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February 13, 2012
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Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
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Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
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Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
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Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
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Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
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Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
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Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
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Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
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Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
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Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
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Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
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Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
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Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
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Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
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Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
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January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
Sept. 27, 2010
/ 19 Tishrei, 5771
A pledge to a newly engaged America
By
Kathryn Lopez
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
"Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed."
Michelle Obama told us that on the campaign trail in 2008, and it is fair to say that her campaign promise has been kept.
It's not just Republicans whose lives and views of President Obama have changed. Independents and Obama voters are feeling the effects of change as Obama prescribes it -- change that rejects feedback, as was clearly demonstrated by the dynamic we've seen from the White House and Congress in the last two years. In town hall meeting after town hall meeting, then tea party rally after tea party rally, and then poll after poll, Americans would urge Obama to hit the brakes on his rush toward transformation, and we all know how the Democratic Party responded. And that's why everyone but the most ardent Democratic spin-meisters is expecting the other party to win big in November.
A commercial currently running about "Mourning in America," a twist on Ronald Reagan's 1984 "Morning in America" ads, captures how many voters feel, listing a litany of grim statistics: "15 million men and women won't have the opportunity to go to work … Twenty-nine-hundred families will have their homes foreclosed by nightfall … This afternoon, 6,000 men and women will be married … each of their children to be born with a $30,000 share of the runaway national debt."
The ad, paid for by the Citizens for the Republic, a conservative action group, places the blame squarely on the man at the top: "Under the leadership of President Obama our country is fading, and weaker, and worse off. His policies were a grand experiment, policies that failed. This November, let's choose a smaller, more caring government, one that remembers us."
That government will be one that's responsive to citizens in a whole new way, if everyone who has been voicing concern stays -- as the First Lady would say -- involved and informed.
There is more than a month to go until Election Day, and no one should be measuring the proverbial office drapes. But the tea party is moving into its next phase, one not dependent on all of its candidates winning -- the governing phase.
And that's where the Republicans' new "Pledge to America" comes in. House Republicans released their governing agenda with less fanfare but more humility and urgency than the 1994 "Contract with America." (I still have a Capitol-steps paperweight from that September in my office.) This time, Republicans went to a small business in Virginia in order to unveil the fruits of a months-long listening exercise
The Pledge isn't everything everyone wanted it to be. But it is a lot of good things. Ambitious things, even. And John Boehner, the House minority leader and presumptive speaker come November, believes the pledge is better because of the tea party: "The Pledge to America was built by listening to the people, and that certainly includes the millions of Americans who are involved in the tea-party movement. I said earlier this year that Republicans wouldn't try to co-opt the tea-party movement, but that we were going to listen to them, stand with them, and walk among them. I've been to a number of tea-party events around the country, and frankly I think the movement has been an incredibly healthy thing for our democracy."
Doug Schoen, a Democrat and author of the book "Mad as Hell," sees the tea party as "a third force in American politics. It is not organized … but it is as powerful as any third party could possibly be at this point in time." He also doesn't believe it's going away. And Rep. Boehner seems to agree: He may not be measuring the drapes, but he has the welcome mat out. Around the unveiling of the Pledge, Boehner stopped by a tea party gathering and said: "If the American people stay engaged, Congress will do exactly what you demand."
That's good civics and a winning strategy. As Republican pollster John McLaughlin points out: "The very significant majority of Republican voters agree with the tea party. You saw that in the January national poll we did for the National Review Institute. We've seen that in the Republican primaries. If Republican leaders listen to the voters we will be fine. If they regress back to the big-government, inside-the-Beltway corruption that the Democratic Party is captured by, then we'll split our party. I believe we are listening to the voters and coincidently winning."
And the tea party is open to the outreach. Ryan Hecker, a member of the Houston Tea Party Society who helped organize the "Contract from America" earlier this year, believes that "Nov. 3 is when the real job of the tea party movement begins. We need to continue to press politicians and publicly hold them accountable if they falter. The Pledge to America has set real benchmarks that the tea-party movement can now effectively use to hold Republicans to their word."
Politicians work best when they know they're accountable to the people who elected them. Washington will be accountable only when citizens demand that it be. As one Republican aide on the Hill puts it: "Americans in the tea-party movement need to stay engaged in order to make sure things like aggressive spending cuts get done. And elected leaders who want things like aggressive spending cuts need them to stay engaged."
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