aberration. As Google becomes more deeply interested in books and video, and expands its search domain beyond Web pages, it has found itself increasingly at odds with established copyright industries including book publishers, journalists, and professional photographers. In addition, its keyword advertising has antagonized some trademark holders, though Google did prevail against Geico Insurance in a dispute in 2006 when a judge ruled that it was not trademark infringement to use trademarks as keywords to trigger advertising.147 Some spats between copyright holders and Internet companies are inevitable. Search engine operators would like to index, sort, and regurgitate photographs, videos and text found on the Web without forking over licensing fees. Copyright holders, on the other hand, want to make more money from their content. And some

144 Catherine Holahan, "The Case Against Google-Yahoo," Business Week, July 3, 2008, http://businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2008/tc2008073_184471.htm 145 "Google lets people create custom virtual realms," AFP, July 9, 2008, http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ib0cRTmTlLkagwlceJKCKJDzDPMQ 146 "Google faces 'Street View block,'" BBC News, July 4, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7488524.stm 147 Declan McCullagh, "Copyright tussles for Google," CNet News, August 4, 2006, http://news.cnet.com/2100-1025_3-6102153.html?hhTest=1 disputes do settle amicably. The Associated Press resolved a headline grabbing dispute with Google over the use of its headlines and photographs. For its part, Google says it values copyright and points out that it allows copyright holders to opt out of having their content included in the company's search products. Copyright holders, however, say it is impractical for millions of people to opt out of hundreds of search engines. Google’s defense of cached web pages and images centers on the fair use doctrine which allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review. YouTube, a startup video sharing website acquired by Google for a cool $1.65 billion, is in the eye of the copyright hurricane. Content producer Viacom slapped a $1 billion lawsuit on YouTube accusing the colossally popular site of "massive intentional copyright infringement." If Viacom wins its lawsuit against YouTube, Google's bank balance will take a big hit – but that's not all. If the case goes against Google, it could change the way that media sharing websites work. Viacom's argument is that YouTube has built a business on pirated content, and that's why it asked for the server logs. Viacom believes the data will show that first-time visitors are there for illegally copied TV shows rather than Dramatic Hamster or laughing babies. Google will argue this is absurd and point to its policy of removing illegally copied material after it is given notice.148 Under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act's "safe harbor" provisions, service providers cannot be held responsible for their users' actions. To be a safe harbor, a service provider must not be aware that copyright infringement is going on, and it cannot benefit financially from such infringement. Viacom clearly believes that YouTube's server logs will undermine point number one, and that the presence of targeted ads on YouTube's search results pages undermines point number two. Google, on the other hand, returns to its removal policy mantra. As long as Google continues to address content creators’ complaints and uses the delete button freely, Viacom should not have a claim. It is not ideal for copyright owners, however, who wonder why they should spend massive amounts of time and effort tracking down their intellectual property when Google is the one profiting from it. Advertisers, a key revenue source for Google, are wary of pending litigation and wonder about the future of targeted ads that accompany YouTube content. The company boasts viewership of better than one billion clips per day and advertising revenue of around $200 million per year, but that second figure could be in jeopardy if the litigation goes the wrong way. It is not 1998 anymore. The Google that was introduced to a teenage internet has grown into a behemoth that is experiencing constant and very visible growing pains. At ten years of age, Google is hitting adolescence and the next few years may very well show us what kind of adult company the search engine will become. Will it challenge Microsoft or be consumed by Bill Gate’s brainchild? Will content providers win in the courts as they defend their copyright claims? Key Terms Startup Company Solicon Valley Privacy Microsoft Fortune Magazine Facebook Cuil Stock Ticker Stock Split Yahoo Market Share

148 "What does Viacom want from its YouTube lawsuit?" Tech Radar, July 8, 2008, http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/what-happens-if-viacom-wins-its-youtube-lawsuit--419831 Anti-Trust Copyright Infrigement Department of Justice Internet Advertising Beta Testing Weblog Illegal Music Downloaders Child Pornography Fair Use Doctrine YouTube Viacom US Digital Millennium Copyright Act Service Provider Safe Harbor Research Tips Read Google’s privacy policy here: http://www.google.com/privacy.html Check out the latest Google news at the Official Google Blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/ Read Philipp Lenssen’s latest analysis of Google on his faithfully updated blog: http://blogoscoped.com/ Watch EPIC 2014, a short animated clip about what the world might look like if the current technology trajectory continues: http://www.robinsloan.com/epic/ Try out some of Google’s competitors like Cuil (www.cuil.com/) and Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com/). HealthcareHealthcare

“A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools.” ~ Spanish Proverb

An old asthma advertisement touts the impact of the lung disease by saying that "when you can’t breath, nothing else matters." While this is certainly true for the asthmatic, the principle can be applied to healthcare as a whole. When you have an ailment that needs medical attention, nothing else matters. The United States is facing this reality on a constant basis as proposals to reform our healthcare system are introduced in an effort to increase the quality and reach of medical professionals while minimizing costs. On Capital Hill, everyone has an idea for healthcare reform, the trouble is finding the right change to suite Americans and implementing it judiciously. Nearly everyone agrees that there is no magic pill for the nation's healthcare ills. The United States spends more money on healthcare than does any other country, yet the U.S. ranks lower than many wealthy nations on several key health measures. About 47 million Americans (15.1% of the population) do not have health insurance, and millions more lack complete insurance, making necessities such as regular medical checkups and prescription drugs a luxury for many. Companies are paying more for healthcare, and so are their employees. With the lack of health coverage and with medical costs rising at double-digit rates each year, many people choose to ignore preventive care altogether. This creates higher costs down the road when people show up in hospital emergency rooms with chronic or life-threatening conditions. Recent polls say the public expects the next president to tackle a healthcare system widely criticized for its runaway costs and lack of attention to preventive care. Americans rank healthcare reform as one of the top three domestic issues, behind the slumping economy and high gasoline prices. But the prospect of reforming the nation's healthcare system is a tricky one.149 Even those who have insurance are discovering that coverage is not a complete safety net. Only 1 percent of employer-offered group plans — the largest health insurance segment — had caps as low as $1 million last year, according to a survey by Kaiser Family Foundation. But 22 percent had caps of less than $2 million, and some want to see all these relatively low maximums eliminated. Insurers, however, say most health coverage already offers either a comfortable maximum of several million dollars or unlimited coverage. They note that more government regulation could lead to higher coverage costs, and low lifetime caps help them offer a greater variety of coverages.150 The New York Times reported this spring that 71 percent of Americans now receive insurance through their place of employment, but the origin of employer-based health insurance is a historical anomaly, stemming from a combination of labor shortages and wage controls during World War II. It limits consumer choice by giving decisions over coverage to employers rather than employees, meaning workers who lose their jobs lose their insurance. And individuals who do not receive employer-provided insurance face a greater financial burden when they try to buy insurance on their own.151 Senator John McCain is proposing the most radical overhaul of American healthcare policy in a decade and a half. Not since Bill and Hillary Clinton's failed reform attempt has a president, or even a presidential candidate, called for such sweeping changes to the way healthcare is delivered and health insurance is 149 Ken Alltucker, "Candidates attempt to woo voters with healthcare solutions," The Arizona Republic, July 14, 2008, http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2008/07/14/20080714elex- healthcare0714.html 150 Tom Murphy, "Low health insurance caps leave patients stranded," Associated Press, July 13, 2008, http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g28O2W922X0bb7WCVgh98VFn7KWQD91T4KC00 151 Jeff White, "McCain’s radical health overhaul," National Post, May 6, 2008, http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2008/05/06/mccain-s-radical-health- overhaul.aspx purchased. McCain would move us away from such a system. He would count at least some of a worker's employer-paid insurance as taxable income. At the same time, he would provide all Americans with a $2,500 refundable tax credit for individuals and a $5,000 credit for families, regardless of how people obtain their insurance. McCain maintains that his proposal would make insurance more affordable for everyone, including those with pre-existing conditions. In particular, by making insurance more affordable to the young and healthy, McCain's plan will attract them into the market before they develop pre-existing conditions. And McCain claims that deregulation will lead to the creation of new and innovative insurance products that can help solve these problems.152 Most notably, McCain would allow people to purchase health insurance across state lines, a practice now prohibited. McCain would also allow people to purchase insurance through nontraditional groups. Today, three types of organizations can offer group insurance: employers, unions and trade associations. McCain would open this to other groups, notably churches and professional organizations. Finally, McCain wants to change not only who pays for healthcare, but how they pay for it. McCain challenges the concept of traditional "fee for service" medicine. Steve Parente, professor of finance at the University of Minnesota, estimates that the McCain plan would cut the number of uninsured Americans by roughly half.153 Senator Barack Obama would take a different tact. Obama is behind a $6 billion-a-year plan to provide tax credits for small businesses offering health insurance to employees, an idea proposed by onetime rival Senator Hillary Clinton that is targeted at one of the most persistent challenges in achieving universal coverage. The tax credit offers an incentive for small businesses. Coverage for small businesses helped sink former President Bill Clinton's 1993 plan, which would have required all businesses to contribute toward health costs. Obama's proposed tax credit is an effort to bring this powerful constituency to the Democratic camp by offering carrots, not sticks, for providing health coverage. Under the plan, small businesses would get a refundable credit of as much as 50% on the premiums they pay on behalf of employees. To qualify, the businesses will have to offer a "quality health plan" for all workers and cover a "meaningful" share of the costs. Obama expects to fund his plan with savings he says he will generate in other areas. He plans to make it easier for generic versions of the most expensive drugs to enter the market, stimulating competition and driving down prices. Also, he will use part of the expected savings from reducing payments provided to hospitals by the federal government for covering the uninsured. If all small businesses provided healthcare, less money would be needed for those payments.154 Obama’s plan comes as U.S. healthcare costs are soaring and threatening small businesses. The share of the nation's smallest firms offering health benefits fell to 45% last year from 57% in 2000 and smaller companies pay 18% more for health premiums on average than larger ones do. On average, small businesses create more than two-thirds of net new jobs each year. Offsetting the healthcare costs for these smaller businesses should enable them to invest more money in growth and job creation.155 Health savings accounts (HSAs) can help consumers build nest eggs for healthcare costs, owe less in income taxes and pay less for insurance premiums. But because HSAs are relatively new, and feature many options and rules, it's also easy for consumers to make costly mistakes regarding unnecessary fees and tax surprises. HSAs, launched in 2004, are similar to 401(k) retirement accounts: They allow qualified workers to put aside a limited amount of pretax dollars every year. Contributions and the account's earnings must be used to pay for qualified healthcare costs. The money grows tax free and workers can keep their accounts if they switch jobs. Anyone can open an HSA if they have an eligible high-deductible health-insurance plan, which typically has a lower premium, and if they aren't enrolled in Medicare or another traditional plan such 152 Michael Tanner, "Michael Tanner: McCain's healthcare plan is radical -- and right," Union Leader, July 13, 2008, http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Michael+Tanner %3A+McCain's+health+care+plan+is+radical+--+and+right&articleId=e8edb4d3-5c0a-45c6-b3c4- 05f6fa8c35da 153 Clive Cook, "The Trouble With McCain's Health Plan," National Journal Magazine, May 3, 2008, http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/wn_20080503_8652.php 154 Melanie Trottman, "Healthcare Tax Credit Proposed for Small Business," The Wall Street Journal, July 13, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121600699982150317.html?mod=googlenews_wsj 155 "Obama Adopts Proposal From Clinton Health Plan," Free Republic, July 13, 2008, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2044932/posts as a health-maintenance organization. HSA rules define a high-deductible plan for individuals in 2008 as one with a deductible of at least $1,100 and an out-of-pocket cap of $5,600. For families, the numbers are $2,200 and $11,200, respectively. Some 6.1 million people became eligible for HSAs in January of 2008, up from 438,000 in 2004, according to America's Health Insurance Plans, a Washington, D.C., trade group. More employers, squeezed by rising healthcare costs, now offer high-deductible plans. Yet more than 40% of persons eligible still haven't opened an HSA, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress. One major reason may be a lack of understanding of the concept.156 As companies cut corners and more entrepreneurs strike out on their own, the individual health insurance market is growing. These days, the same people who traded company pension plans for self-managed 401(k)s are being asked to take on one more chore that used to be handled by human resources: shopping, selecting and purchasing health coverage. And it can be daunting. With group policies, insurance companies have to cover anyone the company hires. But with individual policies, carriers have the freedom to cherry-pick customers. And sometimes the exclusions or limitations don't even concern a current condition. If you're a woman of child-bearing age, you could face a large deductible on anything related to maternity care. Consumers buying their own coverage face another challenge that didn't exist when they were under the group umbrella -- being dropped. Under a group policy, the insurance carrier has to cover everyone in the group. It can raise the rates on the group, but it can't just drop someone. With individual insurance, the carrier can do both.157 Very few Americans truly understand how hospitals are paid, because provider reimbursement is foreign to the logic that prevails in other transactions in our economy. For example, when you go to the supermarket and buy a loaf of bread, you pay what everyone else pays, regardless of what they make. Let's say you were buying that loaf of bread in a hospital and it costs $1. If you were a Medicare patient, you would pay 95 cents. If you have no insurance and could not afford to pay anything, your loaf of bread would be paid for by taxpayers. If you were a commercially insured patient, you would pay $1.27. You can see that if supermarkets operated like the healthcare system, they would not stay in business long. Likewise, if you were a commercially insured patient, you would feel that the system was unfair. Well, this is exactly how hospitals feel. Hospitals remain the only true "safety net" in the healthcare system because they are required by law to treat all emergency health situations that come through their emergency departments, even if the patient does not have the ability to pay. The average hospital lost 6.2 cents out of every dollar treating patients because of low payments from government payers and a sharp increase in the number of uninsured individuals.158 No discussion of healthcare would be complete without mentioning universal healthcare. Democrats are launching an aggressive push for universal healthcare, fourteen years after a failed attempt on the issue resulted in political disaster.159 Peter Pitts of the Pasadena Star-News is not impressed with this "simple solution" to the healthcare crisis. Those who advocate a government-run health system for the United States often point to the British National Health Service (NHS) and the Canadian health system as models of state-financed - and high- quality healthcare. Just look at the international rankings from groups like the World Health Organization (WHO). Pitts says that the statistics are like a bathing suit: what they show you is interesting, but what they conceal is essential. Citizens of these countries experience long wait times, a lack of access to certain treatments and, in many instances, substandard medical care. For example, a typical Canadian seeking surgical or other therapeutic treatment had to wait 18.3 weeks in 2007 - an all-time high. About 875,000 156 Jane Zhang, "To Your Health," The Wall Street Journal, July 14, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121553704291136243.html?mod=googlenews_wsj 157 Dana Dratch, "Buying Private Health Insurance," Fox Business, July 14, 2008, http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/personal-finance/buying-private-health-insurance/ 158 Craig A. Becker, "Hospitals lose money, need simplified process to ease cost pressure," The Tennessean, July 13, 2008, http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20080713/OPINION03/807130408/1008/OPINION01 159 Perry Bacon, Jr., "Democrats Gear Up New Push for Universal Healthcare," The Trial, a Daily Diary of Campaign 2008 on WashingtonPost.com, July 8, 2008, http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the- trail/2008/07/08/democrats_gear_up_new_push_for.html Canadians are currently on waiting lists for medical treatment. Many Canadians can't even get routine care. Of those who sought routine or ongoing care in 2005, one in six had trouble even getting into a doctor's office for a routine procedure or check-up. It's no better across the Atlantic. The average wait time for bypass surgery in New York is 17 days - compared to 72 days in the Netherlands and 59 days in Sweden. Patients with serious illnesses like cancer face much longer odds of survival in government-run healthcare systems. In the U.K., the five-year survival rate for patients diagnosed with breast cancer early on is 78 percent - compared to 98 percent for similar patients in the U.S. People tend not to realize that such grim statistics are part and parcel of universal healthcare, according to Pitts.160 It may not look important now, but if you are in need of medical attention or lack insurance at an important point in your life, nothing else will matter. Healthcare reform is regularly proposed and changes are routinely discussed; maybe this year something will happen. Key Terms Healthcare Reform Health Insurance Insurance maximums Lifetime insurance caps Employer-based health insurance John McCain Clinton healthcare reform Pre-existing conditions Deregulation Unions Trade associations Fee for service medicine Barack Obama Hillary Clinton Refundable credit Small businesses Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) Income taxes Insurance premiums 401(k) retirement accounts Pretax dollars High-deductible health-insurance plan Government Accountability Office Provider reimbursement Medicare Universal healthcare British National Health Service (NHS) World Health Organization (WHO) Routine care

160 Peter Pitts, "Don't be misled by healthcare rhetoric," Pasadena Star-News, August 13, 2008, http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/opinions/ci_9872104 Research Tips Read the latest press releases and publications from the official Medicare website: http://www.medicare.gov/ Check out the American Medical Association’s webpage: http://www.ama-assn.org/ Read wikipedia's analysis of Universal Healthcare around the world here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_health_care Read the U.S. Census Bureau's report on health coverage in the United States: http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/p60-233.pdf Check out a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research with analysis of current healthcare proposals here: http://www.nber.org/papers/w13881.pdf HomelandHomeland SecuritySecurity

“We have to be right every time, the bad guys only have to be right once.” Since the United States was attacked on September 11, 2001, defense and security have turned into significant domestic priorities. Elected leaders have had to pass a security litmus test and demonstrate their credential and ability to preserve our country from another attack. Even candidates who have traditionally avoided discussing or promoting military growth have had to answer questions about how they would respond to threats. During the 2008 Presidential primary campaign, Hillary Clinton challenged Barack Obama on his foreign policy experience and used the threat of terrorism as a strong selling point. A voice- over on a prominent campaign ad challenged the freshman senator by asking "who do you want answering the White House phone at 3 a.m.?"161 Although she lost her party’s nomination, the advertisement does show the importance of homeland security to this nation’s electorate. A candidate may promise tax or tort reform, but can he or she keep us safe? That was the fifth most important issue for voters in the 2008 election behind the economy, Iraq, gas prices and healthcare.162 According to Joe Lieberman, an independent Senator from Connecticut who left the Democratic Party after it refused to nominate him for reelection, in a Wall Street Journal editorial, the Democratic Party of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy was an unhesitatingly and proudly pro-American party that was unafraid to make moral judgments about the world beyond our borders. But this worldview began to come apart in the late 1960s, around the war in Vietnam. In its place, Lieberman says, a very different view of the world took root in the Democratic Party. Rather than seeing the Cold War as an ideological contest between the free nations of the West and the repressive regimes of the communist world, this rival political philosophy saw America as the aggressor. The United States became a morally bankrupt, imperialist power whose militarism and "inordinate fear of communism" represented the real threat to world peace. The party argued that the Soviets and their allies were our enemy because we had provoked them, because we threatened them, and because we failed to sit down and accord them the respect they deserved; in other words, the Cold War was mostly America's fault. Despite a resurgence in the 1980s and 1990s, far too many Democratic leaders hold this type of outlook today, says Lieberman. The journal says that includes Barack Obama, who, contrary to his rhetorical invocations of bipartisan change, has not been willing to stand against his party's left wing on a single significant national security or international economic issue in this campaign.163 It should be no surprise that according to a recent survey done among 122 homeland security professionals (36% of whom have over 10 years experience and 32% had more than 5 years in the field), the top four priorities for the next administration are border security, emergency response, development of medical counter-measures to weapons of mass destruction, and port security.164 The survey showed that more than 83% of security professionals expected a major disaster in the U.S. About 58% said the most probable scenario for a major disaster was a natural disaster, with 22% saying that the cause would be a terrorist attack with a WMD. 72% expect change in an Obama administration; 80% expect no change in a McCain administration. 54% said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) should be maintained but

