Wednesday Evening Links

1. A poignant article about how real life-and cheap-ass taxpayers-can get in the way of students living their dreams. Maybe she wouldn't make it to Juilliard, but why can't she have every opportunity to explore her talent while also getting a useful degree?

2. Randy Cohen, writing about how we should only have so much tolerance for the beliefs and practices of other culture.

3. I can't remember if I linked to this already, but the NY Times had this worrisome piece about Pakistan's instability in last Sunday's magazine. You can be rest assured that if Pakistan falls to pieces, the Taliban in Afghanistan will be the least of our worries.

4. Gun nuts protest even the most minor of tracking measures designed to help law enforcement prevent the flow of weapons to Mexican drug cartels.

5. CIA Intelligence officials bitch and moan about the release of OLC memos related to torture, threaten to hold their breaths and turn blue if the Obama administration follows through on its promise.

6. Via War & Piece, NY Times reveals that NSA has-surprise-exceeded it's Congressional authority in eavesdropping on Americans. I suppose supports the Obama administration's that there should be absolutely no judicial oversight of NSA wiretapping whatsoever.

Morning Links

For your reading pleasure:

1. The Treasury Dept. is set to announce new regulatory controls over previously unregulated financial transactions.

2. The Pentagon says in a new report that China is seeking to boost it's military's power and effectiveness. China says we need to chill out. In the meantime, China prepares to force Tibetans to celebrate "Serf Liberation Day", the 60th anniversary of the Chinese invasion of Tibet.

3. 16 die in a Baghdad bombing.

4. American cities are dealing with an increase in "shantytowns" as the number of homeless rise. Hollywood producers Peter Samuelson wants to give them something better than cardboard boxes to live in.

5. Secretary Clinton bluntly admits that the failed U.S. war on drugs has contributed to rising violence in Mexico.

6. American taxpayers are paying for the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, if in a backhanded way.

7. New study says that most wrongful convictions in Texas stem from witness misidentification.

8. Lisa Falkenberg on Gov. Perry's stimulus fund logic (or lack thereof.)

9. The next American soccer star?

10. A question about student loan forgiveness tops the list at the new "ask the President" website.

Student Loan Forgiveness

Apparently a minor movement has been building to forgive (to one degree or another) that tens or hundreds of thousands of student loan debt that many college and professional students have incurred (via Allahpundit):

Student loan repayment can be difficult for young people starting off their careers and has become even more challenging now with the economic downturn, as recent graduates lose their jobs or struggle to land one. Groups like Applebaum's on Facebook, and other organizations such as StudentLoanJustice.org, are part of a new movement advocating for an overhaul of the country's troubled student loan system. Frustrated with often unaffordable monthly payments, loans that are nearly impossible to discharge, and restrictive loan repayment plans, student borrowers are pushing the government and private loan companies to devise new solutions.

Allahpundit has this to say:

Unfair to those who repaid their loans or didn’t have loans in the first place? Sure — but no more so than dumping oceans of TARP cash on the banks that created the crisis. And if, if the stimulus effect of loan forgiveness is as profound as these guys think, taxpayers would be repaid in the form of a quicker economic rebound. One question, though: Why do they assume forgiven debtors would spend the savings instead of pocketing them or using them to pay off other debt a la tax rebate checks? The answer, maybe, is the sheer amount of money we’re talking about. In my case, forgiving federal loans would save me north of $8,000 a year; toss private loans in there and it’s a cool ten grand. I’d sock some of that away, but with tens of thousands dollars suddenly freed up, I’d also start looking at home prices in the area. Stimulating! Exit question: Who’s onboard?

