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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (19746)	5/5/2007 1:41:24 AM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

And now for the important news .... URL:http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0507/hamilton050407.php3 By Argus Hamilton jewishworldreview.com \| Paul McCartney is set to release his twenty-first solo album next month. It is on the new Hear Music label owned by Starbucks. The company called Paul McCartney after they decided Phil Spector wasn't the best spokesman for a caffeinated beverage. Queen Elizabeth visits Jamestown today on the four hundredth anniversary of the founding of Virginia. So much has changed. Those first English settlers could never dream that four centuries later, golf balls would fly eighty yards farther off the tee. Don Imus hired First Amendment lawyer Martin Garbus to sue CBS Radio for forty million dollars. The case is as good as won. Martin Garbus used to defend Lenny Bruce on indecent language charges, and nappy-headed ho's was Lenny's church-crowd material. New York Yankees pitcher Phil Hughes injured his hamstring Tuesday, leaving the luckless Yankee pitching staff with three pulled hamstrings and a sore back. George Steinbrenner got more satisfaction out of his racehorses. At least he could shoot them. Laura Bush got big a laugh kidding her husband on American Idol Tuesday. She's a natural. The First Lady was a smash hit doing stand-up at the Correspondents Dinner three years ago, but she told one mother-in-law joke and she hasn't worked since. Washington madam Debbie Palfrey handed her list of sex clients to ABC News for airing tonight. She'll subpoena every man who says it actually wasn't sex to be her defense witness. This adds a whole new meaning to a woman having to use the john, or does it? CIA former chief George Tenet denied all blame Tuesday for faulty intelligence on Iraq. He made out all right. He got the Medal of Freedom, a huge book deal and he is hosting a new quiz show called Are You as Good at Avoiding Blame as a Fifth Grader. Al Gore's book An Inconvenient Truth enjoyed a publicity bonanza Monday. A Napa Valley hotel placed his book in the rooms' nightstands instead of the Gideon Bible. What's the big difference when you consider that both books end with the world on fire?

To: calgal who wrote (19746)	5/7/2007 12:12:00 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 71588

The New Europeans Can an election change France? Saturday, May 5, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT The changing of the guard in Europe's biggest countries is a chance for the Continent to renew itself. That's the good news. Here's the other kind: This fresh crop of leaders doesn't look well-placed to pull it off. New political management will be in place by summer. Whomever the French elect tomorrow, the next President is going to be a younger face. Tony Blair plans to set a date next week to give the keys to 10 Downing Street to Chancellor Gordon Brown. Germany and Italy chose new leaders in the past 18 months. All are different, and Britain is the one economic standout, but this foursome sets the pace in Europe. France is a good test case. Its socioeconomic troubles are nothing unusual for Old Europe--from stagnant growth to a debt-ridden welfare state to restive, underemployed young Muslims. But the political barriers to tackling these problems are highest in France. The presidential election, pitting center-right Nicolas Sarkozy against Socialist Ségolène Royal, might provide a mandate for change. According to an Ipsos survey on the day of the first round of voting April 22, the three main issues were unemployment, purchasing power and economic insecurity. In the runoff, Ségo and Sarko have proposed very different solutions. Ms. Royal would bump up the minimum wage, already the highest in the OECD, by 20% and spend lavishly on social programs. She wants to make life easier for business, but the bulk of her program is old school Socialism. If Ms. Royal is the vision of a reassuring but untenable past, Mr. Sarkozy promises an uncertain, tumultuous, possibly brighter future. He mixes free markets and protectionism, yet emphasizes "action" and "rupture." The man wants to shake France out of its doldrums, the woman to softly nudge. Even France may be ready at last to abandon statist orthodoxy. Mr. Sarkozy got 31% in the first round, the highest score for a right-wing candidate since 1974, and heads into the runoff with a nine-point lead in the polls. French voters are saying something must truly change. But will it? Germany gives a half-reassuring answer. The "sick man of Europe" a few years back, a nickname today applied to France, the world's third-largest economy notched a recent high of 2.7% growth in 2006 and saw joblessness last month fall to its lowest level in five years. The previous government's limited welfare reforms helped, but the real credit goes to Germany's private sector. Global competition, free capital flows and the single European currency have forced Deutschland AG to go around the politicians and get its act together. German companies restructured, outsourced aggressively and won wage concessions from unions. Now the world's biggest exporter can take better advantage of globalization. Last year, exports grew 13% and investment 8%, driving the revival, since consumption was up only 0.9%. Likewise in Italy, the private sector bypassed a shambolic state to pull the country out of recession; look at the turnaround at Fiat. Europe's last watershed election was Margaret Thatcher's in 1979. Thanks to her and the Reagan Revolution, as well as globalization, politicians today matter less. In spite of Mr. Brown's penchant for stealth taxes and regulations, New Labour's commitment to leave Thatcherite reforms in place means that investors have little to fear from the change of leadership in an economically vibrant Britain. The Nordics, Ireland and Spain are all doing well after opening up their economies in recent years. Alas, in the "Big Three" the pols have a central role to play--mainly to undo the policy mistakes of the past. Whether for lack of conviction or political will, they're falling short. Content with high approval ratings, Chancellor Angela Merkel has shelved her promises of flat taxes, the easing of firing restrictions and an overhaul of the health system. Her one big move was a three-point increase in the VAT this year, showing that Continental politicians can still do plenty of damage. Retail sales are down 9% in the first quarter. Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi pushed through some deregulation but also a big tax increase. France's next President inherits an arguably tougher situation. Exports and market share abroad are falling and the French outsource less than Germans or Italians. France lags Germany on labor and welfare liberalization, which along with regulation and high taxes stifles innovation and economic growth. Capital and skilled workers are moving out of France. The campaign may have culminated in a clear left-right split, but with little room for free-market ideas. In a telling moment in Wednesday night's presidential debate, Mr. Sarkozy declared in his concluding statement that his priority was "to protect France from delocalisation," or outsourcing. He didn't provide details along the lines of Ms. Royal's tax on companies that move operations overseas. In France, both left and right have pushed statism as well as market reforms when convenient, but neither has yet embraced anything even resembling a Thatcherite agenda. Until a political consensus emerges in the Big Three that competition is the surest route to job creation, lower prices and higher wages, don't hold your breath for a genuine European economic renaissance. opinionjournal.com