161 Michael Saul, "Hillary Clinton's 'red-phone' TV ad sparks scare tactics charge," New York Daily News, March 1, 2008, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/03/01/2008-03- 01_hillary_clintons_redphone_tv_ad_sparks_s-2.html 162 CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll. June 26-29, 2008. N=906 registered voters nationwide. MoE ± 3.5, http://www.pollingreport.com/prioriti.htm 163 Joe Lieberman, "Democrats and Our Enemies," Wall Street Journal, May 21, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121132806884008847.html 164 Jay Fraser, "Homeland Security -- Moving Past 2009," Threats Watch, July 12, 2008, http://threatswatch.org/rapidrecon/2008/07/homeland-security-moving-past/ reorganized; 30% percent said the agency should be unchanged; nearly 15% answered that the DHS should be broken up.165 Since September 11, it costs more to run a business. Homeland security has affected businesses the way it has affected government adding unexpected costs for anything from new lock-down systems to shipping delays to lost time for workers due to security compliance procedures. Higher security costs are not simply a question of purchasing more locks and cameras. Those systems must be maintained and kept up-to-date, and companies usually spend one to two times the initial cost of the system on annual maintenance. Most U.S. firms spend 2 percent or less of their revenue on security. In contrast, businesses in Israel, where terrorism has long been common, spend about 5 percent of revenue on security. Many people, when they think of corporate security costs and systems, envision surveillance systems being installed -- but that is probably just the tip of the iceberg. And since 80 percent of the nation's infrastructure is privately owned, the final costs of homeland security are probably far greater than official estimates.166 The feelings of security personnel highlight the importance of the transition to the next Administration since it will be the first time since September 11th that someone other than the Bush Administration had had oversight on the DHS. The DHS has stepped up inspections on travelers in an effort to tighten security. Rail passengers from coast to coast are subject to random security checks and may have their luggage scanned for explosives, according to Amtrak officials. The rail company is expanding its security sweeps across the country and is even adding a new team of special agents in California.167 Stopping bombs is key for DHS. Since 1968, over 90% of the terrorists incidents around the globe have been bombings. Sharing information about bombs, real devices like homemade bombs used in world wide terrorist attacks including in Iraq and Afghanistan, or terrorist propaganda, online videos about bomb making, is the focus of the office's new law enforcement website, called Tripwire, or Technical Resource for Incident Prevention. With over 5,000 users from 40 federal agencies, 750 state and local law enforcement entities, 35 different military agencies, and over 75 private sector groups, the website is aimed at providing the most real time information on what terrorists are up to in terms of explosives and letting every possible authority in the country know as soon as possible. Even major stadiums and arenas as well as the country's largest hotel chains are on the site, learning how to identify and prevent such things as suicide bombers, remote controlled Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and vehicular borne IEDs. In addition to information sharing, the office also focuses on information gathering: getting information from the field, from employees at stores that sell hydrogen peroxide and other household materials that could be turned into bombs. In fact, DHS along with most major law enforcement agencies actively go to businesses and ask for help, identifying any suspicious purchases of car batteries, peroxide products and fertilizer, over the counter products that have a deadly potential. Following the lead of the New York Police Department, police in DC, Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami, Houston and Los Angeles now all have outreach into the business community. In addition, DHS has 79 "protective security advisors" working with authorities in 60 major cities to help the cops better protect their hometowns.168 American citizens are especially concerned about terrorists or those with malicious intent entering our nation from our southern border. The southwest border with Mexico is very porous and federal enforcers are unable to make sure that those who enter are coming here to work and contribute or to wreak havoc.169 The United States is responding by increasing deportations. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, 165 "Survey Homeland Security Experts: Priorities for Next Administration," Market Watch, July 9, 2008, http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/survey-homeland-security-experts- priorities/story.aspx?guid=%7B6C373D96-2E3C-432C-A929-BD7DDB542618%7D&dist=hppr 166 Michelle Kessler, "Companies Must Add Rising Security Costs to Bottom Line," USA Today, March 28, 2003, http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/iraq/2003-03-27-homeland_x.htm 167 Mimi Hall, "Amtrak expands random security sweeps," USA Today, July 12, 2008, http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2008-07-10-amtrak_N.htm 168 Rob Hendin, "A Real Homeland Threat: IEDs," CBS News, July 11, 2008, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/11/cbsnews_investigates/main4254339.shtml 169 Fred Burton and Scott Stewart, "Mexican Cartels and the Fallout From Phoenix," Right Side News, July 2, 2008, http://www.rightsidenews.com/200807021330/border-and-sovereignty/mexican-cartels- and-the-fallout-from-phoenix.html or ICE, reported a 44 percent increase in deportations last year. A senior ICE agent says he expects deportations to continue to rise in line with the US government's tougher stance on illegal immigration. ICE Special Agent Peter Smith, who oversees the New York region, says the significant increase in deportations stems from the agency's recent expansion. As the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, he says ICE now has more agents, more facilities and more support from the US Congress.170 ICE data show more than 280,000 people were deported in fiscal year 2007, compared with 186,000 the year before. It can take months, sometimes years, to arrest and deport someone, but we can expect deportation numbers to continue to climb, especially over the next few years.171 The Department of Homeland Security is also putting up about 700 miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. So far, more than 330 miles have gone up in California, Arizona and New Mexico.172 Since the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001 (ATSA) and the creation of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), airport security has become federalized. Under this act, TSA became the sole provider of airport screenings and security causing, according to some critics, a conflict of interest. To remove this conflict of interest and decentralize airport security, Robert Poole of the Reason Foundation suggests that the TSA should be made the policymaker and regulator of airport screenings; likewise, screening responsibilities should be devolved to the airport level under the supervision of TSA's Federal Security Director (FSD). Poole argues that these changes would make the airport responsible for all aspects of security (as in Europe) and should also increase accountability for results. It would also produce meaningful savings in annual payroll costs for screening functions, as well as permitting a shift of screeners from baggage to passenger screening.173 The TSA is not the only homeland security agency dealing with budget woes. The current plan of attack for the United States against the global war on terrorism is: spend, spend, spend. But the Heritage Foundation says this war can not be won by spending alone. The country needs to develop a strategic spending strategy. Currently, the grant program formulas turn homeland security initiatives into state entitlement programs. The formulae guarantee each state a percentage of the funds available; 40 percent are immediately tied up, leaving only 60 percent for discretionary allocations. California, a "target-rich environment," recently received only 7.95 percent of grant monies, even though it accounts for 12 percent of the national population, translating to $5.03 per capita.174 On the other hand, Wyoming received 0.85 percent and accounts for only .17 percent of the population, translating to $37.94 per capita. Even within states, rural, less populated areas often receive a disproportionate amount of money -- for example, in Iowa, the capital, Des Moines (population 199,000) will receive $250,000, while Sioux City (population 31,600) will receive $299,000. A new spending strategy would need to allocate money for a national response system and a program to respond to terrorist attacks. The Urban Area Security Initiative, a program that targets major population areas considered potential targets, has produced strange results. With its formula that measures population density, presence of critical infrastructure, and credible threats, San Francisco, population 800,000, and Los Angeles, population 4 million, receive the same amount. Due to the flaws in the current distribution plan, Washington has developed the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 8 (HSPD-8) that promises to bring more discipline, accountability and strategic direction to the grant dispersing process.175

170 Mary Sheridan, "Immigration Law as Anti-Terrorism Tool," Washington Post, June 13, 2005, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/12/AR2005061201441.html 171 Mona Ghuneim, "Deportations from US Rise Dramatically," Voice of America News, July 11, 2008, http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-07-11-voa66.cfm 172 "Mexico Border Fence To Divide Farmer's Land," National Public Radio, July 8, 2008, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92319320 173 Robert W. Poole, "Improving Management Of The Aviation Security Workforce," Testimony before the House Subcommittee on Economic Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Cybersecurity, July 28, 2005, http://www.reason.org/poole_testimony_aviationsecurity_20050728.pdf 174 Editorial, "It's About Time: Homeland Security smartens up on funds," Dallas Morning News, January 5, 2006, http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/DN- homeland_05edi.ART.State.Edition1.18852d74.html As if that were not enough, the DHS has been hit with a series of embarrassing internal reports of incompetence and corruption, the most recent of which details the arrests of 146 workers and grant recipients and the identification of $18.5 million of improper spending. In a semi-annual report to Congress, Acting Inspector General Richard L. Skinner describes the findings of 325 internal investigations, audits and inspections between October 2004 and March 2005. Within the six month period, investigations netted $106 million in fines, restitutions and other recovered funds. In addition to the waste and abuse, 37 airport baggage screeners have been fired for theft of jewelry or other valuables from passenger's luggage and since 2003.176 Security is paramount, as is protecting freedom. Resolving the conflict between these two important principles poses a difficult dilemma for rights advocates and those who are a sworn responsibility for our safety. The DHS is right in the middle. Key Terms September 11, 2001 Primary campaign Hillary Clinton Barack Obama Joe Lieberman Democratic Party Department of Homeland Security Amtrak Terrorist propaganda Technical Resource for Incident Prevention Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) Vehicular borne IEDs Deportation Immigration and Customs Enforcement Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001 (ATSA) Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Federalized Airport screenings Security causing Decentralize Federal Security Director (FSD) Grant program formulas Urban Area Security Initiative Homeland Security Presidential Directive 8 (HSPD-8) Richard L. Skinner Research Tips Check out the DHS website here: http://www.dhs.gov/index.shtm 175 James Jay Carafano, "Homeland Security Dollars and Sense #1: Current Spending Formulas Waste Aid to States," Heritage Foundation, May 20, 2005, http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php? Article_ID=1765 176 Steve Stanek, "Corruption Plagues Homeland Security Department," Heartland Institute, Budget and Tax News, Vol. 3, No. 6, July 2005; and Department of Homeland Security, "Semiannual Report to the Congress, October 1, 2004 - March 31, 2005," May 1, 2005, http://heartland.org/Article.cfm? artId=17318 Take a look at the DHS five levels of threat assessment and see what color we are right now by visiting: http://www.dhs.gov/xinfoshare/programs/Copy_of_press_release_0046.shtm Read a very informative Congressional Research Service analysis of terrorist grounds for removal of illegal immigrants by visiting: www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RL32564.pdf Read the White House's press release explaining the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 8 (HSPD-8) here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/12/20031217-6.html IndiaIndia

“India is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the Equator.” ~ Winston Churchill

Western drug companies are bringing a new form of outsourcing to India: clinical trials on the country's more than one billion potential patients. India's huge population allows new-drug studies to be completed much faster. Beyond the sheer size of the population, India offers clinical researchers other distinct advantages: The population is genetically diverse. Every disease, from tropical maladies to "lifestyle" ailments, is present. There are also plenty of English-speaking physicians and nurses, some of whom are familiar with international clinical-trial practice. Perhaps most importantly, clinical trials in India are considerably cheaper. Phase I (normally tests on small groups of healthy humans) clinical trials have an average cost of $20 million in the United States; in India, they cost 50 percent less. Phase II (tests on individuals afflicted with the condition for which the drug was developed) clinical trials have an average cost of $50 million in the United States; in India, they cost 60 percent less. Phase III (tests on large groups of afflicted patients) clinical trials have an average cost of $100 million in the United States; in India, they cost 60 percent less. The result is that India is garnering attention from Western companies looking to contain rising research-and-development costs for new drugs. For U.S.-approved drugs, such costs averaged $900 million per drug in the 1990s.177 From 2000-2007, amid explosive growth in imports from India and China, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted only about 200 inspections of plants in those countries. A few were the kind that U.S. firms face regularly to ensure that the drugs they make are of high quality. The agency, which is responsible for ensuring the safety of drugs for Americans wherever they are manufactured, made 1,222 of these quality-assurance inspections in the United States last year. In India, which has more plants making drugs and drug ingredients for American consumers than any other foreign nation, it conducted a handful. Companies based in India were bit players in the American drug market 10 years ago, selling just eight generic drugs here. Today, almost 350 varieties and strengths of antidepressants, heart medicines, antibiotics and other drugs purchased by American consumers are made by Indian manufacturers.178 There's no denying that the United States is now exporting service jobs to India, particularly in information technology (IT). However, the impact is not nearly as bad as the worriers claim, says economist Alan Reynolds. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, these allegedly vanishing jobs are among computer programmers, software engineers, systems analysts, support specialists, network administrators, etc. Yet, in 2002, employment in these computer-related occupations was nonetheless higher than in 1999, and so were salaries, says Reynolds. In 1999, there were 2,620,080 jobs in these computer-related professions at an average hourly wage of $26.41; in 2002, there were 2,772,620 such jobs at $29.63 an hour ($61,630 a year). Figures on that specific job group are not available for 2003, but professional business service payrolls were up 2.3 percent by November, when compared with the year 2000, and jobs in information industries were up 4.9 percent. Jobs in the subgroup of "computer systems design and related services" are down slightly from last year but have risen steadily for the past three months. Real hourly compensation kept rising even in the recent recession and is now up more than 26 percent since 1980.179 While other countries in the region are struggling with minority rights, in India, access to private cable television has promoted female autonomy, say the authors of a National Bureau of Economic Research

177 Joanna Slater, "India Is Emerging As Proving Ground For New Drugs," Wall Street Journal, February 19, 2004, http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107713895963332997,00.html 178 Marc Kaufman, "FDA Scrutiny Scant In India, China as Drugs Pour Into U.S.; Broad Overseas Checks Called Too Costly," Washington Post, June 17, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2007/06/16/AR2007061601295.html 179 Alan Reynolds, "Exporting tech jobs to India?" www.townhall.com, January 4, 2004, http://www.cato.org/research/articles/reynolds-040104.html working paper. In areas that never had cable, or always had it, there was little change in television watching over time and little recorded change in attitudes. The villages that added cable were associated with improvements in measures of women's autonomy, a reduction in the number of situations in which wife beating was deemed acceptable, and a reduction in the likelihood of wanting the next child to be a boy. In a sample in which the average education level was 3.5 years, introducing cable appeared to have the same effects on attitudes towards female autonomy as 5.5 years of education. Cable also increased the likelihood that a girl aged 6 to 10 years would be enrolled in school, although it had no effect for boys, and cut the yearly increase in the number of children or pregnancies among women of childbearing age. Overall, the authors conclude that perhaps cable television, with programming that features lifestyles in both urban areas and in other countries, is an effective form of persuasion because people emulate what they perceive to be desirable behaviors and attitudes, without the need for an explicit appeal to do so.180 India's universal healthcare system has failed to distribute health services equally. In India, an individual's position on the social ladder shapes to a large degree the kind of healthcare they receive and the kind of health they are in, says the New York Times. A government-sponsored National Family Health Survey released says a woman born in the poorest 20 percent of the population is more than twice as likely to be underweight than one in the richest quintile, and 50 percent more likely to be anemic. For children, the poorest quintile is more than twice as likely to be stunted, a function of chronic malnutrition, and nearly three times less likely to be fully immunized. India has a countrywide network of government-funded primary health centers and hospitals, but staffing, medicines and resources vary widely. The Planning Commission of India found that in government-run health centers, 45 percent of gynecologist posts and 53 percent of pediatric posts went unfilled. Salaries for government doctors at public hospital are a mere fraction of those at new private hospitals. And, according to the Times, the differences between India's private hospitals and government-funded public hospitals are acute. Services at private hospitals include access to dietitians and dermatologists, and carpeted, wood-paneled private rooms containing cable TV, computers, and even refrigerators. However, government hospitals often lack even the most basic medical equipment, such as intensive care units, ventilators, dialysis machine, and equipment to conduct blood tests.181 India is not immune from the impacts of the international energy crisis, but its solution is more interventionist than the United States. One of the largest distortions in the energy industry today is the widespread use of state subsidies to decrease prices for consumers in India. These state subsidies, while lowering prices for consumers, are rapidly running oil companies into bankruptcy. The Indian government has insisted that its oil companies subsidize all the gasoline, diesel and cooking oil it sells, so much that prices are a third cheaper at the pump in India than they are in the United States. Since the oil that Indian companies such as Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum purchase abroad is so much more expensive than what it sells at home, the companies lose money every time they make a sale. Although Indian Oil is India's largest state- controlled refiner of oil, with $59 billion in revenue, they are running losses of $76 million a day. To defuse the crisis, the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh raised fuel prices an average of 13 percent on June of 2008. While this reform is not enough to rescue Indian Oil, it has kicked off a political storm. India, lacking the political courage to terminate the subsidies in an election year, may instead attempt to cut subsidies cent-by-cent over the next year to mitigate the political fallout, says Manjeet Kripalani in Business Week. However, those cuts may prove too little to save India's oil companies, and too much for Indians accustomed to cheap fuel.182 Despite the energy setbacks, India is rapidly evolving into Asia's innovation center, leaving China in the dust. So what is the country's secret weapon? Intellectual Property Rights protection, say Richard Wilder, counsel to the Association for Competitive Technology, and Pravin Anand, managing partner of Anand and

180 Linda Gorman, "Cable Television Raises Women's Status in India," NBER Digest, December 2007, http://www.nber.org/digest/dec07/w13305.html; based upon: Robert Jensen and Emily Oster, " The Power of TV: Cable Television and Women's Status in India," Working Paper No. 13305, National Bureau of Economic Research, July 30, 2007, http://www.nber.org/papers/w13305 181 Somini Sengupta, "Royal Care for Some of India's Patients, Neglect for Others," New York Times, June 1, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/weekinreview/01sengupta.html 182 Manjeet Kripalani, "India Takes a Bath in Oil Subsidies," Business Week, June 16, 2008, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_24/b4088036744478.htm Anand in New Delhi, India. Thanks to international treaties such as the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization, Indian intellectual property-rights laws were significantly revamped starting in the mid 1990s; the amended Indian Copyright Act which clearly explains the rights of a copyright holder and the penalties for infringement of copyrighted software has been called one of the "toughest in the world." As a result, copyright-based industries such as the Indian IT sector have enjoyed rapid growth; the annual average rate of growth of Indian software exports from 1994 to 2002 was 48 percent, marking a drastic surge from the preceding five years, when the average annual growth was about 35 percent. Furthermore, Indian entrepreneurs, business and government labs are filing for patents at rapidly increasing rates; the number of Indian patent applications filed has increased 400 percent over the past 15 years. New Delhi's actions are a stark contrast to those of other nations like China and Brazil. When it comes to reigning in the rampant piracy of music, movies and software, these governments are lagging behind India. But to truly reach their potential for creativity and innovation, other emerging economic powers could take a few pointers from New Delhi.183 India's growth is worth noting. India dominated the 2008 Forbes annual list of global billionaires, with four of the top eight -- more even than the United States. Although the Indian billionaires on the Forbes list made headlines around the world, the massive accumulation of wealth was not universally accepted as good news in India, where the average income is only $80 a month. It should, however, be recognized that in the process of creating personal fortunes, India's billionaires create vast amounts of wealth for others, including thousands of employees. It is estimated that India's top 10 billionaires collectively have created more than 1 million jobs in their companies. In almost all cases, billionaires amass personal wealth by creating large organizations that generate millions of jobs and employment opportunities across the board, from the lowest unskilled positions to highly paid executives. Further, many of the employees now at senior levels of organizations founded or run by billionaires started out their careers in very low or entry-level positions and worked their way up to upper-management levels.184 India has surpassed South Africa as the country with the largest number of people infected with HIV/AIDS, underscoring the growing impact the disease is having on the South Asian subcontinent. Although the center of the disease remains sub-Saharan Africa, India's estimated total of 5.7 million infected people narrowly exceeds South Africa's estimated 5.5 million. According to the United Nations' 2006 report on the global AIDS epidemic, African countries south of the Sahara have about 25 million cases; among South Africans ages 15 to 49, the infection rate is 18.8 percent. India's epidemic is thinly spread among its 1.1 billion people, for an adult infection rate that remains under one percent at 0.9 percent. That estimated rate is slightly higher than the rate of infection in the United States, which is about 0.6 percent of the adult population. Four southern Indian states have achieved a declining rate of new infections in young people, but in northern India, the disease is spreading rapidly among intravenous drug users. The current administration in New Delhi has more openly acknowledged the problems posed by HIV/AIDS and increased its funding and programs somewhat, but the disease's spread could complicate India's efforts to establish itself as a large industrial power. Moreover, it illustrates the high stakes for businesses in the United States and other nations as they become increasingly intertwined with the Indian economy.185 Western countries have a vested interest in making sure that India's nuclear arsenal remains in the silos. The United States is trying to push through a nuclear deal, but obstacles remain in the way of ratification. The Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) must approve a safeguards agreement submitted by India in July of 2008. The 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) must come to a consensus on changing its existing guidelines to allow civilian nuclear trade with India. And the U.S.

