Win Mcnamee/Getty ImagesPresident Barack Obama on February 11, 2013.Ahead of tonight’s State of the Union Address, the White House has followed custom by leaking tidbits from the speech.
Apparently President Obama will get tough with the Republicans on the economy, which is well and good. And apparently Mr. Obama will announce that 34,000 out of 66,000 troops will come home from Afghanistan by this time next year, which sounds better than it is. That means the Pentagon is roughly on pace to hand over security to the Afghans by the end of 2014 — as Mr. Obama has long promised. That also means another two years of pointless bloodshed.
As we said on the editorial page last October, there’s no reason left to delay. All American troops should be out by the end of 2013.
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From the editorial page
A better voting system would actually be good for both parties and, more important, the country.
New York City’s Board of Elections is hopelessly dysfunctional.
Any senator is free to cast a vote for or against a nominee but should not be able to prevent others from doing so.
The “Steven Tyler Act,” now being considered in Hawaii’s Legislature, gives celebrities the right to sue paparazzi and collect damages for taking unwanted photographs.
In the time-honored tradition of ballooning Washington money scandals, details keep emerging about the symbiotic relationship between Senator Robert Menendez and a Florida eye-surgeon and big donor named Dr. Salomon Melgen.
J. Scott Applewhite/Associated PressRobert Menendez on January 28, 2013.The evidence that the New Jersey Democrat improperly used his office to help Dr. Melgen was already compelling on Saturday. That’s when we called in an editorial for Mr. Menendez to step aside as chairman of the Senate Foreign Committee, at least temporarily, pending a credible review by the Senate Ethics Committee of the various accusations of misconduct against him. Since then, new facts have come to light that underscore the need for Mr. Menendez to relinquish his gavel.
A story in today’s paper by Eric Lipton and William Rashbaum makes clear that Mr. Menendez’s efforts to help Dr. Melgen secure enforcement of a lucrative contract — to provide port security in the Dominican Republic — went well beyond nudging officials at the State and Commerce Department.
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Bebeto Matthews/Associated PressRush hour commuters wait as others leave a subway along the Lexington Avenue line on February 5, 2013.Unlike London and Hong Kong and Tokyo and nearly every city that would dare call itself a global economic hub, New York City has no express rail link between its airports and its central business districts. If you work in the Chrysler Building on Lexington Avenue, and you need to catch a flight at J.F.K., the quickest route is to take the 4/5/6 to the E to the AirTrain. By some estimates, the 4/5/6 is at 116 percent capacity.
Lately our mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has been warning that New York could lose its wealthiest corporate tenants to cities like London and Hong Kong and Tokyo. But he’s not especially concerned about the city’s rickety infrastructure. He’s worried that our buildings aren’t tall enough, and wants to rezone the city’s premier business area, East Midtown, to encourage development of larger, more modern skyscrapers. If you work in the Chrysler Building, you might see new towers rise above its spire.
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George Marks/Retrofile, via Getty Images A woman at work in the 1950s.This month marks the 50th anniversary of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique — the book that’s been credited with igniting the second wave feminist movement of the 1960s. What’s left in the fight for gender equality in the United States? On Tuesday, Op-Ed Columnist Gail Collins, who wrote the book’s new introduction, will host a live video discussion on the state of feminism at nytimes.com/roomfordebate.
Participants include:
Shelby Knox, a writer and feminist organizer who won national recognition in 2005 for her starring role in the documentary: “The Education of Shelby Knox” which depicts her role in a campaign for sex education reform in the high schools of Lubbock, Texas.
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From the editorial page
If you’d like to know why Republicans are trying to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, take a look at what the agency has already accomplished in its first 18 months.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg is pushing to rezone East Midtown too quickly, without sufficient public vetting of the project.
At some point this year, humans will for the first time consume more farmed fish than wild-caught fish.
There is evidence that a major manufacturer of all-metal hip replacements was aware of a serious problem with one of its models yet failed to alert patients or doctors and continued to market it aggressively.
Call it a Lunar New Year’s present to Chinese students. Hewlett Packard issued new guidelines Friday, days before the start of the annual holiday when much of that country shuts down, requiring is suppliers to only employ high school and college students who actively volunteer to do the work. Students should also be free to leave “upon reasonable notice” and have the ability to complain about unfair practices.
Though there are real reasons to worry about the enforcement of the policy given that many factories in China routinely violate basic labor laws, it should help curb some egregious practices. Stories in The Times and the work of labor activists have documented how educators and factory managers often conspire to force students to work on assembly lines. Sometimes, colleges or teachers receive a cut of their students’ pay as compensation for making them available. As if that weren’t bad enough, students can be forced to pay tuition while they work.
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Last Friday, President Obama offered religious leaders his latest (unnecessary) compromise on the so-called birth control mandate.
As David Firestone wrote on this blog, he first exempted churches, then dealt with the initial objections of religiously affiliated institutions (which employ and serve people who are not adherents of their faiths). When these institutions complained that not even a dollar of their insurance premiums should go toward contraception, Mr. Obama went a big step further by requiring insurance companies to offer stand-alone birth-control plans directly to employees.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a tax-exempt organization that spends an awful lot of time and money on politics, promised to review the latest plan. Lo and behold, they hate it.
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From the editorial page
President Obama has nominated one of the country’s best lawyers, Mary Jo White, to be the next chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
John Brennan’s answers at his confirmation hearing were frequently unsatisfying.
A 10-year trade dispute between the United States and Antigua has reached an important turning point that could set a disturbing precedent for global commerce.
Many defendants who pose no risk to public safety are required to post bail in New York. For the poorest individuals, that means staying in jail for days awaiting trial.
Worth watching: A symposium today at the National Museum of the American Indian, in Washington, about racist stereotypes and sports team names and mascots.
The last panel of the day, which began just before 4 p.m., is called “A Community Conversation About the Washington NFL Team Name.”
You probably know what name that is. But such is the nature of this event that participants are reluctant to use it, considering it a racial slur.
Click here to watch.
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