Opinion: In today’s pages: Blackwater at home, Sputnik at 50
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Atlantic Monthly associate editor Matthew Yglesias asks who’s giving money to Bill Clinton:
Disclosing who’s contributing to Bill Clinton’s foundation after his wife wins the election would be about four years too late. The voters ought to have this information before the election, when it could still make a difference. Indeed, we really ought to find out who his donors are before the nomination is settled. If the former president wants his gesture of transparency to be taken seriously, he ought to disclose right away. After all, by sponsoring a law to mandate disclosure of donations to presidential foundations and agreeing that Bill would voluntarily comply, the Clintons have already conceded the key points of principle.And it’s impossible to view the Clinton Foundation and the Hillary Clinton campaign as entirely separate enterprises.
Columnist Patt Morrison explores Blackwater’s domestic work and says, not in our backyard. Gen. Kevin P. Chilton explains how, 50 years after Sputnik, a Chinese missile test demonstrates the need to secure our satellites in space. Cal State Long Beach’s Tyler Dilts asks why CSU administrators are getting big raises when faculty salaries are low and tuition high.
The editorial board asks why the Bush Administration has let so few Iraqi refugees into the country. The board praises state Treasurer Bill Lockyer for starting a conversation about California’s deficit denial, and takes a look back at Sputnik and the space race.
Readers react to the editorial board’s take on MoveOn.org’s ‘General Betray Us’ ads. See why both Richard Morse of Redondo Beach and Encino’s Michael K. Finnigan think the board falsely equated MoveOn.org with Swift Boat Veterans for Truth’s campaign against Sen. John Kerry in 2004.