183 Richard Wilder and Pravin Anand, "India's Secret Weapon," Wall Street Journal, May 8, 2006, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114703871143746089.html?mod=opinion_main_europe_asia 184 Mark J. Perry and Madhukar Angur, "India's New Class Of Billionaires Are Builders, Not 'Robber Barons,'" Investors Business Daily, April 16, 2008, http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx? id=293235640789000 185 Marilyn Chase, "India Surpasses South Africa As Nation With Most HIV Cases," Wall Street Journal, May 31, 2006, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114900333731666377.html; based upon: UNAIDS, "2006 Report on the global AIDS epidemic," UNAIDS, May 2006, http://data.unaids.org/pub/GlobalReport/2006/2006_GR-ExecutiveSummary_en.pdf Congress must approve the bilateral agreement governing the terms of trade on U.S.-India civil nuclear cooperation (the so-called "123 Agreement") reached in the summer of 2007. If the 123 Agreement is ratified by the relevant parties and India breaches the spirit of the 123 Agreement, Washington will have the right to demand back the plutonium that is stripped out through reprocessing. This caveat is a critical element of the agreement as it ensures that the U.S. cannot be accused of violating its NPT obligations.186 Successful completion of a civil nuclear accord will help to lift these suspicions so that the U.S.-India relationship can finally realize its potential. In addition to bringing India into the international nonproliferation mainstream and increasing safeguards on its civilian nuclear facilities, an agreement would cement relations with a country that shares America’s democratic values and whose importance in world affairs is growing fast. Lisa Curtis and Baker Spring of the Heritage Foundation say that, given the historical importance of this agreement, U.S. and Indian officials should resist the temptation to bargain endlessly over details and instead focus their energies on finalizing the deal without further delay.187 The foreign policies of India and Pakistan are driven increasingly by energy security. To sustain their booming economies and growing populations amid tight oil and gas markets, Indian and Pakistani policymakers are turning to energy deals with unsavory regimes, such as Iran's. At the same time, energy- producing states including Iran and Russia are attempting to tap new markets, drive up oil prices, and secure their own interests by locking in demand. In 1993, Pakistan and Iran announced a plan to build a gas pipeline, which Iran later proposed extending into India. Dubbed the "peace pipeline," the Iran–Pakistan–India (IPI) gas pipeline would traverse over 2,775 kilometers (1,724 miles) from Iran's South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf through the Pakistani city of Khuzdar, with one branch going on to Karachi and a second branch extending to Multan and then on to India. This pipeline would give Iran an economic lifeline and increase its leverage and influence in South Asia. U.S. policymakers argue that allowing the IPI pipeline to proceed would encourage the Iranian regime to defy the will of the international community, develop nuclear weapons, and support terrorism. Furthermore, inadequate investment in Iran's oil and gas industry and increasing domestic demand could render Iran incapable of supplying natural gas through the IPI.188 Key Terms Outsourcing Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Service jobs Information technology (IT) Recession Universal healthcare Subsidy Manmohan Singh Intellectual Property Rights World Trade Organization Indian Copyright Act New Delhi HIV/AIDS Nuclear proliferation

186 Lisa Curtis, "India Wins Big Bet on U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Deal," The Heritage Foundation, July 24, 2008, http://www.heritage.org/Research/AsiaandthePacific/wm2002.cfm 187 Lisa Curtis and Baker Spring, "Maintaining Momentum on U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Deal," The Heritage Foundation, September 7, 2006, http://www.heritage.org/Research/MissileDefense/wm1206.cfm 188 Ariel Cohen and Lisa Curtis, "The Proposed Iran-Pakistan-India Gas Pipeline: An Unacceptable Risk to Regional Security," The Heritage Foundation, May 30, 2008, http://www.heritage.org/Research/AsiaandthePacific/bg2139.cfm International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) 123 Agreement Iran–Pakistan–India (IPI) gas pipeline Research Tips Check out the CIA World Factbook for India: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world- factbook/geos/in.html The Indian government released poverty estimates for its planning commission. Read them here: http://www.planningcommission.gov.in/news/prmar07.pdf Uniting India behind one language has been a key goal for a long time. Read about the effort to make Hindi that language here: http://www.languageinindia.com/nov2004/mallikarjunmalaysiapaper1.html The World Bank analyzes India's growth in the service sector here: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/SOUTHASIAEXT/Resources/DPR_FullReport.pdf InternationalInternational SpaceSpace StationStation

“ NASA just doesn't have enough money, and they are being asked to make some very hard choices. It's necessary to honor our international commitments [to the space station], but it’s basically coming out of the planetary exploration budget.” ~ Jim Crocker

The International Space Station is the largest and most complex international scientific project in history. And when it is complete, the station will represent a move of unprecedented scale off the home planet. Led by the United States, the International Space Station draws upon the scientific and technological resources of 16 nations: Canada, Japan, Russia, 11 nations of the European Space Agency and Brazil. More than four times as large as the Russian Mir space station, the completed International Space Station will have a mass of about 1,040,000 pounds. It will measure 356 feet across and 290 feet long, with almost an acre of solar panels to provide electrical power to six state-of-the-art laboratories. The station will be in an orbit with an altitude of 250 statute miles with an inclination of 51.6 degrees. This orbit allows the station to be reached by the launch vehicles of all the international partners to provide a robust capability for the delivery of crews and supplies. The orbit also provides excellent Earth observations with coverage of 85 percent of the globe and over flight of 95 percent of the population. By the end of this year, about 500,000 pounds of station components will be have been built at factories around the world.189 The biggest question posed by observers about the space station is its necessity. The New York Times says if the space station did not have to be finished, there would be little reason to keep the shuttle fleet in operation. But government officials say the station must be completed to honor obligations to our 15 international partners and to gain scientific knowledge for further space travel. Both rationales are highly questionable says the Times. Consider that focusing our prime efforts on flying the shuttles to finish the station will inevitably drain resources from NASA's other research programs and slow the planned shift to human exploration of the solar system. The opportunity to study prolonged weightlessness on the health of space station crew members has been greatly exaggerated; zero gravity would be relevant on a trip to Mars, but that journey takes less time than astronauts have already spent in weightless environments in orbit. Our international partners formally agreed to complete the station, but credible reports reveal some partner countries are appalled that the high cost of operating the station will eat up their own budgets, constraining other space ventures. If the shuttle fleet remains grounded for a long time, the station will stay as is and rely on smaller spacecraft to carry up crew members and cargo - a sensible approach, says the Times. However, NASA will not consider this as a serious option and is currently debating how many flights to schedule before the shuttle's retirement in 2010. The Times says the better, but more drastic option would be to retire the shuttles immediately and back out of the station, saving some $40 billion over 10 years.190 The Columbia disaster brought into focus another very real side effect of regular space travel. Subsequent to the disintegration of the Columbia space shuttle, television commentators seemed all but unanimous in their opinion that space exploration is America's destiny and that scientific experiments aboard the space station hold benefits for earthlings. But more than a few scientists disagree -- holding that the returns to science are not worth the high costs involved and the toll in human lives. From studies in protein crystallization to the behavior of fire in zero gravity, "there is no experiment that has been done on the space shuttle that has made a significant difference to any field of science," says physicist Robert Park of the American Physical Society in College Park, Md. 191 189 "International Space Station," Shuttle Press Kit, National Aeronautics and Space Association, http://www.shuttlepresskit.com/ISS_OVR/index.htm 190 Editorial, "Is the Space Station Necessary?" New York Times, August 14, 2005, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/14/opinion/14sun1.html 191 Sharon Begley, "Shuttle Science: Just Along for the Ride?" The Wall Street Journal, February 3, 2003, http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1044225786434209664-search,00.html Many of the experiments done in space simply confirm phenomena already known to earth scientists, argue J. Lynn Lunsford and Nicholas Kulish in the Wall Street Journal. They argue that pursuing experiments designed by school children in Australia, China, Israel, Japan, Liechtenstein and the United States concerning how fish, spiders, ants, silkworms and bees responded to space flights suggests that public relations -- not scientific breakthroughs -- are the foremost goal. In fact, Columbia's final flight was the last scheduled shuttle mission dedicated to science -- with upcoming flights resuming primarily a transportation role, ferrying parts and temporary crews to the international space station. Critics suggest that Columbia's missions were too often about dreams, symbols and national prestige aimed at building public support for space programs.192 While the United States is questioning its future in space, the European space programs are gaining a foothold. European space programs are enjoying a striking resurgence, with politicians and industry officials stressing the importance of pursuing their own scientific and military efforts, independent of the U.S., Russia and China. The European Union already has made the first moves to support this ambitious undertaking, for the first time explicitly linking space endeavors to broader diplomatic and foreign-policy goals. But coming months will indicate how much support there is for taking the next big step: funding technology aimed at possible European manned missions. The U.S. is clearly the dominant space power, with the largest overall budget and nearly half of all the military satellites in orbit. However, Europe's newfound enthusiasm for space comes amid strong performances in recent years by its satellite manufacturers and Arianespace, its commercial-launch provider.193 Governments are also seeing a substantial challenge from the private sector. Robert Zimmerman studied the Columbia accident and discovered that, since the 1980s, nearly $5 billion -- practically the cost of the original shuttle fleet -- has been wasted on efforts to build a shuttle replacement. Those failures make a strong case for returning to private enterprise. In the 1960s, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) laid out general specifications for competing private companies, which quickly and cheaply produce new rockets, capsules and lunar (moon) landers. But once the moon race was over, NASA started building an ever-growing bureaucracy. After spending $1.7 billion, and building nothing, the hypersonic National Aerospace Plane program proposed by President Reagan in 1986 was canceled in 1992. The X-33 single- stage-to-orbit reusable spacecraft was announced with much fanfare by Vice President Al Gore on July 4, 1996 -- but after five years and $1.2 billion, it was canceled when cracks were found in its experimental fuel tanks. During the same period, NASA pursued the X-34, a smaller two-stage reusable rocket launched from the belly of a L-1011 jet, and the X-38, a reusable lifeboat for the International Space Station -- but after four years and more than $1 billion, both were scrubbed. From 2000 to 2002, NASA spent $800 million drawing blueprints for a plethora of proposed shuttle replacements under the Space Launch Initiative -- then scrapped it. NASA's next project is the Orbital Space Plane. Proposed two months before the loss of Columbia, this manned reusable vehicle mounted on an expendable rocket was initially expected to cost about $4 billion and to be completed by 2012. Key Terms Russia Mir space station Shuttle fleet Columbia disaster European Union Military satellites National Aeronautics and Space Administration Orbital Space Plane

192 J. Lynn Lunsford and Nicholas Kulish, "Shuttle Crash Raises Questions About Future of Manned Flights," Wall Street Journal, February 3, 2003, http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1044237720526217424-search,00.html?collection=wsjie%2F30day 193 Andy Pasztor, "Europeans Explore Expanding Their Space Efforts," The Wall Street Journal, July 19, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121641693041566193.html?mod=googlenews_wsj Research Tips Check out the official website of NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/ Read the latest from the official website of the European Space Agency here: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/index.html Read about the International Space Station on the NASA website: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html Check out the Orbital Space Plane on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_Space_Plane ImmigrationImmigration

“ All the problems we face in the United States today can be traced to an unenlightened immigration policy on the part of the American Indian” ~ Pat Paulsen

Of all the divisive issues in this nation, the question of immigration and naturalization is one that will dominate headlines and demand the attention of policy makers for some time into the future. The question of how to handle people who want to immigrate to the United States is not new or isolated. Should legal status be granted irrespective of how an individual comes to our country? Should social services like education, healthcare and welfare be extended to those who have not entered our borders by legal means? How can we encourage educated workers to come to our country to fill domestic needs without "brain draining" other nations? These are tough questions, full of divisive opinion and strong emotion. The total number of immigrants per year (including illegal and refugees) is somewhat less than it was in the peak years at the start of the 20th century, when the US population was less than half as large as its current population. The foreign-born population of the US was 9.5 percent of the total population in 2000. This can be compared to the 2000's proportions of 22.7 in Australia; 16 percent in Canada; 6.3 in France; 7.3 in Germany; 3.9 percent in Great Britain; and 5.7 in Sweden.194 Los Angeles is at the leading edge of a U.S. demographic trend, with half of its workforce made up of immigrants, many of them unskilled and speaking little English. The City of Angles is also home to one fifth of this nation’s Hispanic population. As baby boomers retire, the same pattern will emerge across the country. Demographers estimate that by 2025 most of the growth in the workforce will be from immigrants.195 One-third of immigrants have not graduated from high school and 60 percent do not speak English fluently according to the Migration Policy Institute. More than half of illegal immigrants enter the US legally and overstay their visas. By the year 2050 according to Census projections racial and ethnic minorities will outnumber non-Hispanic whites. In the next fifty years this demographic shift will transform politics and business.196 Enforcing existing immigration laws is one of the biggest challenges to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the organizations charged with preserving the integrity of our nation’s borders. Despite protests from businesses, organized labor, and immigrant-rights groups, the DHS is pressing ahead with a controversial rule to use Social Security records to enforce immigration laws. Since 1994, the Social Security Administration has sent "no-match" letters to most employers if the name and Social Security number on a worker's W-2 form do not agree with the agency's records. The letter asks the employer to correct the discrepancy within 60 days so Social Security can properly credit a worker's earnings; there are no penalties if an employer does not respond. DHS wants to send employers its own letter giving them 90 days to correct the problem or fire the worker. Employers are subject to civil fines of as much as $16,000 per worker for knowingly employing illegal immigrants, and those who make a practice of it face criminal charges that carry a maximum prison term of five years. 197

194 The Demographic and Economic Facts published by the Cato Institute and the National US immigration Forum, http://www.rapidimmigration.com/usa/1_eng_immigration_facts.html 195 Teresa Watanabe, "Lack of skilled workers will lead to fiscal crisis, experts say," Los Angeles Times, April 21, 2008, http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/21/local/me-immiglabor21 196 "50 Percent of LA Workforce Are Immigrants," United Press International, April 21, 2008, http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/04/21/50_percent_of_la_workforce_are_immigrants/ 3251/ 197 Lisa Caruso, "DHS presses ahead with plan to use Social Security records to enforce immigration laws," National Journal, April 7, 2008, http://www.govexec.com/story_page_pf.cfm? articleid=39721&printerfriendlyvers=1 The volume of illegal immigrants is difficult to estimate. Depending on the source, the numbers range widely - from about 7 million up to 20 million or more. Nailing down such figures is impossible. Even settling on a ballpark figure is difficult given the official sources: the US Census, apprehensions along the US-Mexico border, and social service agencies. For one thing, illegal immigrants avoid responding to census questionnaires, states a 2005 report by Bear Stearns Asset Management Inc. in New York.198 Based on the national census in 2000, the US Census Bureau puts the estimate of illegal immigrants at 8.7 million. As of 2003, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services put the number at 7 million. Since then, United States immigration officials have said the number has grown by as much as 500,000 a year. The Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington, estimates 11.5 million to 12 million "unauthorized migrants" live in the US today. Illegal immigrants draw social services like education and healthcare, drive on roads and use public facilities, but they often do not contribute to the revenue of a state by paying taxes, reducing or rendering null their economic contribution. Some researchers even argue that illegal immigrants hurt the economy. A recent study by Edwin S. Rubenstein, a Manhattan Institute adjunct fellow, looked at the myriad ways immigration increases the cost of government and how government policies increase immigration. Rubenstein found that each immigrant costs taxpayers more than $9,000, while every immigrant household of four costs $36,000 in taxes. Rubenstein also found that criminal aliens are increasing the burden on the U.S. prison systems. He wrote that in 1980, federal and state facilities held fewer than 9,000 criminal aliens, but at the end of 2004, about 267,000 non-citizens were incarcerated in U.S. correctional facilities.199 Not all immigration is illegal. Legal immigration makes up a substantial and economically relevant portion of those entering our country. Created in 1990, H1-B visas allow companies to sponsor highly educated foreigners -- architects, doctors, engineers, and scientists among them -- to work in the United States for at least three years. The H1-B program, which accounts for nearly all skilled immigrants admitted to work here each year, is capped annually at 65,000 for people with a bachelor's degree or higher, plus an additional 20,000 for those with a master's degree or higher.200 Workers who wish to come to the United States legally are having a difficult time doing so. Temporary labor demand, measured by H-1b visa applications, has been sharply increasing; for fiscal year 2008, the visa cap of 65,000 was surpassed in one day. Of course, this figure represents a miniscule portion of the U.S. labor force of 154 million; even if the quota were raised to 150,000 annually, a proposal currently being debated, that would be less than one tenth of 1 percent of the labor force. Some have argued that the Department of Labor should be responsible for quarterly reevaluations of the need for temporary labor because Congress is ill-suited to change laws each time the economy goes up or down. Skilled immigrants have long contributed to rising U.S. standards of living. They bring human capital, brimming with ideas for new technologies and new companies. They bring financial capital as well, with savings and resources to develop these new ideas. And they often bring connections to business opportunities abroad, stimulating exports and affiliate sales for multinational companies. Leading U.S. companies today are crying out for more immigrants to satisfy their talent needs. And they do so as globalization gives companies an ever-wider range of locations abroad in which to operate. 201 The United States is an attractive place to live for a variety of reasons. Many people feel that way and are willing to leave behind their home countries, taking their economic contribution and prowess with them, to come to America. No longer a melting pot for the common folk, the United States is a target destination for the educated and affluent who want a better life. Africa is suffering a medical "brain drain" as the continent's trained doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers leave to practice medicine in Britain, the United States

198 Brad Knickerbocker, "Illegal Immigrants in the US: How many are there?" Christian Science Monitor, May 16, 2006, http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0516/p01s02-ussc.html 199 Editorial, "The Real Cost of Immigration," Investor's Business Daily, April 4, 2007, http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=292204157102985 200 Matthew Slaughter, "The Immigrant Gap," Wall Street Journal, April 1, 2008, http://www.miracoalition.org/press/general-news/opinion-the-immigrant-gap2 201 Diana Furchtgott-Roth, "Desperately Seeking Visas," Hudson Institute, January 2, 2008, http://www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=5360&pubType=Employment and other wealthy countries. The number of nurses working in Britain from outside Europe rose from 2,000 in 1994 to 15,000 in 2001. According to President Bush's AIDS coordinator, there are more Ethiopian-trained doctors practicing in Chicago then there are in Ethiopia. No wonder the epidemics go unabated in third world countries; all the trained doctors are treating us!202 Besides low pay, conditions in most African countries are deplorable for healthcare providers. AIDS and tuberculosis are rampant in Africa, stretching resources and placing large demands on nurses. Lack of adequate equipment and drugs make providing healthcare difficult, and scarce supplies of rubber gloves put medical workers at a greater risk for infection. Preventing emigration of healthcare workers would simply create an incentive for people in Africa not to enter the medical field in the first place. An alternative would be to reimburse African countries for their supply of healthcare providers. Illegal immigration is an issue that squeezes businesses, families and politicians equally. Any reform can be evaluated from an economic, political or interpersonal perspective, often with widely varying results. Key Terms Naturalization Brain drain Demographic Baby boomer Demographer Visa Minority Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Labor union Social Security H1-B visas Department of Labor (DOL) Globalization Melting Pot Emigration Open border Amnesty Research Tips Read the latest news about the Immigration Customs Enforcement here: http://www.ice.gov/ The Center for Immigration Studies has an excellent, opinion and fact filled site on this topic that can be found here: http://www.cis.org/ The illegal immigration debate is a hot one and there are plenty of arguments for both sides of the discussion. Read a great discussion on the issue moderated by PBS’s Ben Wattenburg here: http://www.pbs.org/thinktank/transcript209.html Check out the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration website: http://www.dhs.gov/ximgtn/

202 Editorial, "Africa's Healthcare Brain Drain," New York Times, August 13, 2004, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/13/opinion/13fri3.html IranIran

“ To believe that Iran has genuinely abandoned its longstanding ambition to become a nuclear power requires an almost willful ignorance of its history or an utterly breathtaking level of naivety on the part of those entrusted to monitor nuclear proliferation.” ~ John Kyl

“We cannot win this war on terror if people are undercutting us. And one way to undercut us is to empower Iran.” ~ Lindsey Graham

