Sunday, February 26, 2012

PoliticsSyria: Minorities: T+m to abandon Assad and Baathist Party in order to negotiate and strike a deal with majority Sunnis






Syria’s civil war rages, 

as Alawites press on

by Daniel Brodie 02/21/2012 23:01


Being an unprotected minority in the Mideast is often a painful reality which the Alawites, Druse, Christians and Kurds know all too well.

opposition activists at funeral in Hala,By Reuters
Syria’s military is escalating its offensive on the country’s Sunni rebels; however, the violence in Syria is not likely to end in the near future, even if the Assad regime is ousted. To this point, Damascus has been unable to implement a strategy capable of ending the eleven-month Sunni uprising, likewise the opposition has yet to oust the regime from power.

Syria’s sectarian fault lines have been drawn for centuries and the opposition has been unsuccessful in diminishing the importance of such divisions. Most importantly, they failed to convince Assad’s forces to defect en mass, thus Syria’s military remains a cohesive, effective and motivated fighting force. Meanwhile, al-Qaida’s recent call for jihad against the Alawite regime will not help in persuading many minorities to abandon it.

Furthermore, Damascus has prepared for an internal Sunni uprising for over four decades and while many are quick to predict Assad’s demise, his ouster would not end the sectarian conflict in Syria. Ultimately, the conflict’s sectarian character along with several other important factors will lead to a long and bloody civil war in Syria.

The Alawites – a distinct religious sect – are the backbone of the Assad regime. As a consequence of various historical and political factors, they along with Syria’s other minorities determined that influence in the military offered the most favorable course to enhance their overall wellbeing in the country. Direct political and military influence is seen as the best way to offset the Sunni Arab majority. Some 80 percent of the officer positions in the military are held by Alawites, although they make up just 10% of the general population. The Sunnis, on the other hand, have been largely marginalized or absent from important positions within the armed forces and the government.

Opposing the regime is the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) which is composed of recent defectors from the country’s armed forces. However, most defectors are Sunnis who held lower-ranking positions or served in non-elite units. Their numbers are growing, but they are outgunned, outnumbered, decentralized and becoming increasingly divided. They have seized a few small and isolated cities, yet they mostly remain on the defensive.

The second major factor leading to a prolonged war of attrition is the government’s hesitance to use its entire arsenal. Assad’s year-long crackdown has claimed some 8,000 lives, yet surprisingly his repression has been carefully calibrated. To put this number into perspective, Hafez Assad – the current president’s deceased father – killed five times that number in the city of Hama alone during a swift operation to crush a 1982 Muslim Brotherhood rebellion. The operation lasted just 26 days.

Contrary to the UN-sanctioned intervention in Libya, Assad believes the international community is willing to tolerate the current level of violence in Syria and will not resort to direct military involvement. It is important to note that Assad has largely refrained from deploying Syria’s air force and missile arsenals. Unlike in 1982, Assad calculates that the heavy use of the air force and ballistic missiles would ultimately bring about foreign intervention and directly threaten the regime’s viability. Damascus is likely to utilize its strategic weaponry only after determining that the positive benefits of their usage would outweigh the negative.

On the diplomatic front, a UN resolution seeking to end the bloodshed was predictably vetoed by Moscow and Beijing. Nonetheless, hours before the vote and under intense media and foreign scrutiny, Assad launched his deadliest assault yet. The offensive in Homs, which is still ongoing, has killed thousands and was a clear message to the international community that the regime is far from finished.

Another contributing factor is that the Assad regime is not without its allies. Damascus continues to receive support from Russia, China, Iraq, Iran and Lebanon. The commander of Iran’s Al-Quds force is reportedly serving in Syria’s war-room and Hezbollah and Iranian forces are actively fighting alongside Assad’s forces. For the opposition, recently failed diplomatic initiatives are likely to compel Western and Sunni Arab states to begin a campaign of covert arming, funding and training of rebel forces. This would be a majordevelopment, but for the short term the opposition will remain capable of merely slowly bleeding Assad’s military.

With neither side able to achieve a total victory in the short term, the situation is likely to foment a continued breakdown of the Syrian state as a cohesive and fully functioning entity. Areas with a heavy minority presence will remain loyal to the ruling regime. While predominately Sunni areas opposed to Assad’s rule will continue attempts to establish beachheads for a further insurgency.

Besides organized fighting, communal warfare between rival sects is likely to increase in towns and cities of mixed populations. Moreover, should the security situation deteriorate to a point of no return, the Assad government could resort to withdrawing to its historical power base in the mountains of northwest Syria and attempt to reestablish an independent Alawite state there.

Most analysis regarding the Syrian war continues to gloss over the sectarian issues which are at the heart of this conflict. The country’s Sunnis have come too far and achieved too much to simply abandon their cause outright. Also, their defeat would subsequently put them at the mercy of an even more ruthless and dictatorial regime. With revolutionary fervor and Islamist sentiments gripping the region, they likely feel now is their best chance to remove the 40-plus year Alawite domination of Syria.

