Howard Dean, Lean-Government Machine? - July 30, 2003
Times Watch for July 30, 2003
Howard Dean, Lean-Government Machine?
Jodi Wilgoren and David
Rosenbaums long profile on Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean is a
solid, balanced piece citing Deans record as Vermont governor and noting the
left-wing tilt of many of his supporters. But one paragraph of Wednesdays
front-page piece raises eyebrows: In fact, much of Dr. Dean's presidential
platform, particularly his plan for universal health insurance, is a outgrowth
of his accomplishments in Vermont. He remains a fiscal conservative, he believes
gun control should be left to the states and he favors the death penalty for
some crimes.
Universal health
insurance and fiscal conservative are two phrases that dont really go
together. A
Media Research Center Reality Check notes the Cato Institute gave Gov. Dean
a D for fiscal matters in its report card last year, noting: "He supports
state-funded universal health care, generous state subsidies for child care, a
higher minimum wage, liberal family leave legislation, and taxpayer-financed
campaigns....After 12 years of Dean's so-called 'fiscal conservatism,' Vermont
remains one of the highest taxing and spending states."
For the rest of Jodi Wilgoren and David Rosenbaums
story on Howard Dean,
click here.
Campaign 2004
|
Howard Dean |
Labeling Bias |
Vermont
Yankee
Come Here!
After lamenting the rush
to war in Iraq, the Times wants U.S. troops in Liberia yesterday. Somini
Senguptas Letter from Africa in Wednesdays paper is headlined: Oh, if Only
the G.I.s Would Come Marching In. Sengupta writes: Finally, the American
explanation for its invasion of Iraq, where illegal weapons have yet to be
found, has raised expectations all its own. It baffles Liberians that American
soldiers would interfere where they are not wanted, and stay away from where
they are. Does Sengupta realize that theres enough anti-government resistance
in Liberia for people to voice their wishes freely? Of course there were no
calls for U.S. intervention from citizens in pre-war Iraq. Saddams Baathist
party secret police would have killed any Iraqi calling for U.S. intervention
the way some Liberians are doing now.
Stephen Hayes of the
Weekly Standard accompanied deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz in Iraq
and got a different view than the Monrovia-based Sengupta. He found
grateful Iraqis glad Saddam Hussein was dethroned. Opinion Journals Paul
Gigot also
toured Iraq with Wolfowitz and notes: The majority aren't worried that
we'll stay too long; they're petrified we'll leave too soon. Traumatized by 35
years of Saddam's terror, they fear we'll lose our nerve as casualties mount and
leave them once again to the Baath Party's merciless revenge.
For the rest of Somini Senguptas story on Liberia,
click here.
Africa |
Saddam Hussein
|
Iraq War |
Liberia |
Somini Sengupta
Holes
in the Ozone Hole Story?
Science writer Andrew Revkins Wednesday story,
Ozone Layer Is Improving, According To Monitors, takes as fact the liberal
environmentalist view of the ozone hole over Antarctica, portraying it as a
man-made danger to humans and the ecology.
Revkins story opens:
Scientists monitoring the highest levels of the atmosphere say they have
detected a slowing in the rate of destruction of Earth's protective veil of
ozone, the first sign that the phasing out of chemicals that harm the ozone
layer is having a restorative effect. The ozone layer blocks ultraviolet
radiation from the sun that can cause skin cancer and harm ecosystems. It has
deteriorated for decades, especially in Antarctica, under an assault from
synthetic chemicals. The phasing out of the most important class of these
chemicals-chlorofluorocarbons, or CFC's-began in 1989 with enactment of the
Montreal Protocol, an international treaty. But the destructive substances take
decades to decay, resulting in the long lag before any beneficial effects could
be measured.
Revkin takes as inviolable
fact the idea that chlorofluorocarbons (like Freon, once common as a
refrigerant) are the culprit behind a weakening of the ozone layer leading to
skin cancer. But Scientist S. Fred Singer of the Science & Environmental Policy
Project argues the jurys still out on whether the hole in the ozone layer is
man-made or a natural phenomenon. Singer has noted: Insufficient
experimentation or observation to show that the current downward trend is not
due to natural factors, such as the 11-year sunspot cycle.
In October,
Singer wrote a response to a Chicago Tribune editorial on the ozone hole,
reiterating the lack of proof of human influence: By 1987, when the Montreal
Protocol (to phase out CFCs) was concluded, the published data showed no
increase in stratospheric chlorine, an ozone-destroying chemical, and therefore
no evidence for a human influence.
Singer also voiced
skepticism about alleged increases in UV radiation caused by the ozone hole: In
spite of theoretical predictions, there has been no direct observational
evidence for a steady increase of ultraviolet radiation at the Earth's surface.
Therefore all imagined impacts cited in the editorial-skin cancers, cataracts,
etc.-are based on speculation.
For the rest of Andrew Revkins ozone hole story,
click here.
Antarctica
|
CFCs |
Environment |
Ozone Layer |
Andrew Revkin