After nearly three decades of antagonistic rhetoric and diplomatic estrangement between the United States and Iran, the next president has the opportunity to set a new course for relations between the two countries. When the next president takes up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Iranian officials will be listening. The president must implement a policy of engagement that encourages moderation in Iran without implying tolerance for Tehran's historic support of terrorist activities. This strategy will require patience and sensitivity to the complex political realities inside Iran. To successfully chart a new course for U.S.-Iranian relations, the next president must (1) tone down rhetoric; (2) establish a direct dialogue with Tehran, including comprehensive, private discussions and deployment of a special envoy; (3) encourage greater assimilation of Hezbollah into Lebanon's political system; and (4) offer carrots in addition to sticks, including consideration of legitimate Iranian concerns on regional security issues.203 Lebanese politicians and religious figures reacted strongly to comments made by an Iranian vice president, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, with two Members of Parliament (MPs) accusing the Islamic Republic of using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in its attempts to resolve the international row over its nuclear program. The MPs said that Aghazadeh's words amounted to an offer for stability in Lebanon in exchange for the West accepting Iran's nuclear program. The Beirut politicians spoke in favor of banning nuclear weapons throughout the Middle East and pointed attention to the fact that the Lebanese people have no say in Iran's nuclear program. Aghazadeh is one of Iran's 10 vice presidents, who are tasked with heading various national organizations related to presidential affairs. All vice presidents report to First Vice President Parviz Davoudi, who in turn reports to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who himself is required to follow the edicts of the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. As vice president for atomic energy, Aghazadeh heads Iran's International Atomic Energy Organization, a body whose primary role is to implement regulations and operate nuclear energy installations in the country. Aghazadeh was appointed to the post in 1997 by then-President Mohammad Khatami and is not viewed as a member of Ahmadinejad's inner circle or directly involved in policy formulation.204 Many Western nations have tough words for Iran regarding its nuclear program. During his headline grabbing tour of Europe in July of 2008, Barack Obama basking in his rock star reception in European capitals, warned Iran on Friday to end its "illicit" nuclear program before a next American president takes control of the White House. But Obama also acknowledged the difficulty of convincing Tehran, which has insisted its nuclear program is not aimed at developing weapons, to accept a proposal from the international community that is laden with both incentives and threats of increased sanctions. Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that progress will not come easily, but that a nuclear empowered Iran would be a threat to both the United States and France. Ultimately, Iran will put itself in a worse position if it stalls on the offer. Obama warned Ahmadinejad not to wait for the next president "because the pressure is only going to

203 John Brennan and Richard Clarke, "The Conundrum of Iran: Strengthening Moderates without Acquiescing to Belligerence," The American Academy of Political and Social Science, July, 2008 204 Dalila Mahdawi, "Iranian VP's remarks spark angry reactions in Beirut," The Daily Star, July 28, 2008, http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=94548 build." Ahmadinejad has refused to yield to demands that he suspend his country's uranium enrichment program, which he insists is intended only to expand energy production capacity.205 The United States can talk, but realistically war with Iran is not an option, according to a Digital Journal editorial. Record-breaking gasoline and diesel prices, more debt and rising inflation, the U.S. military being overstretched and Russia's arming of Iran are four practical reasons why the U.S. should not go into Iran, the Journal says. It seems that the US might launch an invasion of Iran prior to the November elections or we will agree or cooperate with Israel attacking the Islamist state. Either way, the Journal says, be prepared to pay $10 to $12 per gallon of gasoline or more and see body bags of dead soldiers returning to the United States. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had a meeting with President Bush in June, 2008. According to what the Prime Minister said after the meeting with reporters, it appears that everything is ready for an invasion of some type. One way or another, the Iranian threat will be "taken care of in a timely fashion. " The Journal expands on this analysis with some concrete reasons to oppose invasion into Iran: Record-breaking gasoline and diesel prices. OPEC Secretary-General Abdalla Salem El-Badri said recently that in the event of conflict with Iran, "prices would go unlimited...I can't give you a number.'' More debt and skyrocketing inflation. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent fighting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Government borrowing will increase if we get involved in Iran and more dollars will be printed. They will depreciate in value. Overloaded Military. In 2004, the now deceased Col. David Hackworth said that the Army is trying to do the work of 14 divisions when they have 10 that are under-manned. The current Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen said that opening up a third front right now would be extremely stressful on the U.S. military. Possible military disaster with Russian arms. Russia has supplied Iran with Tor-M1 anti-aircraft and S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems. These pose a serious threat to our pilots. More worrisome still are reports that Russia has provided Iran with the super-fast Sunburn anti-ship missiles, against which our Navy has dubiously effective countermeasures. If Israel attacks Iran or the United States attacks Iran, there is the strong potential for an unprecedented Muslim uprising in the Middle East. There are many Muslims in the United States that could launch another terrorist attack within our own country if Iran is attacked. The Journal asks, do we really want to take that chance?206 The Digital Journal is not the only source cautioning against armed conflict. A war with Iran would be "disastrous on a number of levels," according to U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Gates writes that with the army already bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, "another war in the Middle East is the last thing we need" - despite the fact that Iran "supports terrorism," is "a destabilizing force throughout the Middle East and Southwest Asia and, in my judgment, is hell-bent on acquiring nuclear weapons." Nevertheless, he continued, "the military option must be kept on the table, given the destabilizing policies of the regime and the risks inherent in a future Iranian nuclear threat, either directly or through nuclear proliferation." Gates offered these remarks on Iran as commentary on how to apply an axiom uttered by General Fox Connor in the early 20th century: "Never fight unless you have to."207 Any discussion of armed conflict with Iran must take oil into account. Iran is currently exporting 2.5 million barrels of oil per day, according to Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari. Iran received on average $120 per barrel for its crude which translates into daily oil income of $300 million. and makes the Islamic Republic the

205 Peter O'Neil, "Obama warns Iran in Paris," Canwest News Service, July 25, 2008, http://www.canada.com/story.html?id=2f2382bd-692c-4369-8d21-0861c898620b 206 Editorial, "Opinion: War With Iran Will Be A Cakewalk? Think Again," The Digital Journal, July 27, 2008, http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/257912 207 Amir Oren, "Gates: War with Iran would be 'disastrous,'" Haaretz (Israel), 2008, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1006129.html world's fourth-largest oil producer.208 Iran's OPEC governor said world oil prices could reach as high as $500 per barrel in a few years' time if the U.S. dollar falls further and political tension worsens.209 The United States is not reticent to use diplomatic tools to achieve its nuclear nonproliferation goals. U.S. officials are warning Iran that time is running out for Tehran to respond to proposals by the EU and the Security Council to resolve the nuclear stand-off. The latest package of incentives was discussed July 19 in Geneva, in a closed door meeting that represented Iran, the five permanent members of the Security Council, (the P5), Germany and the European Union. Taking part for the first time was a senior American envoy, Undersecretary of State William Burns. On the table were a series of proposals delivered to the Iranians a month earlier. A way to entice the Iranians into negotiating is the freeze-for-freeze offer, meaning Iran would freeze its uranium enrichment at current levels and the U.N. and EU would freeze their current levels of sanctions. This period would last six weeks, to build confidence and allow for more substantive negotiations to begin. The bottom line demand remains, however that Iran must actually suspend the enrichment of uranium, the nuclear fuel source that can be used for generating energy, but also for making nuclear weapons.210 Iran is countering the diplomatic efforts with a bid to join the Security Counsel as a permanent voting member. Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki has asked the members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to back Iran’s bid for a UN Security Council seat in the upcoming vote at the United Nations. Iran’s efforts to develop technology for civilian nuclear energy and the major powers’ displeasure over this action are some of the main reasons for this NAM meeting, along with the efforts to maintain the independence and freedom of the member states and thwart attempts to dominate them and keep them underdeveloped. Mokatti said that "The enemies of nations’ peace, freedom and independence know that Iran’s access to this important source of energy can uplift our country in the scientific and economic spheres. So they spare no effort to ensure its failure… For years they have accused us of trying to develop nuclear weapons while they and their allies are armed with the most devastating weapons." He went on to say that Iran has never bowed to these threats and this pressure and will never do so and calls on all NAM members and other friendly nations to support it.211 Terrorism may be an impediment to acceptance as a permanent Security Counsel member. Iran has become the main transit route for militants trying to join insurgents in Afghanistan. Some Western nations with troops in Afghanistan have said that Iranian weapons destined for the Taliban have been seized in Afghanistan, although they are unsure whether Tehran knew about the shipments. Iran, which is already facing international pressure over its nuclear program, has denied funding or arming the radical Sunni Taliban in Afghanistan. Sources say Iran has become a "tunnel for terrorists" to Waziristan, the tribal region of Pakistan, where the militants have sanctuaries and from where they enter Afghanistan to attack foreign and Afghan forces. Violence has escalated sharply in Afghanistan since 2006 when the Taliban, removed from power in a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, regrouped and launched an insurgency against Afghanistan's Western- backed government and foreign forces. Nearly 15,000 people, including more than 450 foreign troops, have been killed in Afghanistan in the past two years, the bloodiest period since Taliban's ouster. The violence in Afghanistan comes despite the presence of more than 71,000 foreign forces under the command of NATO and the U.S. military and some Western officials have warned the country could slide back into anarchy. 212 Key Terms Terrorism 208 Fredrik Dahl, "Oil minister says Iran exporting 2.5 mln bpd," Reuters, July 27, 2008, http://uk.reuters.com/article/reutersComService_3_MOLT/idUKDAH74265520080727 209 Zahra Hosseinian, "Iran says oil could reach $500 on dollar, politics," Reuters, July 26, 2008, http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKHOS63746220080726 210 Sonja Pace, "US Warns Iran Time Running Out for Nuclear Deal," Voice of America News, July 25, 2008, http://voanews.com/english/2008-07-25-voa33.cfm 211 "FM asks NAM to back Iran’s bid for Security Council seat," Tehran Times, July 28, 2008, http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=174094 212 Sayed Salahuddin, "Iran main entry route for militants -Afghan paper," Reuters, July 27, 2008, http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSISL224819 Gholam Reza Aghazadeh Parviz Davoudi Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Atomic energy Barack Obama Tehran Nicolas Sarkozy Inflation Ehud Olmert Abdalla Salem El-Badri Mike Mullen Muslim Robert Gates Gholamhossein Nozari OPEC Nuclear nonproliferation Security Council P5 William Burns Freeze-for-freeze offer Manuchehr Mottaki Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Taliban Waziristan Research Tips Read about the persecution of religious minorities from this page maintained by the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center: http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/pdfs/Reports/bahai_report.pdf A similar document has been prepared by the International Federation for Human Rights: http://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/ir0108a.pdf Check out the World Health Organization's report on Iran: http://www.who.int/whr/2000/en/annex10_en.pdf Check out the official website for the International Atomic Energy Agency: http://www.iaea.org/ IraqIraq

“Iraq is no diversion. It is a place where civilization is taking a decisive stand against chaos and terror, we must not waver.” ~ George W. Bush

The Iraq war is on again and off again like the most inconsistent of relationships. One week the situation seems to be approaching a calm that could almost be called peace and the next reports return home of tragic casualties. It is a conflict that is fought with guns, ideology and words, both here at home and in the Middle East. And through it all, the Iraqi people are trying to reestablish self-governance and self-determination. The departure in July of 2008 of the last of the 28,500 extra troops sent in a U.S. military buildup leaves Iraq in a rickety calm, an in-between space that is not quite war and not quite peace where ethnic and sectarian tensions bubble beneath the surface. Politicians and U.S. officials hail the remarkable turnaround from open civil war that left 3,700 Iraqis dead during the worst month in the fall of 2006, compared with June's toll of 490, according on Pentagon estimates. Signs abound that normal life is starting to return. Revelers can idle away the hours at several neighborhood joints in Baghdad where the tables are buried in beers and a man can bring a girlfriend dolled up in a nice dress. Despite the gains, the political horizon is clouded. Shiite Muslim parties are locked in dangerous rivalries across central and southern Iraq. Kurds and Arabs in the north compete for land with no resolution in sight. U.S.-backed Sunni Arab fighters who turned on Al Qaeda in Iraq could return to the insurgency if the government does not deliver jobs and a chance to join the political process. Bombings, assassinations and kidnappings still occur almost daily. And those out enjoying Baghdad's night life feel safe only because they are staying inside their own districts in a city transformed into a patchwork of enclaves after years of sectarian violence. Whether the quiet endures hinges on many factors, including the results of yet-unscheduled provincial and national elections and whether Iraq's religious and ethnic factions can discover a fair power-sharing formula.213 Robert Burns and Robert Reid write that the United States is now winning the war that two years ago seemed lost. Limited, sometimes sharp fighting and periodic terrorist bombings in Iraq are likely to continue, possibly for years. But the Iraqi government and the U.S. now are able to shift focus from mainly combat to mainly building the fragile beginnings of peace — a transition that many found almost unthinkable as recently as one year ago. Burns and Reid note that Iraq has reached the point where the insurgents, who once controlled whole cities, no longer have the clout to threaten the viability of the central government. That does not mean the war has ended or that U.S. troops have no role in Iraq. It means the combat phase finally is ending, years past the time when President Bush optimistically declared it had. The new phase focuses on training the Iraqi army and police, restraining the flow of illicit weaponry from Iran, supporting closer links between Baghdad and local governments, pushing the integration of former insurgents into legitimate government jobs and assisting in rebuilding the economy. Scattered battles go on, especially against al- Qaeda holdouts north of Baghdad. But organized resistance, with the steady drumbeat of bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and ambushes that once rocked the capital daily, have all but ceased. This amounts to more than a lull in the violence. It reflects a fundamental shift in the outlook for the Sunni minority, which held power under Saddam Hussein. They launched the insurgency five years ago. They now are either sidelined or have switched sides to cooperate with the Americans in return for money and political support.214 The militia that was once the biggest defender of poor Shiites in Iraq, the Mahdi Army, has been profoundly weakened in a number of neighborhoods across Baghdad, in an important, if tentative, milestone for stability

213 Ned Parker, "Iraq clings to a rickety calm between war and peace," Los Angeles Times, July 27, 2008, http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-better28-2008jul28,0,7747198.story 214 Robert Burns and Robert H. Reid, "Analysis: US now winning Iraq war that seemed lost," Associated Press, July 26, 2008, http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jzxqARN0Huv38n5pgDfdBRwuoiZgD925QUBO0 in Iraq. It is a remarkable change from years past, when the militia, led by the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr, controlled a broad swath of Baghdad, including local governments and police forces. But its use of extortion and violence began alienating much of the Shiite population to the point that many quietly supported American military sweeps against the group. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki struck another blow in the Sping of 2008, when he led a military operation against it in Baghdad and in several southern cities. The shift, if it holds, would solidify a transfer of power from Mr. Sadr, who had lorded his once broad political support over the government, to Mr. Maliki, who is increasingly seen as a true national leader.215 Public opinion surrounding the war seems to be very acerbic, at least that is what is commonly recited in public opinion surveys. Some analysts say that there is a correlation between bad views about the war and bad war news. Periods of intense news media coverage in the United States of criticism about the war in Iraq, or of polling about public opinion on the conflict, are followed by a small but quantifiable increases in the number of attacks on civilians and U.S. forces in Iraq, according to a study by Radha Iyengar, a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in health policy research at Harvard University, and Jonathan Monten of the Belfer Center at the university's Kennedy School of Government. The increase in attacks is more pronounced in areas of Iraq that have better access to international news media. In Iraqi provinces that were broadly comparable in social and economic terms, attacks increased between 7 percent and 10 percent following what the researchers call "high-mention weeks," like the two just before the November 2006 election. Media attention on Iraq began to wane after the first months of fighting, but as recently as the middle of 2007, it was still the most-covered topic. Since then, Iraq coverage by major American news sources has plummeted to about one-fifth of what it was in the summer of 2007, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism. If the Harvard study is right, we may be looking at a virtuous circle: Less violence means less media coverage, which in turn means less violence, says the Wall Street Journal. Perhaps one day we'll wake up to discover that America won the war in Iraq months earlier, but no one noticed because the reporters were all busy with other things.216 Both presidential candidates are betting that Iraq plays to their strengths. For John McCain, the war highlights his opponent's relative inexperience on the world stage. For Barack Obama, a focus on the war will help define McCain as a double-down bet on George W. Bush's foreign policy. McCain was a strong and consistent advocate of removing Saddam Hussein from power since the late 1990s. He rejects the idea of setting any timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq and he hopes most troops can be home by 2013, but has said that any withdrawal is dependent on the United States winning the war and defeating al Qaeda. McCain has not definitely ruled out permanent U.S. bases in Iraq, but his comments suggest he is open to the idea. He is also one of the strongest congressional backers of the Bush administration's "surge" policy to send additional troops to Iraq in early 2007 and rejects negotiations with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Obama, on the other hand, publicly opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2002, when he was a state senator in Illinois and has set a clear timetable of 16 months for the withdrawal of major combat brigades from Iraq. He expressly rejects the idea of permanent U.S. bases in Iraq and objected to the Bush administration's "surge" policy to increase force levels in Iraq in early 2007. Obama has proposed wide- ranging negotiations with the Iranian President to address multiple issues. The Iraq debate is notable because each side has staked its claim to the White House on shifting sands. If developments on the ground in Iraq continue to improve in the months ahead, Obama will risk seeming out of touch by sticking to a narrative that the United States must abandon a failed cause. Conversely, by tying his fortunes so tightly to the success of the surge, McCain is vulnerable to any major setbacks in Iraq.217 In fact, a drop in the number of fatalities in Iraq forced Obama to acknowledge that he had failed to understand how much violence would decrease this year in Iraq, but he contended that President Bush and McCain had made the same mistake. Meanwhile, McCain insisted in an interview on ABC's "This Week"

