Christian Science Monitor

SEATTLE & SAN FRANCISCO -- The new Democratic-led Congress has already made great strides on its ambitious legislative agenda. From hiking the minimum wage to cutting interest rates on student loans, Democrats have won impressive bipartisan support for their legislative goals.

Not included on the agenda, however, is any proposal designed to address what may be the most fundamental problem facing America right now: an alarmingly high degree of inequality.

NEW YORK - With evidence mounting that international pressure on Iran is getting results, President Bush prepares to deliver a State of the Union speech Tuesday night that could provide signs of where efforts against Tehran and its nuclear program will go next.Although it remains debatable what exactly is working – sanctions, Western unity, the threat of force, targeted US actions, or even deteriorating internal conditions – Iran appears to be responding, analysts say...While it is… more

The American people rightly, and overwhelmingly, punished the Republican Party in the midterm elections, chiefly because of the Iraq war and the neoconservative ideology that helped bring it about.

Iraq is a disaster today partly because of the neoconservative fantasy that democratic nationhood can be built from scratch, at the point of a gun. This is crazed nationalist utopianism -- and it is wholly alien to core Republican traditions.

Worse still, neoconservatism has endangered the core values and traditions of America itself.… more

As US population grows inexorably toward 300 million, there are two visions for the future of American towns and cities. Although very different, each seeks to create a sense of community, a sense of place where none existed before.

One focuses on downtown areas - often run-down, sometimes left as polluted industrial "brownfields." This new kind of urban renewal is seen in places like the trendy Pearl district in Portland, Ore.

The other vision - the most dominant one - is found… more

America made teen pregnancy prevention a national priority, and progress on this front is remarkable. However, increasingly, women are avoiding pregnancy as teens, only to become single mothers in their early 20s. Often their entry into parenthood is just as ill-prepared and perilous to child well-being, yet the policy response is far less adequate.

In 1995, President Clinton pronounced teen pregnancy an epidemic, and, following his call for action, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy was formed. Congress made… more

A tearjerker from the 1970s starring Ali McGraw and Ryan O'Neal popularized the adage "Love Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry." That maxim may work in romance -- although even that is doubtful -- but it is certainly not good for dealing with a weak and critical ally.

Alas, that's precisely the course the Bush administration has followed in the wake of a US airstrike on a Pakistani village near the Afghan border. The attack was meant to kill… more

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is in Washington this week and, in addition to meeting with President Bush, will address a joint session of Congress -- an indicator of the dramatic change in the once-chilly relationship between India and the US.

Equally remarkable has been the upturn in the India-Pakistan relationship, which the Bush administration has helped promote.

But by doggedly opposing the projected gas pipeline from Iran across Pakistan to India, the administration is still forgoing a key opportunity to… more

Something is missing from the ongoing debate over Social Security's future and, oddly enough, it appears to be security. While news coverage has overwhelmingly focused on the political disputes surrounding private accounts and benefit cuts, an opportunity is being lost to consider the prevailing social objectives that should guide policy prescriptions.

And it's not the media's fault. President Bush has yet to come clean with a commitment to a specific proposal, and these days the Democrats are looking for a… more

The new bankruptcy reform law that will take effect in October fails to address one of the root causes of bankruptcy, particularly among young adults: a lack of basic financial education.

So where can we remedy that?

In our schools. Supporters of the bankruptcy reform effort argue that because it will be harder for individuals to wipe out their debts by filing for bankruptcy, it will curb the abuse of the bankruptcy system by imposing greater responsibility on spending decisions.… more

It should come as no surprise that proposals to create individual accounts as part of Social Security reform are faltering. As the layers of promises are peeled back, it becomes increasingly clear that investment accounts are neither necessary nor sufficient to fix Social Security. Accounts will not make millionaires out of minimum-wage workers. Higher returns from investing in stocks will not work as some magic elixir that cures the challenges confronting Social Security. Accounts will not result in huge estates… more