Editorial Roundup: Excerpts From Recent Editorials

Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad:

May 10

Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal on gay marriage:

President Obama portrayed his "evolving" view of gay marriage in a way familiar to many Americans. He pointed to his experience, relaying to Robin Roberts of ABC News what he has learned from friends and colleagues who are gay, many "in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together." He spoke with his wife and daughters, who have friends with gay parents.

The president even framed his decision to support gay marriage with his Christian faith, "you know, treat others the way you would want to be treated." He placed the decision in an ordinary day, away from the bubbling political controversy, making the question less about an argument and more about the humanity we share.

Does it matter that the president spoke out? Not in a legal or constitutional sense. The aim isn't to push legislation through Congress. What is significant is the office he holds, elected by a majority, seeking now a second term. He might have held back, but he concluded the better way was taking a stand, mirroring how far the country has moved. ...

Cultural attitudes are changing, and now the president has joined in recognizing the right thing to do.

Online:

http://www.ohio.com

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May 11

Beaumont (Texas) Enterprise on Congressional spending cuts:

Anyone who wonders why the national approval rating for Congress hovers around 10 percent should consider the latest gambit by House Republicans. They are now trying to avoid the automatic budget cuts triggered by collapse of negotiations when the debt ceiling was raised last year. More specifically, they want to keep the automatic cuts opposed by Democrats and cancel theirs.

That's ridiculous. Last July's deal was designed to motivate both parties by triggering automatic budget cuts in January half from defense, half from social programs. Yet now House Republicans want to reduce more spending on the social side and roll back some financial reforms instead. That plan will go nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

If Republicans or Democrats want to avoid "painful" budget cuts in January, they should put forth a realistic plan now. If they don't, those spending cuts are better than nothing, and they should proceed.

Online:

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com

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May 15

The Seattle Times on odd USPS move:

The United States Postal Service is taking a curious path as it struggles with budget and operational reforms in desperate pursuit of financial stability.

Alienating customers as loyal and old as the postal system itself is an odd business choice, but that is what the USPS ensures with a negotiated service agreement with a primary competitor of newspapers.

The agency hopes to find revenues in a deal with Valassis Direct Mail that offers postage discounts up to 36 percent on new advertising mail pieces. Advertising from targeted national retailers is now delivered as newspaper inserts, and to nonsubscribers via the Postal Service.

Newspapers already spend $500 million a year as part of Total Market Coverage programs to get advertising inserts to nonsubscribers. Why the Postal Service would seek to undercut established business and point newspapers to private delivery services is a mystery.

The forum for explaining this disturbing deal is the Postal Regulatory Commission, which is accepting public comment on the proposed negotiated service agreement. Such discounts have been allowed for about a decade, but only a handful are in place.

The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 provides USPS with business options, but it must demonstrate financial benefits, and it cannot create conditions that cause harm in the marketplace. So far, the Postal Service has not presented a case for a net financial benefit from the cozy deal with Valassis.

Nor has the Postal Service acknowledged the revenue and volume business from newspapers put at risk, or examined the impact on local advertising.

The agency has worked to accommodate and survive a variety of economic and technological changes. The Postal Service has been under siege from the outside by changing cultural habits, and the inside from employee expenses for medical care and pensions.

Why the agency would seek to alienate a longtime supportive customer by drafting a narrow agreement with a specific competitor makes no sense. The Postal Regulatory Commission needs to ask the pointed questions the Postal Service has avoided.

Online:

http://www.seattletimes.com

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May 10

Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald on a new underwear bomb:

This success isn't a secret

It's a truism in the spy world. Failures become public; successes remain secret.

Which makes this an unusual opportunity to salute the Central Intelligence Agency for the dramatic success in thwarting an al-Qaida plot to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner.

The would-be bomber reportedly was an agent for Saudi Arabian intelligence who had infiltrated the terrorist group in Yemen. The informant volunteered for the suicide mission, then handed over the non-metallic underwear bomb that was designed to foil airport security measures.

