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Here's the definitive early morning collection of the latest in D.C. wonktivity, from China to Iraq with a little bit of domestic chat in between. Bon appetit!
- The China Syndrome. Everybody's heard how China has been cleaning up in anticipation of the Olympics. There's increased security, more (but not total) freedom to surf the web and attempts to improve environmental. But, as The New America Foundation's William D. Hartung writes, China hasn't had time to spruce up its record of selling arms to Sudan and its complicity in the genocide in Darfur: provided roughly 90 percent of small arms and weapons in Sudan imported between 2004 and 2006. The weapons end up in the hands of the Janjaweed militias, who have murdered hundreds of thousands of Darfuris. - DS
- Weathering a storm. Christian E. Weller and Amanda Logan at the Center for American Progress bring us research to reinforce what middle class families have been feeling: financial security is in decline. CAP found that after increased security in the 90s, the new millennium saw a decline in how prepared families were to weather an economic crises or experience a job loss. 33.9 percent of families could handle the costs of a medical emergency in 2007, down from 43.7 percent in 2000. A smaller portion of families can cover a period of unemployment than previously -- 44.1 percent of families could cover unemployment in 2007, down from 51 percent in 2000. Weller and Logan write that there must be new efforts to increase incomes, stronger financial safety nets, and bold investments to bring the stats back up. - DS
- I caaaan't hear youuuu. Heritage Foundation's Steven Graves writes that everything is just peachy for minorities in the U.S., who have risen to "to the top of public life in the United States, including government, business, academia, the law, sports, and entertainment." The United Nations rightfully disagrees with Graves but Graves considers the U.N.'s reasoning "skewed." The U.N.'s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination reports that the U.S. is currently experiencing high of levels of xenophobia, racism, anti-semitism, bigotry, and homophobia. Graves' solution? Disengage from the U.N.'s CERD completely because America has nothing to gain from being connected to it. - DS
- This is how we do it. Larry Korb and a team from CAP offer a thoughtful plan for the nuts-and-bolts redeployment of American troops in Iraq in eight to ten months. Coming in response to critics who argue that the logistical challenge of redeployment is reason enough to stay in Iraq indefinitely, it provides specific evidence to policymakers that a safe, phased pull-out is possible -- with video analysis. - TF
--TAP Staff