On the other side, being an unprotected minority in the Middle East is often a painful reality which the Alawites, Druse, Christians and Kurds know all too well. These groups have been protected by the Assad regime for decades and this is not something they take for granted. With that being considered, Alawites have legitimate fears that their entire existence is in jeopardy, and will continue their fight to protect it. With neither side willing to give in, Syrians are entrenching for a long and bloody civil war.

The writer is an intelligence analyst at Max-Security Solutions, an Israeli geopolitical risk-consulting firm.

PhilippinesEconomics: Downturn: Increases migrant and transient poverty




Church: 

Unemployment drives Pinoys' migration




Catholic bishops in the Philippines have taken notice of how joblessness drives many Filipinos "to look for jobs abroad."


The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines-Episcopal Commission on the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People (CBCP-ECMI) issued the statement in the observance of National Migrants' Sunday.


The information comes with a careful study that examines four factors of joblessness in this country of innumerable islands:  1.)  unemployment; 2.) underemployment; 3.) labor contractualizaion; and 4.) low wages.  The problems are so severe for so many people that together they function to prohibit the formation of the basics of work-community and the participation of individual workers in authentic work-communities recedes as a prospect never to be experienced in their life-t+mz.  So, speaking generally, "Filipinos are not encouraged to stay put" and, thus, "are taking opportunities to work abroad to improve their living conditions."  


The Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines says it "coud not wait for the government to create more jobs to meet the mounting number of new graduates each year who may join the ranks of the unemployed," some of them entering those ranks immediately upon graduating from h+school or university. Apparently, neither the nation's businesses nor the government can create sufficient new jobs each year fast enuff to absorb even the college-educated graduates who are looking for a first full-t+m job.  Yet, "the proportion of families considered consistently poor based on family and expenditure, has not significantly changed in the country."


This suggests an (un)employment stagnation, but one in which a downward pressure is exerted on income-levels becawz there's an over-supply of educated woud-be workers, who must compete against one another for suitable work, a limited number of jobs where such work and income-level can be obtained.  Unskilled manual labourers seek work at the lowest levels of the income-scale; this has a certain stability to it.  Certain employers depend on this stablity, so that when they need new hands, they have ease of communicating that need to a stable pool of ready-for work persons for the most difficult of tasks.  The problem, then, is the absorption of new workers ready for work after completion of their schooling (h+school, technical school,  and university).  This absorption year after year simply does not take place; the necessary new jobs have not been created.  So, the young new workers move about within the country (transcience) or look abroad for jobs for which their advanced education has prepared them.  North America and Australia, of course, has traditionally absorbed certain of these emerging cohorts each year; the h+ring abroad of graduating Filipina nurses is a true stereotype, subject to yearly variations in the actual scale of numbers of those involved.  Saudi Arabia is another case of virtual export/import of new Filipino labour from the h+school completers and non-completers. However, Saudiland is structurely hostile to the presence of the non-Muslim lower-class workers from the Philippines who seek jobs in competition especially with numerically larger levels of job-seekers from India, in particular.  


The Filipino/a diaspora also has the problem of culture shock, which in Saudi Arabia includes the repression especially of Christians in the workforce as a result of their being imported into this Arab countryt's severe restrictions on religous expression.  Boredom is a constant companion of Filipinos/as in these situations, and religous gathering and activities are a major way in which displaced workers can overcome to some extent the conditions in which they not only work, but more broadly work, 


EconoMix, refwrite Frontpage economics and business columnist
Resource:  Manila Bulletin via Yahoo! News Philippines (Feb25,2k12)



Saturday, February 25, 2012

EconomicsUK: Squibs from FT newsletters: Greek austerity, ,

News squibs with URLs ("teasers," a form of advertizing) from a helpful variety of Financial Times (London UK) email newsletters.  You can't beat FT for robust clear wr+ting that is quintessentially current, on the panoply of economics and business news.  FT is a paid subscription online resource, it's emails are free and, well, squibby.