The double-agent also was able to deliver inside information about the terror operation to intelligence officials. That is believed to have helped the CIA direct a drone strike that killed the external operations director of Yemen's al-Qaida branch. He also was a suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in 2000.

The work done by the CIA and its Saudi intelligence partner was impressive. The Yemen-based group is considered al-Qaida's most active terror operation right now.

But the news also serves as a reminder that it's a dangerous world out there.

Despite the many setbacks it has suffered, including the death of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida remains a determined adversary. Its top bomb-maker is still at large and believed to be teaching others his despicable craft. And while the sometimes intrusive security at U.S. airports has worked, there are serious concerns about security gaps for U.S.-bound flights from overseas.

Continued U.S. diligence, smart undercover work and developing solid international partnerships all are needed in the ongoing counterterrorism fight. Even if we never hear about their successes.

Online:

http://www.omaha.com

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May 13

The Kansas City (Mo.) Star on work visas for foreign talent:

Each year, Washington awards visas to immigrants who bring skills and qualifications prized by high-tech companies. This is an eminently sensible policy, since highly trained immigrants add greatly to the nation's stock of human capital and as a group, they have a high propensity to start companies of their own. That creates more jobs for Americans.

There's one problem. The number of these special visas, called H1-Bs, is too low only 65,000, with 20,000 more awarded each year to foreign students with master's degrees or higher from a U.S. university. ...

This means that our world-class university system, supported to a great extent by tax dollars, is training thousands of smart foreign students, who then take those talents back home and start companies that compete with U.S. enterprises.

You can thank Congress for this because Congress caps the number of H1-Bs. But Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran, a Republican, and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat, have drafted a bill aimed at easing this bottleneck.

Their bill, called the Startup Act, would make it easier for new companies to raise financial capital by rolling back certain taxes, but its most significant provisions would greatly expand the number of visas available to foreign-born talent. It would authorize a new visa category for 50,000 foreign students who earn a master's degree or higher in a technical field science, technology, engineering or math. A total of 75,000 additional visas would go to foreign-born entrepreneurs who register a new firm or raise $100,000 in capital while in the United States on another category of visa. ...

What's a mystery is why more of their colleagues aren't willing to sign onto a bill that will bring more technical and entrepreneurial talent to our country.

Online:

http://www.kansascity.com

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May 12

The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky., on Hillary Clinton:

So what is it about Hillary Rodham Clinton's stint as U.S. secretary of state that gets people all riled up? Crises averted? Dictators stared down? Pacts signed? Diplomacy accomplished?

Let's try "Hair and Makeup" for $400, Alex.

Yes, one of the most powerful women in the world, who practically lives on a plane that flies her hundreds of thousands of miles a year to the globe's hot spots, is still taking it on the chin for whether her hair is flawlessly coifed and whether her make-up meets screen-test standards. And let's not even visit the pantsuit critiques, which regard Clinton as if she were hitting red carpets instead of situation rooms.

Recently, obviously short of a scandal or two, The Drudge Report posted a picture of Clinton at a function in Bangladesh under the headline, "Hillary Au Naturale." In the photo, the secretary wore her hair down, her glasses on and she wasn't slathered in pancake. She did remember to wear lipstick. Points for that?

If the secretary has proven anything with her public lives, it's that the old rules don't apply to her. She moved beyond her husband's pecadillos and stayed committed to their marriage, despite them and out of his substantial shadow to forge a separate identity in her public service. And even though she keeps a superhuman pace, she looks human doing it.

She brushed off the fashion criticism with an interviewer: "I feel so relieved to be at the stage I am in my life right now because if I want to wear my glasses, I'm wearing my glasses. If I want to pull my hair back, I'm pulling my hair back." ..

Online:

http://www.courier-journal.com

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May 11

Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach, Fla., on disgruntled voters:

People everywhere are grumbling about the economy. In Europe they're also doing something about it voting out politicians who had pushed for belt-tightening.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy presented himself as a world leader, working with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to keep the European economy functioning. Voters in his country said Non. He was dumped in favor of Socialist Francois Hollande.