I'd be lying if I said I don't think something similar. Now I certainly do not believe that for most graduates the slate should just be wiped clean. But to me there is no doubt that many students incurred debt with the expectation that they'd be able to repay that debt by virtue of the jobs that their college and professional degrees would permit them to obtain. Graduates were already finding themselves severely disappointed (and severely in debt) well before the present economic crisis began, but the situation is now dramatically worse for those who find themselves graduating into an economy where opportunities are far and few between. Were they irresponsible to incur debt to attend college? Hardly, in my opinion, given that most young people are told that college or a professional degree is more than worth the debt incurred obtaining their degree (and until tuition began to rise dramatically in the last decade or so, going to college didn't require incurring so much debt.)

How difficult would it be to expand on programs that permit students to defer debt, or lower their interest rates, or get some measure of debt forgiveness in exchange for public service? I don't know. Not that difficult I would think, and maybe somebody should be looking into that.

Legislative Week in Review VIII

The House of Representatives voted 218-203 in favor of a $50 billion Iraq funding bill that would require that the U.S. initiate troop withdrawals within 30 days of its passage and agree to the goal of bringing home most soldiers and Marines by Dec. 15, 2008. It also requires that the president certify to Congress 15 days in advance that a unit being sent into combat is "fully mission capable" (though President Bush can waive that requirement) and that all government interrogators rely on the Army's field manual. The manual is based on Geneva Convention standards and was updated in 2006 to specifically prohibit the military from using aggressive interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding.

There was no real change in the vote margins since the last withdrawal bills, but Democratic leaders have stepped up their rhetoric. Both Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid say that they will not approve any funding bill without the timetable and Reid is threatening to force Republicans to actually filibuster the bill if they demand their usual 60-vote hurdle when it comes up again in January (as they did this week). Democrats are vowing not to be bullied, but we will see what happens early next year when the Pentagon's budget (which Congress approved and has been signed into law) can no longer be used to pay for the war.

The full House and the Senate Judiciary Commitee also voted for a version of the FISA update bill that does not include retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies. President Bush has said he will veto the bill without it. I say let him and then send him no bill if he doesn't relent, same with Iraq funding.

Harry Reid has said the Senate will hold "pro forma" sessions during the Thanksgiving recess, to prevent President Bush from recess appointing nominees such as his controversial surgeon general nominee, James Holsinger. Both the House and the Senate resume business the first week of December.

The House also voted for a bill that would tighten the nation’s mortgage regulations in response to the turmoil in the subprime lending market by bringing mortgage brokers — currently regulated on a state-by-state basis — under a nationwide licensing registry, establishing minimum standards for home loans and expanding certain limits on high-cost mortgages. It also would prohibit brokers from steering consumers to mortgages they are unlikely to be able to repay. It passed by a veto proof margin of 291-127. It now goes to the Senate, where a similar bill has been stalled for weeks. The House also passed other non-controversial bills that are listed here.

The House and Senate voted to re-authorize and expand to more children Head Start. Bush is expected to sign given the massive margins of passage in both chambers. The House Education and Labor Committee also approved, 44-0, a five-year reauthorization of the Higher Education Act that would boost student aid and help families compare the costs of different colleges. The bill is likely to go to the full House soon after the Thanksgiving break. The Senate passed its version by a 95-0 vote in July, and members in both chambers are eager to complete action on the measure.

Democrats are offering Bush a budget compromise in which they will split the difference between the amount of domestic spending Bush wants and what they want. Bush already vetoed a spending bill that includes increases for health, education and labor programs (many for the poor) and will veto the transportation-housing spending bill. There are not enough votes to override, so Harry Reid has said Democrats will "bundle" several of the spending bills together and the total would surpass Bush's request by $11 billion, half of the $22 billion more they had been seeking. In the meantime, Congress will approve more stopgap funding.

Lastly, consideration of the Senate version of the farm bill could be pushed beyond next year's elections after a cloture vote failed.

UPDATE: Before going on break, the Senate also, by voice vote, passed a 7-year extension of the government's post-9/11 terrorism risk insurance program which is a shorter time than the House version, a bill that would allow victims of online identity theft schemes to seek restitution from criminals, and a resolution urging an upcoming ASEAN summit to suspend Myanmar from the body.