Clinton Emerges as Key Link to Afghan Leader

From: The New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — It is far from clear that President Obama can depend on President Hamid Karzai to bring order to this violent country, but it is becoming clear that he will depend on Hillary Rodham Clinton to be his go-between in dealing with the mercurial Afghan leader. Read more

Renters becoming latest victims as foreclosure crisis widens

From The Washington Post

Some tenants left in dilapidated buildings

NEW YORK — A new wave of foreclosures stands to hurt people who may have never taken out a mortgage: renters. In cities such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, where many investors are carrying upside-down mortgages on large rental buildings, some tenants are watching their homes fall apart along with the financing. Read more

Is Israel too strong for Barack Obama?

From The Economist

As America drops its demand for a total freeze on the building of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, angry Palestinians say there is no scope for resuming talks

Cairo And Jerusalem — FIVE months after Barack Obama went to Cairo and persuaded most of the Arab world, in a ringing declaration of even-handedness, that he would face down Israel in his quest for a Palestinian state, American policy seems to have run into the sand. The American president’s mediating hand is weaker, his charisma damagingly faded. Read more

Senate healthcare reform vote: ‘Now, the real debate can begin’

From The Christain Science Monitor

The Senate voted Saturday to open debate on its healthcare reform bill. But it was just the first of a series of difficult votes facing Democrats going forward.

Washington — With no Republican votes – and no votes to spare – Senate Democrats opened debate on historic overhaul of how the US healthcare system delivers services and how Americans pay for them. Read more

Grading the Public Options That Already Exist

Pundits and politicians from both sides of the fence have been hollering themselves blue about a potential public health care option. Instead of relying on private insurers, the government would insure people itself. The idea is that if a government-run option were offered to compete with private insurers, it could help keep pricing in check and ensure quality.

Two of the three health care reform bills in Congress have a public option. What might a public option look like in practice? One way to find out is to look at what’s already out there. Read more

Oprah Bets on Her Future With Cable

From New York Times.com

Oprah Winfrey is giving network television one of her trademark aha moments.

Ms. Winfrey, the billionaire queen of daytime television, is planning to announce on Friday that she will step down from her daily pulpit, “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” in two years in order to concentrate on the forthcoming cable channel that will bear her name. Read more

New EU President

From the Trumpet.com

The first president of the European Council may be in for a brief term in office.

Consistent with the way of the Franco-German agenda for the European Union, Germany and its lackey, France, got their leader of choice appointed to the new position of EU president.

As has been the case with this most undemocratic of institutions from its inception, the whole process leading to the appointment of the Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy to be the first permanent European Council president lacked transparency. Read more

Can Business Journalism Save the World?

From Vanity Fair.com

Can business journalism save the world? Or, to be a bit less grandiose about it: Should business writers concern themselves first and foremost with telling great stories or with educating the public. For Niall Ferguson, the Scottish-born Harvard historian who discovered the subject of finance while investigating the causes of Hitler’s rise in Germany, writing about bank balance sheets is almost a holy mission. Read more

Exclusive Interview–Obama ‘Never 100 Percent Certain’

From U.S.News & World Report Website

President Obama on how he makes tough calls on Afghanistan, healthcare, the economy, and more

President Obama had just received his morning briefings on national security and the economy and was about to confer with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen about the war in Afghanistan. In between, he sat down with U.S. News Chief White House Correspondent Kenneth T. Walsh to discuss one of the most important and fascinating Read more

When Generals and Ambassadors Feud

From Foreign Policy

Take it from this former ambassador: Disagreements over the war in Afghanistan may do more long-term harm than short-term good.

In 2007 in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker set a model for civil-military collaboration: They never let daylight show between their positions — not to outsiders, not to official Washington, not even to their own staffs. In providing differing advice to Washington over troop levels in Afghanistan, General McChrystal and Ambassador Karl Eikenberry have diverged from this model. Read more

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