In elections in Greece, the winner was a word the Greeks gave us: chaos. Conservative Antonis Samaras came in first place. The second-place finisher, Alexis Tsipras of the Radical Left Coalition, spurned overtures from Samaras to form a coalition government.

European countries are facing uglier versions of the economic crises facing the United States: years of wasteful government spending, budget deficits and record debt. In response, their governments are cutting social services while raising taxes.

Understandably, voters are upset and want to return to the good old days. So they're voting out the austerity candidates and voting in candidates who promise to once again let the good times roll and stick the rich with the bill.

In France, Hollande won on promises of curbing austerity by nearly doubling the top income tax rate, from the current 40 percent to 75 percent. ...

In the United States, President Barack Obama should be worried that the global anti-incumbent mania could wash ashore here. After all, in 2006, voters ousted Republicans from control of Congress. Obama's 2008 victory occurred partly because of voter wrath at departing Republican President George W. Bush's poor performance during the economic meltdown that autumn. And after Mr. Obama and the Democratic Congress failed to make matters much better, in 2010 Republicans took back the House of Representatives.

The global economic crisis continues to boot failing governments from power. And it looks as if we're a long way from the crisis ending.

Online:

http://www.nwfdailynews.com

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May 14

The New York Times on investor confidence and financial reform:

Investors are shunning the stock market, and who can blame them? As serial bubbles have burst, faith in the market has been rewarded with shattered retirements. At the same time, trust has been destroyed by scandals and as demonstrated by the reckless trading at JPMorgan Chase the slow, uncertain pace of financial reform.

There has been less buying and selling of stock, and there have been huge outflows of investor dollars from domestic stock mutual funds, as detailed recently by The Times's Nathaniel Popper. If the trend continues, the result could be a less robust market, with fewer companies opting to raise money by issuing shares and fewer investors willing to put their retirement savings into stocks.

Policy makers should pay attention. Evidence suggests that investors are not merely reacting to tough conditions, but rather are staying away because they do not trust the market. Restoring trust is crucial to restoring the market.

... In April, average daily trades stood at 6.5 billion, about half their peak four years ago. By comparison, after the market busts of 1987 and 2001, trading recovered within two years. In fact, going back to 1960, trading had never declined for three consecutive years, let alone four and counting.

Investors haven't just hunkered down, they have headed for the exits. Since the start of 2008, domestic stock mutual funds, a common way for individuals to invest, were drained of more than $400 billion, compared with an inflow of $52 billion in the four years before that. ...

... A reminder that brokers often do not have an obligation to act in a client's best interest and that efforts to change the law to put a client's interest first have been repeatedly defeated in the face of industry pressure.

Online:

http://www.nytimes.com

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May 15

The Guardian, London, on the eurozone:

Thanks must go to the gods of metaphor, for it was presumably they who sent the lightning that forced François Hollande's plane to turn back mid-journey to Berlin. This being rain-sodden reality rather than heightened drama, the French president had better luck on a second flight to meet chancellor Angela Merkel but even so, you couldn't have asked for a more perfect omen. Because there are those who view any mission to save the euro as cursed. Plenty more see policymaking in the crisis-hit eurozone as a lot of Sturm with a hefty dollop of Drang. And then there are the more excitable European politicians who would describe the fate of the single currency as hanging on a war of ideas: between left and right, between austerity and growth, and between the newly elected, idealistic Hollande and battle-hardened German pragmatist Merkel. Stormy indeed.

If only things were so stark. Certainly, a shift of emphasis and policy is discernible, both in terms of the people making decisions and the economic and political backdrop they are now working against. But the continent-wide spending cuts are not about to be overturned in favor of a raft of policies designed to encourage growth sadly. Nor, unfortunately, are stricken southern members of the euro about to receive the relief they need from the wrong-headed austerity programs they have been forced to follow with such disastrous economic and social effect. ...

... In the crisis zones of Greece, Portugal and Ireland, the eurozone needs to impose a sharp reduction in the value of public debt. Preceding that, the euro club should set up an emergency pool to forcibly recapitalize banks, in return for European public equity stakes. Drastic? Yes. But the euro area's existential crisis will not be alleviated by rhetoric, however cheering.