215 Sabrina Tavernise, "A Shiite Militia in Baghdad Sees Its Power Wane," The New York Times, July 27, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/world/middleeast/27mahdi.html 216 James Taranto, "The 'Emboldenment Effect,' " Wall Street Journal, March 25, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120646669169962809.html; based upon: Radha Iyengar and Jonathan Monten, "Is There an 'Emboldenment' Effect? Evidence from the Insurgency in Iraq," Harvard University, February 2008, http://people.rwj.harvard.edu/~riyengar/insurgency.pdf 217 James Kitfield, "The Fulcrum," National Journal, June 14, 2008, http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/nj_20080614_8822.php that he had not shifted his support of an American exit in 2010, despite comments he made Friday that the 16-month withdrawal plan espoused by Iraq's prime minister "is a pretty good timetable."218 Terrorism plays a big role in the Iraq conflict. Since the invasion of Iraq, al Qaeda has used "franchises" to expand its global reach. Al Qaeda offered these franchises very little, except its name, reputation, and ideology. Because of al Qaeda's minimal investment, destroying the franchise groups will accomplish very little against the mother organization. Instead, the United States is considering using al Qaeda's franchises as a vehicle to attack al Qaeda's name, reputation, and ideas. Al Qaeda's franchises are more prone to strategic mistakes than their namesake; those errors should be used as the cornerstone of a narrative to highlight al Qaeda's ideological failings. Al Qaeda in Iraq has been particularly mistake-prone. Three mistakes in particular offer opportunities to undermine al Qaeda's ideology: attacks against Muslim civilians, the declaration of the Islamic State of Iraq, and infighting with other Iraqi insurgent groups.219 In their book, "The Three Trillion Dollar War," Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes estimate the true cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to be $3 trillion, an outrageous figure nearly six times the defense department's own numbers, says John Lott, the author of "Freedomnomics," and a senior research scientist at the University of Maryland. According to Lott, Stiglitz and Bilmes make a number of errors in their calculations. For instance, they put their estimate of total costs of veteran injuries at over $900 billion ($630 billion from taking care of the wounded and $273 billion from the harm done to wounded and injured soldiers), although the Congressional Budget Office's Matthew Goldberg testified in October that the future medical care costs, disability compensation, and survivors' benefits up to 2017 would likely range from only $10 to $13 billion. On oil prices, Stiglitz and Bilmes argue since oil prices have increased as the war has gone on, this suggests the war has something to do with rising prices; however, Peter Hartley, a professor at Rice University who specializes in energy economics, says that oil experts almost unanimously agree the wars have not affected oil prices. The authors also calculate interest rates using a rate that is far too low and makes the future expenditures on the war look larger today than they really are. Some notable war critics estimate the costs of the war to be close to $1 trillion, with their most realistic estimates at less than half that amount; still others place the best cost of the war estimates at a sixth of what Stiglitz and Bilmes claim.220 For all their horror, wars are learning laboratories for trauma medicine. The knowledge that U.S. military doctors have gained in Iraq is helping them save the lives of more combat wounded than ever before. Quicker medical evacuations, improved emergency room instruments and new surgical approaches mean fewer injured service members are dying. The mortality rate among those wounded in Iraq is about 10 percent, compared with 20 percent in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, 24 percent in Vietnam and 30 percent in World War II, according to a recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The higher survival rate raises other issues, the Journal noted, such as the quality of life for the increased number of troops with multiple amputations and disfiguring wounds; still, doctors are getting better at their profession's essential goal, keeping patients alive.221 The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is facing a wave of returning soldiers who are struggling with memories of a war where it's hard to distinguish innocent civilians from enemy fighters and where the threat of suicide attacks and roadside bombs haunts the most routine mission. Since 2001, 1.4 million Americans have served in Iraq, Afghanistan or other locations in the global war on terrorism. An investigation by McClatchy Newspapers has found that even by its own measures, the VA isn't prepared to give these 218 Paul Richter, "Obama admits drop in Iraq violence more than he'd anticipated," Los Angeles Times, July 27, 2008, http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-campaign28-2008jul28,0,3585030.story 219 Brian Fishman and Richard Clarke, "Using the Mistakes of al Qaeda's Franchises to Undermine Its Strategies," The American Academy of Political and Social Science, The Annals of The American Academy of Political and Social Science, July, 2008 220 John Lott, "Is It Really a '$3 Trillion War'?" Fox News, June 16, 2008, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,367259,00.html 221 Chris Kraul, "Veteran Medics Help Reduce Iraq Fatalities; Doctors with combat zone experience are saving troops who might not have made it anywhere else. Body armor also plays a role," Los Angeles Times, February 12, 2006; and Atul Gawande, "Casualties of War - Military Care for the Wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan," New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 351, No. 24, December 9, 2004, http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/351/24/2471 returning soldiers the care that could best help them overcome destructive, and sometimes fatal, mental health ailments. McClatchy found that despite a decade-long effort to treat veterans at all VA locations, nearly 100 local VA clinics provided virtually no mental healthcare in 2005 and that the average veteran with psychiatric troubles gets almost one-third fewer visits with specialists than he would have received a decade ago. Mental healthcare is wildly inconsistent from state to state that in some places, veterans get individual psychotherapy sessions while in others, they meet mostly for group therapy. In some of its medical centers, the VA spends as much as $2,000 for outpatient psychiatric treatment for each veteran; in others, the outlay is only $500.222 Handling Iraq in the long term is a substantial challenge to U.S. leaders. A retired admiral and fellow at the M.I.T. Center for International Studies, William J. Fallon is uniquely situated to comment any long term security agreement between the two nations. He writes that the prospect of a long-term security arrangement between the United States and Iraq has become a lightning rod for criticism. Yet such an agreement -- which the White House believes could be completed this month now that the two countries have agreed to set a ''general time horizon'' for reducing the number of American troops in Iraq -- would be in the best interests of the governments of both countries, and of the people who live in a region of the world that urgently needs stability. The United Nations Security Council resolution that authorizes coalition operations in Iraq expires at the end of this year. But the calendar is not the most important reason for the United States to enter into a long-term pact with Iraq. The opportunity presented by the improved situation on the ground begs to be exploited lest it disappear in the ever-shifting sands of Middle East strife. Fallon notes that the war has dragged on so long that people are fixated on yesterday's many negative aspects and are not aware of the profoundly different and improved situation in Iraq today -- which is very different from only a few months ago. Another major challenge is the continuing tendency to view anything to do with Iraq in the polarizing terms of yes or no, in or out. The prudent and rational approach is more nuanced, and more likely to achieve both countries' mutual goals.223 Key Terms Iraqi Civil War Pentagon Shiite Muslim Kurds Sunni Muslim al-Qaeda Baghdad Mahdi Army Moktada al-Sadr Nuri Kamal al-Maliki John McCain Barack Obama Timetable for troop withdrawal Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Terrorism Mortality rate Department of Veterans Affairs Security Council Research Tips Check out the CIA World Factbook entry for Iraq: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world- factbook/geos/iz.html 222 Chris Adams, "War In Iraq," Miami Herald, February 11, 2007 223 William J. Fallon, "Surge Protector," The New York Times, July 20, 2008 The UN Refugee Agency has a situation map for the war in Iraq: http://www.unhcr.org/publ/PUBL/456320748.pdf Take a look at what the Human Rights Watch is saying about the Iraq conflict: http://www.hrw.org/doc? t=mideast&c=iraq KashmirKashmir

“We would also like to assure our brothers and sisters in Kashmir that, at this critical juncture in their history, they have the full moral, diplomatic and political support of Pakistan.” ~ Pervez Musharraf

“People across the Indian subcontinent have felt the pain and anguish of those who have lost their loved ones and livelihoods in the earthquake that ravaged Jammu and Kashmir, on both sides of the Line of Control, and parts of Pakistan.” ~ Manmohan Singh

Kashmir is a legendarily beautiful mountainous region of some 7 million people that is located where the borders of India, Pakistan and China meet. In 1947 the colonial-era rulers of Kashmir decided to join newly- independent India. Neighboring Pakistan thought the mostly Muslim region should be incorporated into Pakistan which also gained independence at that time. The two countries went to war over the issue in 1947- 49 and again in 1965. In those conflicts Pakistan and China gained control of territory claimed by India, although India held on to the most populated areas. Kashmir is dominated by the Himalayan Mountains, which rise to 28,000 feet. From May to October, the city of Srinigar serves as the capital. From November to April, the capital moves to the city of Jammu. Jammu is also the name of the surrounding region.224 Full out war is a real possibility. For India, three terrorist attacks in the last nine months, allegedly perpetrated by Pakistani-based militants, justify a military response. In October 2001, Islamic separatists killed 40 people in an attack on the legislature in Srinigar. In December, five Islamic gunmen entered the Indian parliament in New Delhi and killed seven people before being killed. A few months later, gunmen attacked an Indian army camp killing 30 people, many of them wives and children of Indian soldiers. India has responded with a military build-up along the Line of Control and has threatened to attack Islamic militants operating from Pakistan. For Pakistan, India's threats are seen as an aggressive continuation of its policy of controlling Kashmir and also a threat to the Pakistani nation.225 The United States is pressuring Pakistan to curb terrorism while discouraging India from attacking. "We are making it very clear to both Pakistan and India that war will not serve their interests and we're a part of a international coalition applying pressure to both parties," President Bush said in 2002, "particularly to President Pervez Musharraf. He must stop the incursions across the Line of Control. He must do so." Above all, the U.S. wants to avoid a war between two allies that could hinder the U.S. war on terrorism in Afghanistan and the search for al Qaeda leaders believed to be hiding in Pakistan.226 Both Pakistan and India are nuclear powers. India tested three types of nuclear bombs in May 1998. As of the end of 1995, India had a total inventory of 315 to 345 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium, according to one study, enough for 20 to 60 weapons. Pakistan also detonated nuclear weapons in May 1998 and is reported to have up to 10 nuclear weapons. Both countries have fighter jets and ballistic missiles that could be armed with nuclear warheads. An American intelligence assessment, completed in 2002 as tensions between India and Pakistan intensified, warns that a full-scale nuclear exchange between the two rivals could kill up to 12 million people immediately and injure up to 7 million. Even a "more limited" nuclear war — as

224 The Official Website of Jammu and Kashmir Government, India, http://jammukashmir.nic.in/ 225 “Pakistan, India hold new round of peace talks,” The New Nation, July 19, 2008, http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2008/07/19/news0053.htm 226 Transcript: Bush Sending Rumsfeld to India and Pakistan, Office of the Press Secretary, Remarks by the President at Conclusion of Cabinent Meeting, May 30, 2002, http://usinfo.org/wf- archive/2002/020530/epf403.htm measured in number of warheads — would have cataclysmic results, overwhelming hospitals across Asia and requiring vast foreign assistance, particularly from the United States, to battle radioactive contamination, famine and disease. Pakistan's nuclear warheads are comparable to the Hiroshima bomb, delivering a yield below 20 kilotons, or 20,000 tons of TNT, in explosive power. They can be delivered by jet — although India maintains an air-defense system superior to Pakistan's — and by missile. India's nuclear warheads vary in explosive power depending on whether they are intended for delivery by aircraft or by missile, but are believed to carry a yield "in the low 10's of kilotons," according to the US Defense Department. Not included in the estimate were subsequent deaths caused by urban firestorms ignited by the heat of a nuclear exchange, or deaths from long-term radiation, or the disease and starvation expected to spread.227 India regards Kashmir as an integral part of the Indian nation. It describes the Pakistani occupation of portions of the region as illegal. It wants Pakistan to cease support for cross-border terrorism launched by groups that want to unite Kashmir with Pakistan. Pakistan favors a plebiscite, as called for in a 1949 U.N. resolution, in which the residents of Jammu and Kashmir would vote on which country they want to join. India refuses to consider a plebiscite.228 The beautiful, high altitude land could easily turn into a war zone if the tensions between the two countries do not cool. And that war might not be a conventional one. If one side pulls the trigger, destruction is mutually assured. And nuclear war would have devastating consequences for the entire region. Keep an eye on this very cool hot spot. Key Terms Jammu Srinigar Pervez Musharraf Line of Control Nuclear proliferation Nuclear war Hiroshima bomb US Defense Department Urban firestorms Nuclear exchange Radiation Plebiscite Research Tips Read about India's nuclear capacity here: http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/india/nuke/index.html Check out the information on Pakistan's nuclear abilities by visiting; http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/pakistan/nuke/index.html A solid short history of Kashmir is provided by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research: http://www.ieer.org/comments/dsmt/kashhist.html Check out Pervez Musharraf’s official homepage: http://www.presidentofpakistan.gov.pk/

227 Thom Shanker, "12 Million Could Die at Once in an India-Pakistan Nuclear War," The New York Times, May 27, 2002, http://www.nci.org/ind-pak.htm 228 Victoria Schofield, "Kashmir's forgotten plebiscite," BBC News, January 17, 2002, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1766582.stm MilitaryMilitary RecruitmentRecruitment

"When the military man approaches, the world locks up its spoons and packs off its womankind" ~ George Bernard Shaw

Getting young men and women to commit a period of time in their young lives to service in the military has always been a challenge for military recruiters. The challenge becomes an almost insurmountable mountain when recruitment is combined with an unpopular war and efforts on the part of universities to keep recruiters off their campuses. In recent history, all three branches of the military – Army, Navy and Air Force – have suffered from declining recruitment numbers. Those figures picked up in the Summer of 2008 as every branch of the military met or surpassed recruiting goals for the fiscal year ending on September 30, a fact many experts attribute to the ailing economy and the lack of viable employment alternatives, but forecasters are wary about the future.229 Military leaders point to strong recruiting numbers during the war as evidence of the strength of an all volunteer force. For the last 35 years, the U.S. armed forces have consisted solely of volunteers. Until July 1973, the military operated under an involuntary draft policy to produce manpower to fight the country’s wars. Draftees served during both world wars, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Since then, volunteers have served the armed forces through peacetime and war, including the Cold War and conflicts in Panama, Grenada, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, the Persian Gulf and elsewhere around the world.230 Recruiting success is especially remarkable given the efforts of our nation’s universities to use military service as a soapbox to argue for social change. A renewed fight over the military’s "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy is being watched closely here on the campus of the Vermont Law School, a 600-student institution on the banks of the White River. The Vermont Law School is one of two law schools in the nation that bar military recruiters, as a protest against the 15-year-old rule that prevents openly gay men and lesbians from serving in the military. As a result, the school is denied some federal research money — $300,000 to $500,000 a year by one outside analyst’s estimate.231 A common misperception is that the U.S. military is increasingly filled with relatively uneducated young men and women from low-income households. Yet this myth doesn't hold up under inspection say Tim Kane, director of the Center for International Trade and Economics at the Heritage Foundation, and Mackenzie Eaglen, a senior policy analyst there. Kane and Eaglen's research analyzed demographic data on every single enlistee, not just a sample, and found that in terms of education. Counting enlisted troops, 29 of 30 have a high school diploma. Of the civilian population, only about 4 out of 5 have their diploma. The idea that the military poaches from poor families is also wrong, say Kane and Eaglen. Youths from wealthy American ZIP codes are volunteering in ever higher numbers. Additionally, the percentage of enlistees from the poorest fifth of American neighborhoods fell nearly a full percentage point over the last two years, to 13.7 percent, while in 1999, that number was 18 percent.232 Potential recruits may also be encouraged by declining casualty rates. Despite suffering over 4,000 deaths in Iraq, annual U.S. military casualties overall during the first six years of the Bush administration are well below the average for the 26-year period beginning in 1980, Even in 2005, the deadliest year of the Iraq 229 Eric Schmitt, "Soft Economy Aids Recruiting Effort, Army Leaders Say," The New York Times, September 22, 2003, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html? res=9D02E4D81E3AF931A1575AC0A9659C8B63 230 Donna Miles, "Latest Recruiting Numbers Underscore Strength of All-Volunteer Force," American Forces Press Service, July 10, 2008, http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=50466 231 Katie Zezima, "Law School Pays the Price in ‘Don’t Ask’ Rule Protest," The New York Times, June 29, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/education/29vermont.html 232 Tim Kane and Mackenzie Eaglen, "No Atheists In A Foxhole? No Idiots, Either," The New York Times, November 8, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/opinion/08kane.html campaign, U.S. troop fatalities around the world, including Afghanistan, were lower than the first nine years of the study -- when the Cold War was still raging in a time of otherwise relative peace. In 2005, a total of 1,942 U.S. military personnel were killed in all causes, including accidents, hostile action, homicides, illnesses, suicides, etc. That compares to 2,392 in 1980, the last year of President Jimmy Carter's administration. In fact, twice as many U.S. military personnel were killed in accidents in that one year than were killed in hostile actions in any year of the Bush administration. Despite a major increase in deaths due to hostile actions beginning in 2003 with the advent of the Iraq war, the annual toll on U.S. troops did not skyrocket above peacetime norms, according to the Department of Defense. For instance, in 1993, the first year of the peacetime Clinton administration, 1,293 U.S. servicemen lost their lives -- just 649 fewer than in 2005, the hottest year of the Iraq war.233 In 2006, the Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling, upheld a law that withholds some federal money from law schools and universities that do not give military recruiters the same access to campus as other employers. The law, the Solomon Amendment, was challenged by a consortium of law schools and professors. At most universities, federal grants help finance dozens of scientific and other research programs. The William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul also bars recruiters from its campus. The school is not losing any federal money, however, because its research is not financed out of any of the four spending bills affected by the Solomon Amendment.234 The strong showing has done little to assuage the concerns of those who fear that involuntary service will be reinstated. Many Americans are fearful the U.S. government will be forced to return to the draft given the prolonged Iraq and Afghanistan wars. And the presidential candidates are, of course, weighing in. Asked about that possibility by a potential voter in Florida during a telephone "town hall meeting," McCain said: "I don't know what would make a draft happen unless we were in an all-out World War III." McCain, a Vietnam veteran, said the draft during that conflict weighed most heavily on lower-income Americans, and that this should not be repeated. "I do not believe the draft is even practicable or desirable," McCain said.235 One disadvantage of the all-volunteer service is that the military has less opportunity to turn away applicants. During a yearlong examination, The Sacramento Bee studied the civilian and military backgrounds of hundreds of troops identified from recruiting documents and other military records, focusing on those who entered the services since the Iraq war began and those linked to in-service problems. Though not a representative sample, the 250 military personnel analyzed most closely as "Suspect Soldiers" included 120 with questionable backgrounds, including felonies and serious drug, alcohol or mental health problems. Those identified by The Bee are among the tens of thousands of military personnel recruited or retained as the armed services — entering the sixth year of the Iraq war — lowered educational, age and moral standards and granted a growing number of waivers to applicants whose backgrounds would otherwise have barred them from serving. The percentage of Army recruits receiving so-called "moral conduct" waivers more than doubled, from 4.6 percent in 2003 to 11.2 percent in 2007.236 Also of concern are the battle instincts and readiness of new recruits. When a group of U.S. Air Force commanders visited Iraq two years ago, they made some disturbing observations as they watched enlisted airmen working in the war zone: Many lacked basic combat skills and instincts. Some didn't know how to handle and load their weapons. A few even had their guns taken away as a safety precaution. Within months, the high command mandated an overhaul of Air Force basic military training -- the most dramatic changes in 60 years in the training's tone and curriculum. Chief among them is a new, time-consuming emphasis on "warrior ethos," making every airman capable of self-defense in a service with a reputation for being removed from the front lines. The 38,000 trainees per year now spend less time learning to fold T-shirts so they can spend more time learning to wage war. The vast majority of trainees -- 93 percent -- successfully

233 "U.S. Military Deaths Below 26-Year Average," World Net Daily, April 25, 2008, http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=62294 234 Jane Roh, "Supreme Court Rules Against Schools in Military Recruiting Case," Fox News, March 6, 2006, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,186936,00.html 235 "McCain says only World War III would justify draft," Reuters, June 25, 2008, http://uk.reuters.com/article/gc05/idUKN2438836820080625 236 Russel Carollo, "Crime rises in military with lower standards," Lexington Herald-Leader, July 13, 2008, http://www.kentucky.com/216/story/459852.html completed basic training, and 84 percent did so on time in 6 1/2 weeks, the shortest basic training among the services. Following the Air Force's recommendations, the training was increased to 8 1/2 weeks.237 One way of maintaining recruitment momentum is to encourage foreigners to serve in our military under the promise of citizenship. This strategy is recommended by Max Boot and Michael O’Hanlon, both of the Heritage Foundation, who say that by inviting foreigners to join the U.S. armed forces in exchange for a promise of citizenship after a four-year tour of duty, we could continue to attract some of the world's most enterprising, selfless and talented individuals. Some might object on moral grounds, arguing that it is wrong to rely on "mercenaries" and to use such incentives to get prospective immigrants to fight. Boot and O'Hanlan disagree. For one thing, the United States already relies on tens of thousands of real mercenaries -- the security contractors the U.S. government employs from Colombia to Iraq to make up for lack of troops. Immigrants who enrolled in our armed forces would be more valuable because they would be under military discipline and motivated by more than just a paycheck.238 Fortune has smiled on military recruitment recently, but sustainability is a big question mark. Look to see whether the military can keep meeting goals or the Department of Defense must change standards to allow more people into the armed services. And keep an eye on the draft, as a young adult it will behoove you to be aware of that key policy tool and to be cognizant of the debate surrounding it. The military’s primary occupation is to defend our rights and liberties. Ensuring a healthy defense force is therefore an important policy priority. Key Terms Military Recruiter Korean War Vietnam War Cold War "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" Policy Jimmy Carter Department of Defense Solomon Amendment Draft Basic Military Training Citizenship Mercenaries Research Tips Read the latest press information from the Army by visiting: http://www.army.mil/news/ Check out the wikipedia entry on the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy toward gays and lesbians here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_ask,_don't_tell Take a look at the official website of the Department of Defense: http://www.defenselink.mil/ How does our military stack up against those of other world powers? Global Fire Power gives rankings and analysis here: http://www.globalfirepower.com/ The educate yourself website has a solid resource to start your research about the military draft. Check it out here: http://educate-yourself.org/cn/draftindex.shtml

237 John W. Gonzalez, "Not-So-Basic-Training: With airmen dying in combat, trainees embrace a 'warrior ethos' to improve survival chances," Houston Chronicle, April 24, 2006, http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=3245 238 Max Boot and Michael O'Hanlon, "A Military Path to Citizenship," Washington Post, October 19, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/18/AR2006101801500.html ObesityObesity

“What we're trying to do is use some of the same legal tactics that have been so effective against the public health problem of smoking against the other public health problem of obesity.” ~ George Washington