EconoMix, refWrite Frontpage columnist for economics and business

refWrite Frontpage editor




FT - Exclusive Comment

G20 must protect the IMF from Europe
At this weekend’s G20 meeting, European countries are likely to press for an increase in the International Monetary Fund’s resources as a means to bolster the firewalls against the eurozone debt crisis. The other G20 members must resist such pressure until Europe starts showing more signs that it's getting its act together.
http://link.ft.com/r/LVA6WW/5V9L2G/XUPEW/1673X0/R3ZNTH/7V/h?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=24 

F T - UK Homepage
Athens told to change spending and taxes
Reforms are price Greece has agreed to obtain a €130bn bail-out and avoid default that Athens feared would throw society into turmoilhttp://link.ft.com/r/4RNQTT/IIBVZU/ZL19K/B5E8U1/GDT5KR/QR/h?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=23

F T - Comment
Europe says goodbye to solidarity
Many Europeans do not believe Athens will keep its promises; many Greeks think austerity is calculated to punish, writes Philip Stephenshttp://link.ft.com/r/4RNQTT/IIBVZU/ZL19K/B5E8U1/U1MFPI/QR/h?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=23

F T - Companies
German bank chief hits at Greek debt deal
Lenders in France, Germany, the UK and Belgium report billions in losses in the fourth quarter after writing down sovereign bond holdingshttp://link.ft.com/r/4RNQTT/IIBVZU/ZL19K/B5E8U1/ZGK1HD/QR/h?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=23
F T - World
Madrid presses EU to ease deficit targets
The Spanish economy is forecast to contract 1 per cent, compared with a prediction three months ago of 0.7 per cent growthhttp://link.ft.com/r/4RNQTT/IIBVZU/ZL19K/B5E8U1/30EB6F/QR/h?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=23
Blueprint for China to open up markets
People’s Bank of China outlines three-phase plan to speed up reform for economy’s long-term growth prospectshttp://link.ft.com/r/4RNQTT/IIBVZU/ZL19K/B5E8U1/EX17WD/QR/h?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=23

F T - Exclusive
Osborne rules out cuts to fuel duty
George Osborne has ruled out any further duty cuts for motorists in next month’s Budget, a move that risks a major confrontation with drivers and hauliers who claim record pump prices are hitting families and holding back the economy
http://link.ft.com/r/ZE9K33/WT4JLO/3GBFE/HYFZHK/JE8I8H/UP/h?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=24 

Financial Times - Companies
Apple yields to governance reform call
US group, which faced pressure from US fund Calpers, is to adopt a policy that any director not receiving majority shareholder support must resignhttp://link.ft.com/r/4RNQTT/IIBVZU/ZL19K/B5E8U1/ORCEJ6/QR/h?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=23



Asian shares rise on upbeat US and Europe data
The region’s stocks drifted higher as investors took heart from improved US jobs numbers and an increase in Germany’s business confidence indexhttp://link.ft.com/r/4RNQTT/IIBVZU/ZL19K/B5E8U1/SPZJNY/QR/h?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=23

Thursday, February 23, 2012

PoliticsFrance: Presidential Campaigns: Frontrunners in marathon toward April 22 first round

The President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, is campaigning as tho his hair were afire.  Despite his experience and t+m at the helm, his bid for a new term under the party banner of the UMP (Union pour  un Mouvement Populaire = Union for a Popular Movement, to which are allied a number of micro-parties).  The votes will occur presumably in two rounds — the first on April 22, the second on May 6 for a run-off vote if necessary.  And it seems a second ballot will indeed be necessary.

Monsieur le Président Sarkozy is up against the Socialist gladhander François Hollande.  The Parti Socialiste's "first secretary" (leader) has been daubed "Monsieur petites blagues" (Mister Little Jokes) by Sarkozy, due to Hollande's recent book Les meilleurs blagues de François Hollande.  Undoubtedly, the touché has something to do with one of Hollande's "little jokes" in the book.  "What is a sardine?  A whale that has endured five years of Sarkozysme."  Sarkozy-ism.  France as a sardine that once was a whale (Napoleon)?

Sarkozy has changed the precious tone of anti-Sarkozysme, induced by Hollande into and upon the campaign up to this point, by blasting Hollande as an Obama-think-al+k wild spender unafraid of off-handedly incurring a crippling national debt, burdening the next generation, and in danger of reducing France to the Greek model of financial and social disaster.  Hollande pretends there is no ongoing financial crisis in Europe.  And he mimics Obama's moves, looking very much the marionette.  "Two days after US President Barack Obama put tax reform at the heart of his re-election campaign, France's Socialiste nominee François Hollande pledged to raise levies on banks, big firms and the rich to plow the country out of debt."  He uses the same rhetorical ploys as the American President — for instance, the Warren Buffet manoeuvre whose secretary allegedly pays more taxes than he does — but, of course, he pays only Capital Gains Tax on his billion dollars investments, while Debbie Bosanek pays personal income tax l+k most of us.  By the way, Debbie appeared alongside the First Lady when Prez Obama rolled out the dubious comparison, while just two days later, "her case was taken up by ... François Hollande" (First Obama, now Hollande stresses fiscal fairness [Jan28,3k12]).  It seems François is Barack's running mate.  "The Obama brand ... remains hugely fashionable in European countries starved of politicians with an ability to capture the public's imagination."