Online:

http://www.guardian.co.uk

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May 13

The Globe and Mail, Toronto, on Vladimir Putin:

Vladimir Putin is meant to stand for stability, and he used his inaugural address to pledge to strengthen democracy. In fact, his presidency represents a threat to both.

In the lead-up to his inauguration for a third term as Russia's President, riot police raided cafes, and grabbed people off the streets even merely for sporting white ribbons, which symbolize opposition to Putin's autocratic rule. Two prominent opposition leaders, Alexei Navalny and Sergei Udaltsov, were jailed for disobeying police.

A state that sets upon its opponents, deploys riot police and armored vehicles to clear peaceful protesters, and detains its critics, is by its nature unstable and undemocratic.

Putin, then, would seem to pose a risk to the very things he claims to want and Russia most needs.

It need not be this way. Putin is often characterized as a KGB thug, but he was not always seen as such. When as a new president he strode into a Paul McCartney concert in the Kremlin, there were great hopes for Putin. In his first term, as Russia was emerging from the chaos of the immediate post-Soviet (and post-Yeltsin) era, he was viewed as a stabilizing influence, and by some even as a reformer. His governments have included liberals, but these hopes gradually faded, both because of his policies and because of his decision to flout the spirit of Russia's constitutional term limit by arranging to become prime minister after his first two presidential terms.

But Putin could reclaim his reputation were he to use his third term to pursue a more open Russia and a bigger role for his country. ...

There is always a place for hope. But this would require a new Vladimir Putin to emerge.

Online:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com

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May 16

China Daily, Beijing, on Greece:

It is more than obvious that a chaotic departure from the euro will be a Greek tragedy in which we will all suffer.

European shares sank to a four and a half month closing low recently as political deadlock in Greece made the country's exit from the eurozone look more likely than ever.

The reluctance Greece is exhibiting in swallowing the bitter pill of austerity is alarming.

But the alternative is no less painful. Even though a return to its own currency will in theory enable Greece to sharpen its export competitiveness, the eventual devaluation by an unpredictably large margin may prove as painful as those belt-tightening measures.

For the eurozone as a whole, the exit of Greece would not only bode ill for other weaker members but also arouse further public opposition to bailouts in the rich countries.

The borrowing costs of Italy and Spain are already on the rise and cannot be held down for long with more cheap loans from the European Central Bank.

For the world economy, lasting economic uncertainties in Europe, not to mention the risk of contagion from a Greek exit that would infect Portugal, Ireland and even Spain and Italy, would be enough to turn the ongoing global recovery into recession.

Worse, if policymakers in debt-laden countries cling to super-loose monetary policy as an easy way out, instead of fixing their structural problems, the shockwaves will come sooner and scarier than expected.

It is said that the massive stimulus programs that the international community jointly carried out in wake of the 2008 global financial crisis saved the world from a scenario that could have been much more ugly.

That may have been true then. But if policymakers continue to regard buying time with cheap money as their sole obligation, that initial success will turn out to be just the prologue to a real human tragedy. ...

Online:

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn

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May 13

The Jerusalem Post on Palestinian prisoners:

In mid-April several dozen Palestinians began a hunger strike that has since grown to include almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The prisoners demand not only an end to the practice of administrative detention, but also increased family visits and an end to solitary confinement. Although recent reports indicate that a negotiated solution may come soon, it has generated widespread international interest. ...

While the international community has focused on the issue of administrative detainees, the actual hunger strike affects a much larger segment of the prisoner population. ...

The hunger strike being carried out by the Palestinians should be viewed in its context as a political tool ...

The false dichotomy that Israel is faced with is the assumption that simply because Palestinians are protesting, their claims must be legitimate. But are they? In 2011, Ma'ariv reported that prisoner Haytham Battat was regularly updating his Facebook page and that another prisoner had posted photos of lavish meals. Prisoners had cellphones and seemed to enjoy a "lavish" lifestyle. ...

Israel must realize that it gains little by negotiating with the striking prisoners. Too many concessions to these strikers will encourage this method of "resistance."

Online:

http://www.jpost.com