Obesity is widely recognized as a health risk. But how much of a risk is it? Two RAND researchers examined the comparative effects of obesity, smoking, heavy drinking and poverty on chronic health conditions and health expenditures. They found that obesity is the most serious problem. It is linked to a big increase in chronic health conditions like cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, type 2 diabetes, and significantly higher health expenditures. And it affects more people than smoking, heavy drinking or poverty. Weight reduction should therefore be an urgent public health priority. The prevalence of obesity, and its strong association with chronic conditions, indicates that weight reduction would mitigate the effects of obesity on the occurrence of specific diseases and would significantly improve quality of life. 239 Alarmingly, obesity rates have increased over the last twenty-five years. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, more than one-third of U.S. adults – over 72 million people – were obese in 2005- 2006. This includes 33.3 percent of men and 35.3 percent of women. Unfortunately, many obesity cases start young. Experts say that being overweight at a young age appears to be "far more destructive to well-being than adding excess pounds later in life." Being overweight at a young age is worse because kids’ organs are being damaged as they develop, often irreversibly. The levels of obesity among children are expected to cut this generation’s life expectancy by at least five years, and a child with obesity costs three times more to the nation’s healthcare system than a child of normal weight.240 It is estimated that the country spends $14 billion each year on overweight youth, mostly due to visits to the emergency room. The increase cost spills over for adults, too. Health Affairs estimates that healthcare spending is approximately 36 percent higher among obese adults under age 65 than for those with normal weight. Medicaid and Medicare bear significant costs for treating health conditions associated with obesity, including diabetes and cardiovascular problems. A 2001 Surgeon General's report put the social cost of obesity at about $117 billion per year.241 Even thought the problem of childhood obesity has been acknowledged by most people, the federal government has done very little about it. While France requires disclaimers on food ads, Spain has changed labels and the UK has restricted airing of junk food ads aimed at kids, the United States lets marketers do whatever they want. While state, local and volunteer groups and foundations have worked hard on their own to tighten nutrition standards at schools and provide more access to physical activity, there are few standards on things like vending machines in schools or required amounts of physical activity kids should get during the school day.242 239 RAND, "The Health Risks of Obesity Worse Than Smoking, Drinking, or Poverty," March, 2002; based on Roland Sturm, "The Effects of Obesity, Smoking, and Problem Drinking on Chronic Medical Problems and Healthcare Costs," Health Affairs, April 2002; and Roland Sturm and Kenneth Wells, "Does Obesity Contribute as Much to Morbidity as Poverty or Smoking?" Public Health, July 2001, http://www.rand.org/congress/health/0602/obesity/rb4549/index.html 240 Susan Levine and Rob Stein, "Obesity Threatens a Generation," Washington Post, May 17, 2008, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/17/AR2008051701373_pf.html 241 Kenneth E. Thorpe, Curtis S. Florence and David H. Howard, "The Impact of Obesity on Rising Medical Spending," Health Affairs, October 20, 2004, http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/hlthaff.w4.480/DC1 242 Sarah White, "The Washington Post’s in-depth look at childhood obesity," Calorie Counter News, May 29, 2008, http://calorielab.com/news/2008/05/29/the-washington-posts-in-depth-look-at- childhood-obesity/ Weight management is no longer just an issue for the citizens of Western nations. Increasingly, the wealthy and middle class – no matter where they are located – are struggling to control their waistlines. China, a developing nation that lacks the kind of affluence typically seen in nations that suffer from the obesity epidemic, is beginning to see signs of an obesity problem. A study prepared by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill says that more than 25% of adults in the country are overweight or obese and that the number could double over the next 20 years. With the population at 1.3 billion, that means an additional 11 million Chinese adults are becoming overweight or obese every year. In addition, 12 million to 14 million adults are becoming at risk for diabetes and hypertension annually. The study suggests that the problem may be accelerating. And the reason for the rise in obesity is not because of increased consumption of fast food or other Western foods in China. Rather, improving living standards mean that growing numbers of Chinese can now afford vegetable oil, beef and dairy-food sources that until recently had been too costly. A more sedentary lifestyle for many Chinese plays an important role as well. 243 The fact that the Chinese are getting fat does little to assuage the concern of those in the United States. Some are turning to the "ultimate panacea" for a solution: What can the Government do for the obesity problem? Current government efforts to control obesity largely take the form of consumer education and food industry requirements for transparency in nutritional information. The federal government has required food producers to disclose nutritional information for years. The Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (1966) required all consumer products involved in interstate commerce to have labels that are both accurate and informative. The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 further enhanced labeling requirements. Many of the larger restaurant chains and fast food establishments make the nutritional information of their menus available on Web sites or on printed menus or posters. Could government do even more? Economists generally agree government should intervene when the costs of one person's actions are borne by others. However, most also say government should not interfere when the cost is borne primarily by the individual. The reason economists give is that individuals are better than government at making choices that best fit their preferences. For example, even though we might prefer to be slender, we value the taste of food in the present more than we dislike the added weight that will accumulate in the future. Put crudely, we are only as fat as we want to be. But if the costs are passed onto society through healthcare expenditures, maybe some intervention is warranted.244 Obesity is a complex medical condition and likely related to a number of different factors. People often blame overeating, too much fast food, and sedentary lifestyles. Other theories include increased automobile use and living in suburban neighborhoods where people walk less than in other areas. Carbonated beverages and sweeteners made from corn syrup are often mentioned as contributing factors. But not everyone agrees preventing obesity is simply a case of counting calories consumed and subtracting those that are burned. Heredity plays a major role as well and, interestingly, technology may be a cause of weight gain. Technological change has increased labor productivity but also reduced the calories expended, by making work easier. In addition, as time has become more valuable, the opportunity cost (value of an activity forgone to conduct another activity) of home-prepared meals and exercise also has risen. The increase in fast food restaurants may represent a higher demand from time-strapped families who are looking for a quick meal and are short on time because changes in societal norms and expanded work opportunities for both men and women have resulted in fewer women preparing food at home. Maybe the decrease in smoking over the last few years has increased obesity rates. Now there’s a thought.245 Solutions to this complex problem are radical as they are varied. Some have proposed a "fat tax" on obesity, while others want to ban sugary drinks and cafeteria foods from grade school campuses. Trial lawyers are using litigation to get fatty foods off of fast food menus and national health organizations and governmental agencies are raising awareness about the importance of exercise and good dietary habits. It took this nation 243 Shirley Wang, "Obesity in China Becoming More Common," Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121548785276935069.html?mod=hps_us_editors_picks 244 Devon Herrick, "What Can Government Do About the Obesity Epidemic?" Consumer Driven Healthcare, a special project of the National Center for Policy Analysis, April 1, 2006, http://cdhc.ncpa.org/commentaries/what-can-government-do-about-the-obesity-epidemic 245 "Diabetes, Weight Tied to Male Infertility," Washington Post, July 9, 2008, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/09/AR2008070901857.html several decades to get fat and it could take a few more to slim down. One can only hope we have reached our peak weight. Key Terms RAND Chronic Health Conditions Cardiovascular Disease National Center for Health Statistics Medicaid Medicare Diabetes Hypertension Sedentary Lifestyle Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (1966) Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 Heredity Research Tips Are you curious about your weight? Punch the relevant information into a Body Mass Index calculator here: http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ Read what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has to say about this topic by visiting: http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ The World Health Organization has an interesting breakdown of world obesity rates here: http://dlutskiy.com/blog/2006/05/obesechart051506.pdf Curious about how you weigh up against others in your state? The State of Maryland has a PowerPoint presentation giving some really intriguing regional maps. Check them out here: www.dnr.state.md.us/education/growfromhere/lesson18/obesity_maps.ppt Read a legal analysis of the issues surrounding obesity in a well researched background paper available here: www.healthyeatingresearch.org/uploads/8RobertsBackgroundPaper.pdf OilOil

“ Tinkering with energy regulation can have disastrous consequences, especially when it’s done on behalf of special interests rather than the national interest.” Los Angeles Times

How high can oil prices go? In the summer of 2008, a driver needed only look away for a few seconds and gas prices would inflate. If you have not seen the high prices, you may have heard drivers complaining about everything they lose at the pump. Even the most optimistic forecasters are beginning to become cynical about the future of oil prices. But what has caused the rapid increase in fuel costs? Why is gasoline so much more expensive now than it was ten years ago? Americans are paying $1.6 billion a day for gasoline—three times what they paid in June 2002. It would hit $2 billion if gasoline were $4.96. But many experts think that market forces will adjust before prices go much beyond that. There are several reasons for this. Demand is falling as airlines are cutting flights and drivers are using less gas. In terms of numbers of barrels consumed, Americans are actually starting to use less than they once did. Researchers at the Energy Information Administration, a division of the Department of Energy, compared four-week consumption between June of 2007 and June of 2008. They found that U.S. gasoline use fell by 1.3% from the earlier year and oil imports were down 800,000 barrels per day. Still, it could take three or four years for a big lasting downturn in demand and more time after that for the market to reflect the reduced demand with lower prices. Take a look at the timeline below, prepared by Fuel Focus, a Canadian Natural Resources organization:246

Saudi Arabia and other oil exporting countries are increasing supply to try to take advantage of the higher prices. With prices high, there is intense pressure on members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to "shade," or produce more than the amount agreed upon with the other cartel members. There are several reasons that may motivate shading. The profit motive, the most powerful incentive in business, calls loudly. An oil exporting country will think twice about denying itself easy profits just because the cartel says to keep supply low. Global protests over fuel prices have some OPEC members worried that national economies could collapse because of high fuel prices, leaving far fewer oil buyers. If the buyer starts going bankrupt because the price of the product, the product and its seller will suffer. OPEC needs to keep oil consumers viable as well as dependent.

246 “Gasoline at Retail v. Crude Oil.” Fuel Focus. http://www.fuelfocus.nrcan.gc.ca. If oil exporting countries begin to suspect that first world powers are turning to alternatives like ethanol or hydrogen and that these non-oil fuels are becoming viable, they may increase supply to flood the market with cheaper oil and reduce gas prices just enough to keep petrol competitive. Countries that are economically dependent on oil exports may also adjust their price if major importers like the United States begin to realize the viability of unconventional oil fields like shale (discussed below), and open up those regions for development by oil companies. These anti-competitive behaviors would be illegal for private companies in the United States, but OPEC operates outside the controls of enforceable anti-trust laws and its impunity makes it a tough opponent. To respond, many governments have started subsidizing, or supporting alternative technologies with taxpayer funds. One of the biggest expenditures is in the area of ethanol. Ethanol is simply flammable alcohol taken from foodstuffs, usually corn, and added to gasoline. Many states require that fuel be complemented with a certain percentage of ethanol. Recent studies have concluded that adding ethanol saves U.S. drivers between 11 cents and 60 cents a gallon, but when the cost of subsidies paid to farmers to sell their corn for fuel are considered, that number falls dramatically. Ethanol also has some hidden costs. By diverting tons of corn to fuel instead of food, the subsidy incentives can perversely increase food prices, a problem that is beginning to hit Americans in their pocketbooks. Some see the whole conflict of ethanol as political and call on the government to cut back its support for ethanol. A recent editorial in the Los Angeles Times declared that "the EPA should waive the ethanol requirement, but if that’s the only outcome of the ethanol brouhaha, the country will still lose. Lawmakers should see this as an important lesson: Tinkering with energy regulation can have disastrous consequences, especially when it’s done on behalf of special interests rather than the national interest. Given the number of phenomenally bad proposals for lowering oil prices floating around the Capitol, this lesson could not come at a more critical time."247 Hurricane season is an annual threat to petrol stability. Late-summer storms can threaten energy infrastructure around the Gulf of Mexico, where off-shore drilling and many of the nation’s refineries are located. The United States suffered higher fuel prices after Hurricane Katrina in part because of reduced refining capacity caused by the infamous storm. With the tense foreign oil situation, lawmakers and businessmen are looking at domestic reserves and the home front. Oil extracted from shale fields (referred to as shale oil, as opposed to crude oil) represents the mother lode of untapped reserves, at about 1.5 trillion barrels—or 200 years worth of supply at current usage levels. Unfortunately for oil companies, roughly two-thirds of the U.S.'s oil shale fields in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah are in federally-protected areas and closed to development. In addition, getting the oil out of the rock is a challenge, requiring cooking or chemical treatment of rock located as much as half a mile under the earth's surface. To make oil shale production economically worthwhile, crude oil prices must remain above $50 a barrel for a protracted period. While prices hover well above that level now, the OPEC cartel has a lot of control over prices and has threatened to price cut competitors out of business. It is hard to be competitive against an economic power so massive that it can manipulate the market just by speaking. Investors look for safe places to put their money, and the investment of shale is still on "rocky ground." Around 75 billion barrels of oil could come from tar sands, similar to Canadian fields, which now churn out a million barrels a day. The sands are located predominantly in Utah, Alaska, Texas and California, as well as in Alabama and Kentucky on federal and state lands that, by laws and administrative orders, are closed to mineral and petroleum development. Oil companies would need a green light from the federal government before they can drill in our domestic tar sand reserves. Something in the neighborhood of 90 billion barrels of oil sit beneath the ocean bed 50 to 100 miles off the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts. Presidential bans and congressional prohibitions have put the tracts off-limits to oil company exploration at least until 2012, although there's a chance that Congress may lift the moratorium before then. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska is home to an estimated 10 billion barrels of oil. Like many of the other oil rich domestic reserves discussed here, the Federal Government will have to approve any plans to drill there and has to date been reticent to do so.

247 “Stop requiring ethanol production.” Los Angeles Times. July 3, 2008 editorial. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-ethanol3-2008jul03,0,537121.story The impact of speculators cannot be ignored. As long as investors see oil as a good bet, either for or against higher prices, the market will be volatile. The only thing consistent about investment is its inconsistency, and money put toward oil keeps prices moving in both directions. This creates uncertainty which has a dampening effect on future investment. Building new oil refineries or expanding existing ones is among the most affordable, effective and reliable ways to increase supplies and lower prices. Yet emission controls and mandates for specific gasoline blends have forced many refineries to close and made building new oil refineries very difficult. In fact, no new ones have been built in the U.S. since 1976. Environmental regulations have operated to hurt oil industry competitiveness and discourage growth. For example, throughout the 1990s the oil industry spent nearly 25 percent of capital investment—more than $100 billion—to comply with environmental regulations. For some plants, compliance with ever-increasing standards was simply too costly. For instance, oil refiner Premcor shut two Illinois oil refineries because it could not afford required upgrades. Modifications in one refinery alone would have cost $70 million.248 Clean air regulations have also discouraged building new facilities. For example, construction of a new refinery in Arizona has been delayed since 1997 over concerns of its impact on air quality and the proposed site, even though the plant received the required air permits. Now, even under the best circumstances, the plant will not be operational until 2011. Any solution to the oil dilemma will require a comprehensiveness that has so far eluded policy-makers. The focus on alternative technologies sounds nice and has a futuristic ring, but decisions that are not driven by the market will not lead to lower prices for consumers. How high can prices go? Time will tell. Key Terms Energy Information Administration Department of Energy Saudi Arabia OPEC Ethanol Hurricane Season Shale oil Crude oil Tar sands ANWR Oil refineries Emission controls Environmental regulations Research Tools Check out the website for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (http://www.opec.org/home) and OPEC’s latest press releases (http://www.opec.org/opecna). Extempers need to be up-to-date on current oil prices, especially when they are changing so rapidly. Bloomberg News maintains a ticker at http://www.bloomberg.com/energy. The three main developments of oil exploration are hot topics this presidential election year. Read all about the Arctic Wildlife National Refuge at http://www.anwr.org, offshore drilling at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offshore_drilling, and shale oil development at http://www.oilshaleexplorationcompany.com.

248 Charlier, Tom. “Premcor history troubled.” Refinery Reform Campaign. March 10, 2003. http://www.refineryreform.org/News_MemphisCommericalAppeal_031003.html. The oil refining situation has not changed in the United States for three decades, so a 2003 report still has some currency, but the depth of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association’s Refining Capacity report is hard to duplicate. Read it here: www.npradc.org/publications/statistics/2003RefiningCapacityReport.pdf OpenOpen SourceSource

“Sharing your experiences is what really makes open source such a valuable model. As long as people participate, [the products] grow and evolve. It's critical, especially when pursuing [service-oriented architecture] software development, to be responsible individuals. You can't take and not give something back. There's no free ride with open source.” ~ John McManus

“If you asked me to name the three scariest threats facing the human race, I would give the same answer that most people would: nuclear war, global warming and Windows.” ~ Dave Barry

If you understand the two words that title this section, the odds are that you are so familiar with the topic that you could write it for me. You know all about the collaborative philosophy that is taking the Internet by storm and have probably even edited a wiki. If you are in the dark about open source, you join a rapidly shrinking majority. Let us see if we cannot get you to the other side. Open source refers simply to a philosophy or methodology of product and content development. Broken down, open source means that a product is created after concurrent input from several different creators, who may not know each other, but share a common goal. The principles of open source have been around since the beginning of computing with the Linux Operating System and unlicensed software. Today, Opens Source is being taken to a whole new level with user created encyclopedias and fully functional operating systems and office software suites. This development can lower costs for businesses and private consumers, but it also has consequences for quality and sustainability. Grilled cheese, World War II and fiduciary have one thing in common: if you "Google" them, each prompts a Wikipedia entry as the No. 1 result. Wikipedia is a user maintained encyclopedia developed entirely under the principles of open source. And "The Free Encyclopedia" is easily the most popular online source of quick information. Since its launch in 2001, the Wikipedia has grown exponentially, offering a definition (or more) for almost every topic. Last spring the resource reached the 10 million article mark over a spectrum of 20 different languages in its attempt to "summarize all human knowledge."249 Yet controversy over the site mounts daily: schools encourage students to abstain from the resource. Others criticize its ability to be supplemented, edited and updated by anyone -- regardless of knowledge or credentials. The Scottish Parent Teacher Council (SPTC) recently mentioned Wikipedia specifically as part of its explanation for lower-than-usual grades among local students. An April 2007 survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project uncovered overwhelming statistics showing more than a third of American adults consult Wikipedia (and admit to it). The study also states 46 percent of full- or part-time students over 18 have consulted Wikipedia. With so much reader-friendly, easily-accessible information floating around the Internet under Wikipedia’s URL, it remains a tempting option to researchers. According to Wikipedia’s own statistics, the website hosts 683 million visitors annually as of April 2008.250 In an effort to measure Wikipedia’s accuracy, researchers at Nature put together a little experiment. It compared 42 articles ranging in topic from Archimedes' principle to the thyroid gland from both Wikipedia and The Encyclopedia Britannica by sending the articles to experts for evaluation. 162 "factual errors, omissions, or misleading statements" were found in Wikipedia and 123 in the Britannica. That is roughly four per article for the upstart amateurs and three for the publication that has been around since 1768. This metric

