The latest news on Health Care, Hard Times, Domestic Extremism, Faith in the Streets, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Israel, Peru, Sudan, Zimbabwe, India-Gandhi Tour, and Select Op-eds. | Sojourners

The latest news on Health Care, Hard Times, Domestic Extremism, Faith in the Streets, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Israel, Peru, Sudan, Zimbabwe, India-Gandhi Tour, and Select Op-eds.

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Quote of the day. "Had we gone ahead in February, we would have had a consumer backlash of considerable magnitude. Now there will still be some level of disruption, there's no question about that, but it's a lot better than it would have been." Acting FCC Chairman Michael J. Copps, speaking of today's switch to all-digital broadcast television. (Los Angeles Times)

Health care. Senators Explore Alternatives to Government-Run Plan on Health Care “As President Obama traveled to the heartland to sell a government-run insurance plan as essential to health-care reform, Senate negotiators began to explore a possible bipartisan compromise modeled after rural cooperatives.” Democrats hint compromise to win Senate health care deal “Senate Democrats are offering to scrap a controversial government-sponsored health insurance provision in an effort to win more than a dozen moderate and conservative Republican votes to extend health care coverage to nearly 46 million uninsured Americans.” Obama promotes healthcare overhaul in Green Bay, Wis. “Facing a sharpening healthcare debate on Capitol Hill, President Obama urged participants at a town hall meeting here Thursday to keep up the political pressure for a health overhaul or face the consequences of inaction.”

Hard times. Employed see tough times, too “People who still have jobs are faring worse than at any time since the Great Depression, a USA TODAY analysis of employment data found. Furloughs, pay cuts and reduced hours are taking a toll on workers who have escaped job cuts.”

Domestic extremism. Man who killed guard at Holocaust museum has links to BNP “Yesterday it emerged that Von Brunn, a longtime antisemite, had attended meetings of the American Friends of the British National party (AFBNP), which was set up to raise funds from far-right activists in America.” Taking the pulse of extremist groups “A day after an anti-Semite allegedly shot and killed a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, experts disagreed about whether it was an isolated event or the latest sign of a growing threat by domestic hate groups.”

Faith in the streets. In Watts, one God, two cultures “[Father Peter] Banks, 63, a Catholic priest from a tiny Irish village, has become an unlikely force for racial understanding in Watts. Over more than three decades, he has watched as the community changed from predominantly black to predominantly Latino. He's seen racial tensions lead to segregation within his own congregation. His efforts to bridge the divide have been marked by humility, patience and modest expectations.”

Iran. Iranians vote in presidential poll “Iranians are voting in the most keenly contested presidential election in years.” Iranians ready to decide presidency -- and maybe much more “After an exuberant campaign season, voters across Iran voted today in a fiercely contested presidential election with potentially broad domestic and international repercussions.” A Deeply Polarized Iran Prepares to Choose a President “A long column of provincial, working-class Iranians, clad in black and walking in flip-flops, streamed into a highway underpass, heading for a reelection rally for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.” As Iran Votes, Talk of a Sea Change “Some Iranians believe that the unruly democratic energies unleashed over the past few weeks could affect this country’s politics no matter who wins.”

Pakistan. Bomb kills senior Pakistan cleric “A leading anti-Taliban cleric has been killed in a suspected suicide bomb attack at his Islamic religious school in the Pakistani city of Lahore.” Pakistanis Confront Bonds of Faith, Country in Battle With Taliban “Unlike in past wars against its archenemy, India, Pakistan is engulfed in a conflict that pits Pakistanis against Pakistanis, Muslims against Muslims. It is a confrontation the army long resisted, and it features an enemy that many Pakistanis would prefer to believe does not exist.” Some in Qaeda Leave Pakistan for Somalia and Yemen “American officials say they are seeing the first evidence that dozens of fighters with Al Qaeda, and a small handful of the terrorist group’s leaders, are moving to Somalia and Yemen from their principal haven in Pakistan’s tribal areas.”

Afghanistan. U.S. 'to protect Afghan civilians' “The incoming U.S. general in charge of troops in Afghanistan says his priority will be to review all NATO operations in a bid to reduce civilian casualties.” Afghan violence 'worst since 2001' “Violence in Afghanistan has spiked to its highest levels since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the general in charge of US forces in the Middle East and Central Asia says.” Petraeus: 'Tough Months' Lie Ahead in Afghan War “Violence in Afghanistan last week reached its highest levels since the U.S.-led overthrow of the Taliban-ruled government in 2001, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command, said yesterday.”

Israel. Netanyahu may yield to two-state solution “Binyamin Netanyahu is expected to endorse a 'two-state solution' in a much-heralded speech this weekend, but he may stall on American demands to freeze Jewish settlements in the West Bank.” Obama leaves settlers with stark choice - apartheid or a bi-national state “… Barack Obama has changed the rules of the game between the United States and Israel, and that despite the right's victory in the elections, the Palestinians are not planning to go anywhere. What this means is that after 42 years of occupation, the time has come for the settlers to choose between Jewish land and a Jewish state.”

Peru. Thousands march over Peru clashes “Protesters in towns and cities across Peru took to the streets in support of native Amazonians who oppose government plans for their ancestral lands.” Protesters Gird for Long Fight Over Opening Peru’s Amazon “Faced with a simmering crisis over dozens of deaths in the quelling of indigenous protests last week, Peru’s Congress this week suspended the decrees that had set off the protests over plans to open large parts of the Peruvian Amazon to investment.”

Sudan. Sudan allows some aid groups to return “The Sudanese government is allowing four aid organizations expelled from the country after its president was accused of war crimes to return under slightly different names, the U.N. humanitarian chief said Thursday.”

Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe girls trade sex for food “Growing numbers of children in Zimbabwe are turning to prostitution to survive, the charity Save the Children says.” Zimbabwe Divisions Pose a Quandary for West “Therein lies the puzzle for Mr. Obama and the leaders of other wealthy Western democracies whom Mr. Tsvangirai is meeting during a three-week tour of the United States and Europe: How do they help Mr. Tsvangirai and Zimbabwe without bolstering Mr. Mugabe?”

India-Gandhi tour. Tours Let Travelers to India Trace Steps, Test Principles of Gandhi “The past three years have seen a mushrooming of tours tracing the footsteps of independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, the bony, bare-chested ascetic whose philosophy of nonviolence helped Indians overthrow 200 years of British colonial rule.”

Editorial. Why the Voting Rights Act Matters (New York Times) “The Supreme Court is expected to rule shortly on a challenge to the Voting Rights Act. There is a real danger that it could strike down Section 5. That would be a radical reversal for the court, which has repeatedly upheld the act since its passage in 1965. It would cripple the power of Congress and the Justice Department to protect voters from discriminatory state rules.”

Opinion. Feeding the Lone Wolves (Eugene Robinson, Washington Post) “What we don't know is whether all the blast-furnace rhetoric coming from the right is giving validation and encouragement to some confused, angry man or woman with a rifle or a truck full of fertilizer -- the next 'lone wolf,' preparing to howl.” Why the Jews? (Michael Gerson, Washington Post) “Why the Jews? It is a question that must often have been asked during pogroms and in ghettos and in prison camps. There are many answers, none of them adequate.” The Big Hate (Paul Krugman, New York Times) “Today, as in the early years of the Clinton administration but to an even greater extent, right-wing extremism is being systematically fed by the conservative media and political establishment."