The Christian Science Monitor - In the past few weeks, a failed state that was forgotten for more than a decade once again made the world take notice. While Somalia’s weak transitional government fails to assert control on land, a band of highly organized pirates have taken firm control of the country’s sea lanes.

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The Christian Science Monitor - If Hillary Rodham Clinton becomes secretary of State, it could not have escaped the attention of the Clinton and Obama camps that this might turn out to be a nifty launching pad for her to make another run at the presidency in 2012.

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The Christian Science Monitor - If he is to satisfy the disparate, eager hopes of Americans, Barack Obama needs to wear more hats than Queen Elizabeth II. One of them will be as a science president, supporting basic research and science education that will benefit the public good long after he leaves office.

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The Nation - The Nation — The senior Republican member of the US Senate, Alaska’s Ted Stevens, conceded defeat Wednesday in his race for a new term.

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HuffingtonPost.com - As former Democratic Senate leader Tom Daschle contemplates his forthcoming appointment to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, he faces an enormous challenge in attempting to overhaul the country’s health care and health insurance system. With 47 million Americans lacking health insurance and a woeful absence of emphasis on any type [...]

Continue reading " Daschle Should Remember There Are Some Things That Are Better (HuffingtonPost.com) "

RealClearPolitics.com - GM, Ford, and Chrysler, who embodied industrial excellence and manufactured much of the equipment that defeated Japan and Germany more than sixty years ago, are reduced to begging the federal government to prevent their bankruptcy.

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RealClearPolitics.com - He hasn’t even been sworn in yet, and Barack Obama is starting to reveal what his mantra about change really means. It means that we will reject the discredited old model of free-market capitalism and embrace the very promising, progressive new model of Soviet-style central planning.

Continue reading " Auto Bailouts Will Give Us Detroitsky (RealClearPolitics.com) "

The Nation - The Nation — One of the weird things about the transition period is that all of the speculation and editorializing tends to revolve around the actual personnel being floated or rumored as opposed to a broader discussion of what qualities characteristics and resume one would want to see in the various [...]

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The Christian Science Monitor - Government role in the global tobacco industryRegarding the Nov. 18 Opinion piece, America’s ‘height of hypocrisy’ on tobacco: Author Peter Fromuth makes a case that tobacco is some form of special, evil product, far different from normal products, such as, say, cookies.

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The Christian Science Monitor - One highly anticipated appointment by the next president is that of urban czar, a job that doesn’t yet exist. That person will be tasked to fulfill a little-noticed but ambitious campaign promise to unlock the potential of cities. Barack Obama should know – he’s lived in big cities most of [...]

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