249 Wikipedia About Page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About 250 Andrew Brandenburg, "Wikipedia: Is free info all it's cracked up to be?" Human Events, July 9, 2008, http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=27412 demonstrates two interesting facts. First the amateurs are in the same league as Britannica! Not bad. Second, Wikipedia immediately flagged each article that the reviewers had trouble with. The editors then told readers that Nature had found errors in the piece, and could they please collectively come together, find and correct them.251 Youth have been favorably impressed by the resource. When Americans, ages 24 to 35, were asked, "How credible is each source for information about a company?" Business magazines ranked first, Wikipedia was number two.252 Google apparently agrees with this assessment; the search king consistently places Wikipedia entries high on search results, even when the actual page is empty or virtually void.253 Perhaps in an effort to appeal to the scientific community which seems content to demean its efforts, Wikipedia is turning its collection of human brain firepower toward the benefit of science. Specifically, Wikipedia is hosting the human gene repository, with the aim of fostering a flexible, organic archive of human genetic information. To speed up the development of the ‘Gene Wiki’, the researchers developed a computer program that downloads information from existing databases, formats it, and posts the information as a ‘stub’ article on Wikipedia. The stub articles are expected to seed the posting of more detailed information by Wikipedia users. Ultimately, the researchers hope to create a network of articles that will describe the relationship and functions of all human genes. The knowledge contained in the million pages on Wikipedia may end up helping scientists cure diseases and better understand the human genome.254 Hand held and mobile computing is the new frontier for open source. Google launched Android, an open source, mobile only operating system for its "Google phone" and reignited a dormant debate about the merits of open source operating systems. Linux Mobile (LiMo) jumped on the bandwagon, as did a new open- source Symbian OS and a storm of other developers have started adapting their software for compatibility with the mobile user. Microsoft will most likely join the bandwagon as well with an open source version of Windows Mobile, or at least offer a large chunk of the more important parts as open source to encourage development and compete with Linux and Symbian. Watch carefully to see if Microsoft is able to silence Linux fans by throwing an open source bone, or if the effort is wasted on the die hards.255 Not to be left out, Yahoo is trying to tap into the power of the unpaid developer. Yahoo will offer users a slew of advertising-supported games and allow companies to piggyback on its search technology. Yahoo hopes that by spurring innovation, the open-source system called BOSS (Build Your Own Search Service), will extend Yahoo's reach and allow it to collect a share of the revenue from advertising that accompanies those search results. BOSS opens up the playing field for developers and companies to disrupt the search market, become principals in search and build new Web search experiences that offer more choice for users. Yahoo's main competitors, Google and Microsoft, already offer software that lets users create customized searches, but neither of those programs goes nearly as far as Yahoo in opening all the company's basic search protocols to outside developers. Either Yahoo is really thinking outside the box or it is getting desperate.256 The question of how to make open source technologies profitable and be able to support them sustainably has plagued visionaries like Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. Human generosity only goes so far;

251 Stephen Strauss, "The errors of Wikipedia's ways," CBC News, January 3, 2006, http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_strauss/20060103.html 252 Josh Gordon, "Dude! Young Americans Trust Business Magazines More Than Wikipedia!" Folio Magazine, July 8, 2008, http://www.foliomag.com/2008/young-americans-business-magazines-1- wikipedia-2 253 Michael Gray, "Google Loves Wikipedia - Even The Empty Pages," Search Newz, July 9, 2008, http://www.searchnewz.com/latestsearch/senews/sn-4- 20080709GoogleLovesWikipediaEventheEmptyPages.html 254 Liz Tay, "Wikipedia hosts human gene repository," It News, July 10, 2008, http://www.itnews.com.au/News/80128,wikipedia-hosts-human-gene-repository.aspx 255 Justin Montgomery, "The Open Source Mobile OS Battle Continues," Information Week, July 9, 2008, http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/07/the_open_source_1.html 256 "Yahoo looks to free games, open source search for growth," Monsters and Critics, July 11, 2008, http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/news/article_1416281.php/Yahoo_looks_to_free_g ames_open_source_search_for_growth eventually people need to find a way to eat and the effort becomes little more than a charitable endeavor. As more content is released as open source and music, movies, software and information are all produced by large, amorphous groups, licensing and royalty issues will rise in prominence. Will open source stay open or will the profit motive close it off? Can a site like Wikipedia operate off of generosity indefinitely? Can Linux and other free operating systems defeat a corporate behemoth like Microsoft? Key Terms Collaborative Philosophy Wiki Operating System Wikipedia Pew Internet & American Life Project Human gene repository Andriod Symbian Windows Mobile Outside developers Sustainable Jimmy Wales Licensing Royalty Research Tips Read Wikipedia’s "About" page to find out more about the company and its editorial standards: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About Check out the site Wikipedia Watch for a critical perspective on the open source encyclopedia: http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/ Try comparing Wikipedia to your library’s encyclopedias. Read through a prominent entry at the library and compare it to the open source content found online. Which one has more facts? Which one is better written? Which one do you trust? Read about one of the most popular Linux distributions, Ubuntu, by visiting this page: http://www.ubuntu.com/ Check out the Creative Commons license, a non-copyright protection often claimed by open source content: http://creativecommons.org/ RussiaRussia

“For us in Russia communism is a dead dog. For many people in the West, it is still a living lion.” ~ Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Is it weak or is it strong? That is the question surrounding The Bear, the political and geographic behemoth of Europe and Asia. The former Soviet Union may look economically weak, but powerful, centralized leadership and new evidence refute the notion that Vladimir Putin's nation is not capable of presenting a valid threat. The suddenness with which Russia has re-emerged as a global political and economic power has stunned observers. This time, its power rests not on tanks and nuclear arms but on oil and gas. Russia become a critical supplier of energy to a world whose demand is growing rapidly. At the same time, thanks to soaring prices for these commodities, both the Russian state and its big corporations have turned into financial powerhouses. Is Russia's new-found power only temporary, or will it last? In the short to medium term, high world oil prices are likely to continue to bolster Russia's wealth, strength, and confidence. However, there are questions about the longer term. Russia has yet to address fundamental problems left behind by decades of Soviet mismanagement of its economy. Some of these problems directly affect the future of Russia's energy wealth. The oil and gas of the future lie in the vast, cold expanses of the eastern part of the country. In the earlier phase of great energy wealth — the 1970s and early 1980s — Soviet economic planners committed great mistakes by misdeveloping and overpopulating Siberia. To avoid repeating the same mistakes, Russian policymakers today need a comprehensive view to tackle the dual challenges of resource management and Siberian development.257 Russia is facing a demographic nightmare according to the Economist. Its birth rate dived at the start of the 1990s causing population to fall by around 3.5 million since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, a low birth rate is not unique to Russia. Many rich countries have comparably low birth rates, but Russia's situation is worse, because of its high death rate. Russian men are dying earlier than in previous times of comparable hardship, and earlier than other, even poorer people elsewhere. Male life expectancy is lower than it was 40 years ago. Fewer than half of 16-year-old Russian boys will reach 60. Alcoholism is a big source of avoidable deaths -- a Russian man is around ten times as likely to die a violent or accidental death as a British man. The Economist estimates that Russia's population could dwindle to 100 million by 2050 and warns that depopulation could eventually threaten Russia with disintegration if its vast depopulated territory became ungovernable.258 Perhaps one of the causes of Russia's death rate is its healthcare system. Bureaucratic twists and turns following the demise of the Soviet Union have left Russia's healthcare system in shambles. Russian hospitals are in a perilous state, drugs are in short supply and doctors and nurses are paid as much as one-third below the U.S. national average. By one estimate, at least 20,000 cancer patients die annually because they cannot afford medicine. An estimated 200,000 diabetics are unable to get insulin -- even though the government guarantees a free supply -- because local and regional governments cannot afford to buy it.259 One in 10 hospitals was built before 1914 and one in five has no running water. Since 1990, Russia has decentralized its Soviet health bureaucracy, then tried to recentralize it. Experts report it threw the door open to private health insurers, then moved to close it. The system guaranteed free medicine to those who needed it, then limited

257 Clifford Gaddy, "As Russia Looks East: Can It Manage Resources, Space and People?" Brookings Institute, Gaiko Forum, January 1, 2007, http://www.brookings.edu/articles/2007/01russia_gaddy.aspx 258 "Death wish -- Russian demography," Economist, October 2, 2004, http://www.sacredchoices.org/News_Tracker/Russia_appears_to_be_committing_suicide.htm 259 Michael Wines, "An Ailing Russia Lives a Tough Life That's Getting Shorter," New York Times, December 3, 2000 free medicine to the neediest. Eight different health ministers have tried to run the system during the last 10 years.260 Russian Prime Minister Putin recently directed Parliament to adopt a 10-year program to stop Russia's sharp population decline by offering financial incentives and subsidies to encourage women to have more children. This signals a new Kremlin priority to confront the rapidly decreasing population that could endanger the future of the Russian state. Putin has also called for a wide range of subsidies and financial incentives to increase Russia's birth rate, some to be paid for by the government and others by employers. They include increasing government subsidies for children up to 18 months of age to about $53 a month for a first child and about $107 for a second child; mothers now receive only $25 a month for a child up to 18 months old. Putin also proposed longer maternity leaves, subsidies for adoptive parents, and investments in pre-natal care, maternity hospitals and kindergartens.261 Internationally, Ariel Cohen and Ray Walser of the Heritage Foundation see an alliance forming between Russia and Venezuela, which uses energy for a geopolitical advantage. Despite differences in culture, language, and geography, the rulers of Russia and Venezuela are increasingly rejecting civil society and narrowing political space in their respective countries. They drive out foreign investors and erode market mechanisms. In pursuit of this "world without the West," the two governments are dumping the dollar in favor of the Euro during energy transactions, using energy as a geopolitical weapon, and calling for the creation of "new economic and financial institutions" to supplant the post–Bretton Woods order. They also are cooperating in launching a natural gas OPEC-style cartel, led by Russia.262 Oil promises to play a key role in Russia's future. Most of Eastern Europe relies on Russia for oil and gas. The pipelines built by the former Soviet Union during the 1960s and 1970s ran from east to west, tying the Soviet empire into a tight and seamless bind. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, energy supplies to Eastern Europe were reliable and heavily subsidized. There was neither the possibility to diversify nor the need to. That all changed when the Soviet Union's trading system with Eastern Europe collapsed in 1990. Overnight, these countries were confronted with the huge challenges of transforming their economic and political system away from highly centralized command structures and subsidies to the market economy and democracy. Over the past years, Russia has cut energy deliveries to its neighbors several times. It switched off the tap to a Lithuanian refinery and to Ukraine in 2006 and a year later to Belarus. Many European Union members, especially the newest from Eastern Europe, are convinced that a newly assertive Russia is using the power of its energy as a political instrument against countries that challenge its interests.263 Cohen says that the world should take notice of Russia's increasing militarism. Russia's displays of military firepower are designed to generate nostalgia among the Russian people and to signal to the U.S., NATO, and Russia's neighbors that Russia's power is back. Most importantly, they illustrate Putin's emphasis on the military and security services at the expense of modern, democratic institutions. Putin justified Russia's revived military muscle by claiming that the new arms race has been triggered "by the world's most developed countries"—a clear reference to the U.S. and the West. Russia's rearmament, said Putin, is not caused by Russia but forced upon it by its adversaries. In response to this alleged challenge to Russia's security, the Kremlin plans to produce and deploy in the next years new weapons claimed to match or best their Western equivalents. Russia will continue to research and develop revolutionary biological, nano, and information technologies with military applications. Putin also wants a new defense strategy for the Russian

260 Michael Wines and Abigail Zuger, "In Russia, the Ill and Infirm Include Healthcare Itself," New York Times, December 4, 2000 261 C.J. Chivers, "Putin calls for steps to end drop in population," International Herald Tribune, May 11, 2006, http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/10/news/russia.php 262 Ariel Cohen and Ray Walser, "The Russia-Venezuela Axis: Using Energy for Geopolitical Advantage," The Heritage Foundation, July 21, 2008, http://www.heritage.org/Research/RussiaandEurasia/wm2000.cfm 263 Judy Dempsey, "Keeping the oil flowing when Russia gets upset; Letter from Europe," The International Herald Tribune, July 24, 2008 Armed Forces and the formation of an "innovative army" based on more professional and better trained servicemen.264 In the schoolyard of international politics, some countries tend to behave like bullies. The more other nations try to accommodate them in the cause of getting along, the more they will bully. The Soviet Union of yesterday and the Russia of today have a long history of subtle and not-so-subtle aggression towards much smaller neighbors. Unfortunately for the Russian leadership, many of those smaller neighbors are acquiring new, powerful friends and therefore a measure of protection. Bullies never like this. Three small former Soviet republics, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, are now members of NATO, allies of the United States, Canada and almost all of Europe. Other former Soviet republics are applying to follow their lead, hoping to escape Russian dominance.265 Both Moscow and Washington insist one Cold War was enough. But considering the chilly rhetorical winds blowing back and forth between the two capitals recently, it appears at least a passing cold front has descended on the relationship. Today's Moscow is increasingly independent, prominent in global affairs, nationalistic at home, awash in energy wealth and bent on reasserting Russia as a great power with distinct interests. Although the U.S. and Russia aren't necessarily destined to become steely eyed archenemies again as they were during the Cold War, they will continue to be rivals -- and clash on a whole host of issues of mutual concern. In short, the bear is back.266 According to Kenneth Yalowitz and William Courtney, Russia may be provoking a war with Georgia in a territorial dispute over Abkhazia. Some say Moscow's provocations are merely an effort to prevent Georgia from joining NATO, which it was promised at the alliance's summit in Bucharest this April. But a war between these two countries would threaten security in the volatile Caucasus and eastern Black Sea region and the booming exports of Caspian energy through Georgia, adding pressure to already sky-high oil prices throughout the world. It would also endanger US and NATO security interests in an area not far removed from the Middle East. In April 2008, then-President Vladimir Putin extended Russia's economic, legal, and administrative writ to Abkhazia. A few days later, a Russian fighter aircraft destroyed a Georgian unmanned surveillance plane, though Russia denies it.267 Ruffling Georgia's feathers even more, Russia put 1,000 troops into Abkhazia for peacekeeping and railway repair. Georgia now seems at a breaking point. If Russia steps down from this posturing, it could lead to the reopening of land transport through Abkhazia to Georgia and Armenia; a peaceful Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014; and more tourism, shipping, and investment in the eastern Black Sea region. If Georgia and Russia can avoid military confrontation, Georgia could benefit with the return of internal refugees to their homes in Abkhazia, enhanced confidence in energy security, and entry into NATO. But, if Russia and Georgia continue as they have, it could quickly spiral into war. Yalowitz and Courtney say that Georgia must strengthen its own democracy and demonstrate it is confident enough to handle the complicated issues surrounding Abkhazia. Russia, in turn, must recognize that its long-term interests are best served through peace in the eastern Black Sea Region. Finally, the two nations should acquire outside help to deflate tensions.268 One solution that would not work, according to former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Secretary of Defense William Perry is to throw Moscow out of the G8. Albright and Perry admit that Russia has moved away from the principles that caused it to be invited to join what was the G-7 during the 1990s.

264 Ariel Cohen, "Russia on the March: The Return of the Red Square Parades," The Heritage Foundation, February 11, 2008, http://www.heritage.org/Research/RussiaandEurasia/upload/wm_1805.pdf 265 Helle C. Dale, "Nato allies put pressure on Russia," The Heritage Foundation, May 1, 2008, http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed050108c.cfm 266 Peter Brookes, "Flashpoint: Russia resurgent," The Heritage Foundation, August 4, 2007, http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed080407a.cfm?RenderforPrint=1 267 Luke Harding, "ANALYSIS BY LUKE HARDING MOSCOW: A furious Kremlin is determined to bar Nato from its backyard but conflict will solve nothing," The Observer (England), July 20, 2008 268 Kenneth Yalowitz and William Courtney, "Georgia and Russia can avoid war - if the West helps," Christian Science Monitor, June 27, 2008 Under Putin's leadership, power has been centralized at the expense of the parliament, regional governments, the courts, the media and civil society. Russia goes through the motions of democracy, but the reality has been lost. The question is how the United States, and the West in general, should respond. But Albright and Perry also say that any proposal to remove Russia from the G8 is as unrealistic as it would be counterproductive because the United States does not wield a veto over G-8 membership. Next year's G-8 host, Italy, and the following year's, Canada, are unlikely to exclude Russia. To press for Russia's exclusion will only divide us from our democratic allies in the G-8. It is also largely meaningless when it comes to shunning or shaming Moscow: Russia's role as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council is both irrevocable and far more significant than its inclusion within the largely powerless G-8. Albright and Perry say that the next U.S. president will have no choice but to seek Russia's cooperation on a range of vital issues even while managing the differences that are sure to arise. But we will have a far better chance of succeeding if our disagreements on matters of substance -- the future of NATO, for example -- are not aggravated unnecessarily by questions of symbolism and protocol.269 The bear is back. Despite some domestic concerns, Russia is reintroducing itself to the world as a powerful, country, worthy of fear and respect. The future of this creature is uncertain but Europe and the United States have a lot at stake in the outcome of current tensions. This is one hot spot you don't want to overlook. Key Terms The Bear Vladimir Putin Economic planning Siberia Birth rate Death rate Bureaucracy Maternity leave Geopolitics Foreign investment Bretton Woods OPEC Militarism Arms race Nano technology NATO Cold War Abkhazia Peacekeeping troops Military posturing Group of Eight Research Tips Check out the CIA World Factbook entry for Russia: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world- factbook/geos/rs.html This document, prepared by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, gives a solid analysis of Russia's economic situation: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/7/50/2452793.pdf

269 Madeleine Albright and William Perry, "Wrong on Russia; Throw Moscow out of the G-8? McCain's approach simply wouldn't work," Los Angeles Times, July 9, 2008 Read the Library of Congress' country profile for Russia: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/profiles/Russia.pdf SportsSports

“Major League Baseball has always recognized the influence that our stars can have on the youth of America. As such, we are concerned that recent revelations and allegations of steroid use have been sending a terrible message to young people.” ~ Bud Selig

Steroids have cast an ugly pall over professional sports. Big league baseball sluggers, athletic sprinters, hefty weight lifters, leggy bicyclists and international swimmers have all been plagued by the temptation to get that extra edge. Even some horses are "on the juice" as trainers are willing to break the rules to get their animals past the post first. Along with performance enhancing drugs, traditional narcotics and recreational drugs drag down some athletes. Others cross the law and end up juggling lawyers and courtrooms along with fans and games. Has this off-the-field drama hurt sports? Or have more people tuned in because of the titillating nature of the scandals? How have sporting leagues handled rules violations? Have their efforts been effective or should Congress step in and impose regulations? How much leeway should convicted criminals have to compete in family-friendly leagues? Barry Bonds, Floyd Landis, Marian Jones, Roger Clemens, Justin Gatlin and Tim Montgomery. These are six of the more prominent names out of many that have fallen from prominence and been disgraced publicly for consuming and, in some cases, lying about the consumption of performance enhancing drugs. But the list is much longer than that. And we can't help but wonder who might be the next great athlete unmasked as a cheat and a liar. Will it be the winner of the Tour de France? Will it be a gold-gilded star of the Olympics in Beijing? Will it be Dara Torres, a forty-one year-old mother of two who set an American record at the USA Swimming trials? Will it be Tyson Gay, who ran the world’s fastest 100 meter time ever, notwithstanding wind speed? Once records were made to be broken. Now they are made to be doubted. Steroids have done this to us. Athletes who are clean and drug-free are cheated of the benefit of doubt. Sports and leagues are cheated of public trust, their records rewritten by scandal. And fans are cheated of the escape sports once provided, back before the story went from feel-good to not feeling quite right. Where an astounding feat of physical prowess and human achievement would once impress us, we question the hidden pharmaceutical technology. There is no more pure faith. We can believe, intellectually or hopefully, that the vast majority of athletes are clean, but it doesn't always help. Even a drop of a pollutant in the water makes everyone drinking from that well worried the whole thing has gone bad. Experience hardens us. Some wounds heal, but leave permanent scars.270 It is disappointing, but hardly surprising.271 Even our equine cousins are taking advantage of medical advances to gain a competitive edge. Salute the Count, who finished second in the Aegon Turf Sprint, was suspended for failing a drug test. The 8- year old gelding had been competing well when he tested positive for Clenbuterol, which is used to help breathing, can increase muscle mass when given in larger doses. The drug is an approved racing medication, but can be used illegally on raceday.272

