Washingtonpost.com

Why Tuesday Won't be So Super

Ron Tang — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

With Super Duper Tuesday looming on Feb. 5, the presidential horse race is about to move into its mid-game. At the end of this process, we may end up with the first president in history who is a woman, or an African American, or a former prisoner of war, or a Mormon or an ordained Southern Baptist minister.

Beyond the headlines and election results, when you lift up the hood of our nation's nominating process, you see a pretty gnarly sight. There's nothing simple or easy to understand about it, in fact it has evolved into a complex, chaotic snarl… more

Sustaining an Infrastructure for Success

Articles — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:34:00 -0400

In the wake of infrastructure related tragedies that struck Minnesota and New Orleans, political leaders have demonstrated once again that they do not understand the benefits of public investment. Mistakenly seeing only the financial burden of public investment and ignoring the future returns, they have failed to allocate enough public funds to adequately repair America’s roads, bridges, railways and electric grids. As a consequence, America is stopped short of reaching its full economic potential.

The costs of our crumbling infrastructure include wasted fuel, traffic delays and clogged ports. Congestion on America’s roads results in losses between $70 to 78 billion every… more

Teach Your Children About Interfaith

Articles — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:45:00 -0400

One of the great fears that parents and church leaders have about their youth engaging in interfaith dialog is that they will lose their connection to their own religion and will end up rejecting and leaving their faith, maybe even converting to another religion as a result. My experience as a Christian pastor has been just the opposite -- I have watched young people become stronger in their own faith through exposure to other traditions.

Personal relationships matter a great deal in influencing how individuals come to faith, switch faiths or grow in faith. Most of us are part of the… more

Building a Better Presidential Election

Articles — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 08:42:00 -0400

California is used to power grabs, as are other states of electoral significance, like Ohio and Florida. All three states have seen partisan attempts at redistricting reform, which treated them as pawns on the national political chessboard.

Now in California comes the latest power grab, an attempt to manipulate the Electoral College vote to help Republican candidates for president. GOP operatives are seeking to pass a ballot proposition that will award one electoral vote for each congressional district won by presidential candidates, instead of giving 100 percent of electoral votes to the candidate that wins the statewide popular vote.

In… more

How to Hit the Trifecta

Articles — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 09:40:00 -0400

Rising insecurity in the oil producing regions of the world along with rising carbon levels in the atmosphere are pushing Congress to update our nation’s energy policies. But far from providing a bold solution to our converging environmental, energy and security dilemmas, the bill that has come out of the Senate to gradually increase fuel efficiency standards relies on timid half-measures. Congress should instead consider a more effective and long-overdue step towards energy independence and environmental protection -- implementing a broad-based energy tax.

Clearly, U.S. energy policies need reforming. Oil-producing nations hold too much sway over our pocketbooks and our… more

A Rank Exercise

Articles — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 15:44:00 -0400

Until a few years ago, America’s elementary and secondary schools generally escaped our national obsession with lists. Almost every week another ranking of best communities, most beautiful people or top hospitals is published.

But in 1998 Newsweek, which is owned by The Washington Post, began publishing a list of "The 100 Best High Schools in America." The ranking is based on "The Challenge Index," a measure developed by Washington Post education reporter Jay Mathews. The list, published annually the past few years, has become increasingly influential. Other media outlets now cover it like a horserace, and high schools all over… more

Health Care, Toyota Style

Articles — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 07:23:00 -0400

Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and author of the taboo-busting Running a Hospital blog, wrote recently about a dilemma he faced involving the "da Vinci Surgical Robot." Levy has been advised that without purchasing a new da Vinci robot, the hospital’s prostate surgery volume will plummet because others will market this new treatment even if it’s not superior to current procedures -- and it might not be.

Last year, Levy reported that less invasive robotic surgery is proven to be no better than "open" prostate surgery -- on measures such as success removing cancer, retaining… more

The Next Social Contract

Articles — Thu, 17 May 2007 12:54:00 -0400

The initial round of presidential primary debates leaves no doubt that the presidential horserace has already broken from the gates. While some may lament the early departure -- given that votes will not be cast for another 8 months -- the absence of incumbents vying for each party’s nomination has created a wide open race, one where the stakes are remarkably high.

Although most of the press coverage to date has focused on the daily stream of polls, jibes, and behind-the-scenes intrigue, the coming election represents our first real chance to remake the social contract for the 21st century. Our nation’s… more

What Bremer Got Wrong in Iraq

Articles — Wed, 16 May 2007 12:29:00 -0400

I arrived in Iraq before L. Paul Bremer arrived in May 2003 and stayed on long after his ignominious and furtive departure in June 2004 -- long enough to see the tragic consequences of his policies in Iraq. So I was disappointed by the indignant lack of repentance on full display in his Outlook article on Sunday.

In it, the former head of the Coalition Provisional Authority argues that he "was absolutely right to strip away the apparatus of a particularly odious tyranny," including the Baath Party and the Iraqi army. He complains about "critics who’ve never spent time in Iraq"… more

Al Qaeda-on-Thames: UK Plotters Connected

Articles — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 15:14:00 -0400

Islamabad and New York -- Five British citizens, four of whom are of Pakistani descent, were convicted Monday of planning to attack targets in the United Kingdom under orders from al Qaeda using fertilizer-based bombs. Their convictions underline the fact that from its Pakistani hub al Qaeda now has the capability not only to plan once-off attacks in the U.K., but is also able to plan a sustained campaign of terrorist operations against the United States’ closest ally. And the ease with which al Qaeda has recruited operatives from the U.K. suggests that a future attack on the United States… more