270 Greg Cote, "Steroids sully sports with suspicion," Miami Herald, July 10, 2008, http://www.miamiherald.com/418/v-print/story/600792.html 271 Editorial, "Landis’ drug use a sign of the times," Reading Eagle, July 8, 2008, http://www.readingeagle.com/blog.aspx?bid=4&id=16704&t=Landis-drug-use-a-sign-of-the-times 272 Jerry Bossert, "Trainer Rick Dutrow banned for horse's positive steroid test," New York Daily News, June 25, 2008, http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2008/06/25/2008-06- 25_trainer_rick_dutrow_banned_for_horses_po.html Horseracing leagues the nation over are stepping to the plate to increase testing for certain anabolic steroids and are moving toward banning the substances altogether. 28 states allow the use of anabolic steroids in horses, but national racing bodies have advocated their elimination. The most commonly used anabolic steroids in the sport are testosterone, boldenone, nandropolone and stanozolol. The first three of those are naturally occurring in horses and because of detection capabilities, a threshold level of 1 part per billion will apply to all four. This move to restrict steroids is a result of public opinion against the drugs stemming from the death of filly Eight Belles after her second place finish in the Kentucky Derby. 273 Surely these scandals have resulted in reduced viewership. Surely fans have stayed home and grown more cynical about professional sports. Surely, right? When ex-NBA referee Tim Donaghy dropped his bombshell allegations during the 2008 National Basketball Association Finals that he and other unnamed league refs had fixed playoff games in years past, the response from basketball fans was unmistakable. They made Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals the most watched NBA Finals game in eight years. Coming after former San Francisco Giants baseball star Barry Bonds' suspected doping and imprisoned National Football League quarterback Michael Vick's dogfighting, Donaghy's allegations were but one of a litany of high-profile scandals that have recently rocked pro sports, all of which illuminated a more disturbing trend of the sporting landscape: The fans just don't seem to care.274 Interestingly enough, some have argued that steroids have had no perceivable impact on sports. Arthur De Vany, Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of California, Irvine, makes the argument that in baseball, performance enhancing drugs have not increased the number of runs. Once the number of games and other variables are factored into home run productivity and the random nature of home run hitting is taken into account, there is no change. That may be why all the attempts at explanation, such as steroids, hotter balls, altered strike zones, and home-run-friendly ball parks fall apart when they are tested. De Vany points out that there is a lot of speculation about steroid use in Major League Baseball, but overall, little evidence. Moreover, scientific literature shows that steroids and the high volume training required to induce muscle hypertrophy would actually decrease the speed required to hit home runs.275 Still, there must be some advantage for so many athletes to risk their reputations, careers and livelihoods on the "cream." Despite the shadow cast by the Mitchell Report of 2007, which detailed a long history of steroid use in baseball, Major League Baseball set spring training attendance records this April and is on pace for a fifth consecutive record year of overall attendance. In fact, this year’s numbers beat last years by over 200,000.276 Fans' apparent apathy toward the dark side of sports, as reflected in their continued financial support, presents a conundrum for owners and officials: If the fans are still paying to see the games, why should we take any drastic measures to try to fix it? The big sporting leagues are trying to clean up their game’s image. Major League Baseball's evolving drug policy since the Mitchell Report has significantly increased the frequency of testing and the penalties for a positive test.277 The NBA now requires players to attend college or be 19 years of age before they can enter the draft, as well as continuing to enforce its infamous "dress code" of 2005.278 National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell's new Player Conduct policy resulted in unprecedented suspensions for

273 Larry Stumes, "Steroid testing to begin," San Francisco Chronicle, June 30, 2008, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/30/SPSG11H6L0.DTL 274 Jon Wiener, "State of Sports: More Cheaters, Dopers, Criminals -- and Fans -- Than Ever Before," ABC News, July 10, 2008, http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5302464 275 Arthur De Vany, "Steroids, Home Runs and the Law of Genius," Art De Vany, 2006 276 Doug Miller, "MLB breaks spring attendance record," MLB.com, March 31, 2008, http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp? ymd=20080331&content_id=2470193&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb&partnered=rss_mlb 277 Combined Wire Services, "Selig: Seizure Of Test Results Halted Drug Testing," The Hartford Courant, July 4, 2008, http://www.courant.com/services/newspaper/printedition/sports/hc- extras0704.artjul04,0,2130722.story 278 "NBA Player Dress Code," NBA News, October 20, 2005, http://www.nba.com/news/player_dress_code_051017.html Michael Vick, former Tennessee Titans' cornerback Adam Jones and the Cincinnati Bengals' Chris Henry even before any of them had been convicted in a court of law.279 Even sports typically considered "clean," such as golf, have taken preventative measures to curb the perceived sportswide culture of misconduct. The European Tour announced its plans for comprehensive drug testing of all its players, the first such policy for a pro golf organization.280 Congressional committees have been in the forefront of investigating the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball. Congress has made it clear that if the sporting agencies and leagues do not self-regulate, the government will step in and impose order. Congressional committees have conducted a number of inquiries into the regulatory efforts of MLB and are not likely to stop asking questions anytime soon.281 On March 17, 2005, Commissioner Bud Selig and union chief Don Fehr appeared in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform along with numerous other officials, plus former and current players, including Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Pameiro and Joes Canseco, about the use of those drugs in the sport. Since then, Selig and Fehr have had to clarify and defend their testimony against further Congressional inquiries and investigating journalists.282 Some lawmakers are taking credit for the MLB's self-policing. "It is gratifying to see Major League Baseball come such a long way from our hearing of March 17th, to have the sports leaders recognize that baseball does need to do more to curb the use of steroids and other drugs, and to have them come together to agree to a new policy," said Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) chairman of the House Government Reform Committee. "I think it's fair to say as they told us, that if it hadn't been for Congress looking at this issue, seriously concerned about it, there would not have been the impetus for them to come together as they have now," Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) the ranking Democrat on the committee. Sometimes the threat of intervention is just as powerful as actually intervening.283 Athletes are role models for America’s youth. Many young men look to the strong, independent and respected figure on the basketball court or baseball diamond for direction, encouragement and motivation. When these role models cheat, they can damage their positive image and create negative influences for kids. When athletes take steroids, they make such behavior acceptable in the young minds they influence and young men who begin taking steroids later in life may be pushed on by the sluggers they watched when they were young. Because of the health hazards posed by steroid use – the body is created to handle only so much testosterone and overdoses have a myriad of unintended consequences and side effects – parents and schools are doing their best to discourage use by amateur athletes. In some the case of one Texas high school, this meant spending $1 million to test all 10,400 students. Two tested positive. In the coming school year another 40,000 to 50,000 student athletes at some 400 Texas high schools will be tested for steroids. That's the second part of the $6 million steroid testing project pushed by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and approved by the 2007 Legislature. These efforts are draconian, but they represent one way of keeping kids off the juice.284 Maybe, as one commentator proposed in jest, we should scrap all of the records and start over again at zero. Or maybe we should just let athletes do what they will, sit back and watch the first ever three minute mile. We are witnessing a tension between players and law enforcers that could get as tense as the Hatfield-McCoy feud. So far, self-regulation seems to be working okay. But the feds may step in, bringing a whole new kind of backbone to stop the cheaters. 279 "Goodell strengthens NFL personal conduct policy," Associated Press, April 11, 2007, http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/2007-04-10-new-conduct-policy_N.htm 280 "European Tour ready to start drug testing," Turkish Daily News, July 3, 2008, http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=108877 281 Doug Wilson, "M.L.B. Questioned Over 2004 Steroid Testing," New York Times, June 13, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/sports/baseball/13waxman.html? _r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin 282 Barry Bloom, "Congress seeks testimony clarification," MLB.com, June 12, 2008, http://mlb.mlb.com/content/printer_friendly/mlb/y2008/m06/d12/c2901127.jsp 283 Sharon Kehnemui Liss, "Lawmakers Take Some Credit for MLB Steroid Policy," Fox News, November 16, 2005, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,175669,00.html 284 Editorial, "Steroid Testing," Lufkin Daily News, July 10, 2008, http://www.lufkindailynews.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2008/07/11/eddy.html Key Terms Performance Enhancing Drugs Barry Bonds Roger Clemens Dara Torres Steroids Clenbuterol Anabolic Steroids Tim Donaghy National Basketball Association Michael Vick Fixed Games Major League Baseball Cream Mitchell Report (2007) National Football League Roger Goodell Adam Jones Self-regulate House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Research Tips Read the latest from the International Olympic Committee by visiting: http://www.olympic.org/uk/index_uk.asp Read about the chemistry and nutrition behind anabolic and androgenic steroids by visiting this site maintained by the National Institute of Drug Abuse: http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofacts/steroids.html Check out an excellent summary of the physical effects of performance enhancing drugs and an explanation of why athletes use them here: http://espn.go.com/special/s/drugsandsports/steroids.html ThirdThird WorldWorld

“ There are some great opportunities, including selling the land. If that happens, George and I will invest in something else in Las Vegas ... and George will donate his profits to the African Debt Relief Project.” ~ Rande Gerber

Lobbyists -- ranging from church groups to celebrities -- for various small and poor countries have successfully accelerated the process of forgiving those countries' debts to international organizations. Critics warn that too many of those countries are being let off the hook with little or no guarantee that they have shaped up their economies -- let alone justified why they should be forgiven their debts. Critics fear debt relief will allow countries to continue pursuing bad economic policies.285 Third world debt relief may be in sight according to a recent article in the Economist. The authors argue that debts owed by the world's poorest countries are unpayable. These nations are servicing their obligations, but only because debtor institutions offer them new grants and loans to help them repay their old ones. This recycling of funds keeps up appearances on the balance sheets of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, but it is complicated and inefficient, consuming the time and energy of creditors and debtors alike. There are now 38 countries deemed poor and indebted enough to warrant forgiveness. Between them, these countries owe $42.5 billion to the World Bank, $10 billion to the African Development Bank (AfDB) and $5 billion to the IMF.286 Robert Guest, author of "The Shackled Continent: Power, Corruption and African Lives," has an alternative theory. He says that debt relief for poor countries is more complex than many of its promoters will admit. Expedient debt relief is only a good idea for countries with clean, pragmatic governments that pursue sensible economic policies, like Mozambique and Uganda. But when countries are ruled by despots, like Zimbabwe and Angola, extra cash only encourages them to squander the money they free up. That is why the debt relief proposal debated recently in Washington by officials from the World Bank, the IMF and the G8 nations would not be a panacea for Africa. According to Guest, it is typical in Africa for the roads to be cratered because someone has looted the maintenance budget, the power fails because the state monopoly utility company is staffed with incompetent relatives of politicians and the customs officers hang onto your goods for weeks in the hope that you will bribe them to hurry up. The main reason Zambia is bankrupt is that it has been ruled with startling incompetence and venality; for example, its previous president, Frederick Chiluba, is facing multiple charges for embezzlement. In Nigeria, a militia boss is threatening to start a civil war and shut down the Nigerian oil industry unless his people, the Ijaw, are granted "autonomy" -- by which he means "control of the oil money." That in a nutshell is why Africans are poor: their leaders keep them that way, says Guest.287 Others say the G8 should look at other ways of helping Third-World countries. Franklin Cudjoe is the executive director of IMANI Center for Policy and Education, a think tank in Accra, Ghana. He says that instead of promoting debt relief year after year, the time has come to pursue more sensible, sustainable solutions. The G8 finance ministers have established several laudable and impressive goals that commit them to facilitating economic growth and development in African countries and affirming the importance of "good financial governance, including long-term fiscal discipline for resource-rich countries." If African economies are to sustain their growth and lift millions of citizens out of poverty, as India and China have done, better fiscal discipline and financial governance are essential. For too long, Cudjoe writes, ordinary Africans have struggled to get ahead because of poor governance, corruption and a general lack of economic freedom.

285 "Can Debt Relief Make a Difference?" Economist, November 18, 2000, 286 "Bad loans made good -- The IMF and World Bank meetings," Economist, October 1, 2005, http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_QQGNSPV 287 Robert Guest, "Africa Earned Its Debt," New York Times, October 6, 2004, http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/develop/africa/2004/1006africadebt.htm According to Cudjoe, the G8 would only perpetuate these policies with its well-intentioned, yet ill-practiced policies on debt forgiveness.288 Not all are convinced that debt relief is a mistake. Debt relief advocate Neil Watkins, writing in the Ghana Dot, a leading Ghana news source, makes a strong argument in support of The Jubilee Act, a US debt relief proposal. He points out that The Jubilee Act (HR 2634) includes 11 specific requirements to ensure only democratic nations with accountable policies are eligible for debt cancellation, and a further 7 requirements to ensure countries use the money in the fight against poverty. These criteria include public financial management, budget transparency, free and fair elections, and other requirements typical of US foreign assistance programs. Further, the Jubilee Act recognizes and works to end the unsustainable ‘lend and forgive cycle’ that has brought on the need for debt relief. The bill requires the Secretary of the Treasury to work for international policies that preserve the gains of debt relief to date and support the development of new responsible financing standards that ensure transparency and accountability to citizens, human rights, and the avoidance of new odious debt. Watkins says that the Jubilee Act is a responsible measure that builds on a decade of successful debt relief. It would give some of the world’s poorest countries that have been left out of previous debt deals a fair chance. One such country is Lesotho, which pays approximately the same amount in debt service annually as it spends on its entire education budget, while 34% of its children are not enrolled in primary school. Debt relief is an investment in the growth and stability of the African continent as well as low-income countries world-wide. It can make U.S. aid more effective by ensuring aid money does not simply flow back out of countries in the form of debt repayments.289 Key Terms Debt forgiveness International Monetary Fund World Bank African Development Bank Group of Eight Third-World country Economic freedom The Jubilee Act Secretary of the Treasury Research Tips Read about the Jubilee Movement which is trying to cancel debt in countries that cannot afford to pay it off: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilee_movement Check out the text of the Jubilee Act here: http://www.jubileeusa.org/jubilee-act.html Leviticus 25 gives the foundation for the concept of a Jubilee in Judeo-Christian thought. Read the chapter and then think about the similarities and differences between what Moses wrote and the policy ideas currently being debated.

288 Franklin Cudjoe, "Leaders should account for debts," Business Daily, July 16, 2008, http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8767&Itemid=5848 289 Neil Watkins, "Response to 'Unconditional Debt Relief is Not the Answer for Africa's Development,'" Ghana Dot, July 7, 2008, http://www.ghanadot.com/commentary.neilwatkins.070708.html UnitedUnited NationsNations

“If the United Nations is a country unto itself, then the commodity it exports most is words.” ~ Esther B. Fein

Established on the 24th of October, 1945, the United Nations (UN) is a worldwide organization of governments established to promote international cooperation and to achieve peace and security. When it was founded, the U.N.’s purpose was to avert another global war. The 50 countries that met in San Francisco at the United Nations Conference on International Organization to draw up the United Nations Charter wanted to draw up an agreement that would help civilized nations avoid the kind of slaughter that defined the Second World War.290 There are a number of long-standing conflicts and concerns that the UN has had to deal with that influence the organization’s behavior today. One of the biggest blights on the U.N.’s record is the combined threat of corruption, incompetence and waste. Critics have pointed to the number of U.N. officials who are kept on the payroll at salaries of up to $150,000 a year despite the fact that they do not work. Also criticized are the millions of dollars that are spent for travel by U.N. brass and the branches of the U.N. like the Trusteeship Council that continue to function and draw funds from the organization’s budget despite the fact that there are no longer any trust territories. The United States - which pays one-quarter of the organization's annual operating budget and larger percentages of emergency appropriations, aid packages and military costs – at one point withheld $1.2 billion, demanding greater financial accountability.291 Today, the U.N.’s biggest challenge is keeping global peace. In the Koreas, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, originally from South Korea, is working to aid talks between these antagonistic nations. In the summer of 2008, negotiations between the two Koreas broke down after a new government came into power in South Korea and North Korea broke off talks in protest against Seoul's hard line.292 Meanwhile, the Bush administration is attempting to buy votes on the UN Security Council to support sanctions against Zimbabwe. In a repeat of U.S. threats to withhold much-needed economic assistance to countries that opposed UN Security Council resolutions in support of the US invasions of Iraq in 1991 and 2003, Burkina Faso, a Security Council member, is being told that its support for Zimbabwe sanctions will help it keep its U.S. economic aid package. In 1991, Yemen’s failure to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq cost it millions of dollars in U.S. economic assistance.293 In the Darfur region of Sudan, the United States is very critical of a U.N. that has not met a U.S. goal for reinforcing peacekeepers. The United States is training and equipping African peacekeepers for Darfur but their deployment depends on the capacity to absorb them on the ground, for which the U.N. secretariat is responsible. So far, the U.N. has fallen short. The U.S. envoy for Darfur even said the progress "absolutely unacceptable" and called for more joint U.N.-African Union troops to be deployed in western Sudan. The total number of peacekeepers in violence-torn Darfur currently stands at just over 9,000. It is meant to rise to a ceiling of 26,000 troops and police by 2009. In the first six months of 2008, the U.N. added only 650 new soldiers to the region. In order to fulfill its commitment, the U.N. will have to step up its troop contributions. Whether the U.N. will fulfill its promise in this area or delay as it has thus far remains an open question.294 290 "Cooperation with the United Nations," The Seven Ray Institute, http://sevenray.net/sri_un_coop.html 291 John A. Barnes, "U.N.: A Runaway Gravy Train?," Investor's Business Daily, November 3, 1995 292 "New talks on North Korean nuclear program set," International Herald Tribune, July 18, 2008, http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/18/asia/korea.php 293 "African Union, UN join Zimbabwe mediation," ABC News, July 18, 2008, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/19/2308483.htm?section=justin 294 "U.N. peacekeeper slain in Darfur," CNN, July 16, 2008, http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/07/16/un.darfur/ While a unilateral sanction (a trade restriction imposed by one nation against another to protest behavior or policy) is a common rhetorical tool, multilateral sanctions (restrictions imposed by many nations) can be much more effective. The United States has sought sanctions against its enemies through the United Nations and has, with some limited success, been able to impose economic penalties on those countries that abuse human rights, harbor terrorists or develop nuclear weapons. Britain is seeking support for a United Nations Security Council resolution that would impose tough new sanctions on Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and his allies. Britain claims that the Zimbabwe crisis is affecting the whole of southern Africa and urges formation of a government in Harare that reflects the results of Zimbabwe's election in the Spring of 2008. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai defeated President Mugabe in that vote, but not by enough to avoid a second round. Tsvangirai pulled out of the run-off in July, citing state-sponsored violence against his supporters. In front of the United Nations, Britain supports a U.S.-drafted resolution that would require nations to freeze the assets of President Mugabe and 11 of his officials and restrict their travel outside Zimbabwe. This resolution would punish Mugabe for acting undemocratically and failing to acknowledge the political voice of his people.295 The U.N. does not just seek out rogue nations for condemnation. The U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights includes a number of rights and liberties not guaranteed to U.S. citizens like the right to work and protection against unemployment (Article 23), healthcare and retirement care (Article 25), holidays with pay (Article 24) and free education, at least in the "fundamental stages" (Article 26). None of these rights are guaranteed in the founding documents of the United States. Further, the United Nations has created or largely ratified a number of treaties which would, if enforced in the United States, radically change life for the American citizen. The Convention on the Rights of a Child, for instance, would guarantee rights to minors equal to those of their parents. By some interpretations, this treaty would render parentally-meted punishment and family rules impossible.296 Some argue that this and other actions on the part of the U.N. violate national sovereignty. Republican Presidential candidate and U.S. Representative Ron Paul argued: "If we do not, rest assured that the UN will continue to interfere not only in our nation’s foreign policy matters, but in our domestic policies as well. UN globalists are not satisfied by meddling only in international disputes. They increasingly want to influence our domestic environmental, trade, labor, tax, and gun laws. UN global planners fully intend to expand the organization into a true world government, complete with taxes, courts, and possibly a standing army. This is not an alarmist statement; these goals are readily promoted on the UN’s own website. UN planners do not care about national sovereignty; in fact they are openly opposed to it. They correctly view it as an obstacle to their plans. They simply aren’t interested in our Constitution and republican form of government."297 First term Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has a lot on his plate as he tackles the pressing issues facing his organization over the next year. Look for these and other conflicts to be a regular issue in this year’s extemping. Key Terms United Nations Trust territories Emergency appropriations Aid package Ban Ki-Moon UN Security Council Darfur region

295 Marian Tupy, "Shame the Beloved Country," The New York Sun, July 18, 2008, http://www.nysun.com/opinion/shame-the-beloved-country/82187/ 296 "Oppose the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child," National Center for Home Education Issue Alert, March, 2007, http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000000/00000021.asp 297 Ron Paul, April 29, 2003 African peacekeepers Unilateral sanction Multilateral sanction Human rights Nuclear weapon Robert Mugabe Morgan Tsvangirai Universal Declaration of Human Rights Convention on the Rights of a Child Ron Paul Research Tips Learn more about the history of the United Nations by visiting http://www.un.org/aboutun/history.htm Read the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights here: http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html Check out the U.N. Convention on the Rights of a Child by visiting: http://www.unicef.org/crc/ Warning: This is copyrighted Monument Publishing. Users of this material must be owners of the Gold Book at www.monumentpublishing.com.