But before Sarkozy can concentrate exclusively on Hollande's gentilhomme-socialism of the PS (one of many socialist, communist, trotskyist, and left-anarchist political entitites in France), first the President must steal a chunk of votes by protest voters, ballots that may be squandered on the Front National party on the clearly r+twing end of the French political-partyt spectrum.  The Front is led now by the redoubtable Marine Le Pen.

On the other hand, Sarkozy must contend also with the popularity of François Bayrou's MoDem (Mouvement Democratique): "Centrist politician Francois Bayrou is more popular than his rivals for the French presidency a poll showed on Monday, suggesting he could make a surge similar to 2007 when he almost squeezed into a two-candidate runoff," says a Reuters report (Jan17,2k12).


— Politicarp


————————————————————————————
The Telegraph, London UK (Feb19,2k12) article by Henry Samuel in Marseille
Also: The Guardian, London UK (Feb19,2k12) by Angelique Chrisafis, Marseille
Don't miss: France 24: Candidate endorsements enrage small parties, again (Jan24,2k12) by Joseph Bamat
— Samuel's article reposted here with refWrite comment by Politicarp,
refWrite Frontpage politics columnist
general editor, refWrite
————————————————————————————


Nicolas Sarkozy styles himself 

as man of the people

Nicolas Sarkozy styled himself as the candidate of the people yesterday as he told 12,000 supporters he kept France strong by averting economic "catastrophe," at his first major rally.



Unable to all squeeze into the 8,000-capacity hall, thousands of sympathisers had to watch the hour-long speech from giant screens outside as Mr Sarkozy's UMP party put on a show of force in Marseille, France's biggest city run by the Right.
A sea of tricolor flags, a blockbuster-style campaign anthem and the presence of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy – attending her first ever campaign rally – were designed to help the incumbent belie polls predicting [Sarkozy's] defeat [by] Socialist rival François Hollande in elections beginning April 22.
"I have come to speak to the people of France," he thundered, repeating that he had "succeeded in avoiding (economic) catastrophe" and his reforms had been "masked by the crisis".
Anyone seeking proof that France was not as badly hit as others should ask a "Greek worker" or an "Italian pensioner," he said.
"To downplay the crisis is not only dishonest, it is dangerous," he said – clearly accusing Mr Hollande of doing so. "To tell the French: sleep easy, there is no crisis, there is no risk, is to play with the future of the French."


Mr Sarkozy backs an EU fiscal pact drawn up with Germany's Angela Merkel on tightening budgetary austerity rules. Mr Hollande wants to relax and amend it to place the focus more on growth.
With 63 days to go before round one, the two mainstream candidates have begun to widen their advance on the remaining contenders.
A focus on traditional conservative values and a promise of handing power to the people to circumvent the "elites" through referendums on welfare and immigration has helped Mr Sarkozy pull out of striking range of Marine Le Pen, the far-Right National Front candidate. He is now between seven to 11 points clear.
But it has done little to dent the lead of Mr Hollande, despite a difficult week for the Socialist – accused of doublespeak by attacking unregulated "finance" while seemingly placating the City of London.
Mr Sarkozy on Sunday warned of the dangers of picking an adversary who "pretends to be Thatcher in London and Mitterrand in Paris", claiming the Socialists had backtracked on a range of issues from immigration to returning the official retirement age to 60.
His camp is hoping a "carpet bomb campaign" in which he injects new ideas and publicity stunts on a daily basis will allow him to dictate the agenda, and divorce "Sarkozysme" – his politics – from "Sarkozy" the man.
"It's all about storytelling," he told the Daily Telegraph and other French journalists as he opened what he insisted were modest campaign headquarters in Paris on Saturday.
New proposals on Sunday included reducing the number of MPs in the National Assembly and adding a dose of proportional representation.
Despite the cheers and the full house, there was nothing like the fervour of the early stages of Mr Sarkozy's 2007 electoral campaign. The most heartfelt cheers came at the end, when Mr Sarkozy cried "help me...succeed for France".
Speaking afterwards, militants were anything but wildly confident. Sébastien, a UMP youth member, said: "Here it is easy to convince people as it's preaching to the converted, but when it comes to convincing the whole of France, that's another ball game. "
Jacqueline, an estate agent in Marseille, 50, said: "It will be very difficult. He's the best but it will be very tough."
The starting gun for the Sarkozy campaign sounded last Wednesday when he formally announced his candidacy for a second term, followed by a provincial rally in Annecy, in which he accused Mr Hollande of "lying morning to night".
Clearly stunned by the virulence of the language, Mr Hollande's campaign has appeared to lose momentum. But the Socialist nicknamed Mr Normal said he would not be reduced to "street fighting" with a "brutal and inconsistent" candidate.
"The only referendum is the presidential election and I know the question: 'Do you want to continue with the outgoing President?," he asked.
Mr Sarkozy received surprise support on Sunday from Claude Allègre, a former Socialist education minister, who praised his "great qualities in foreign policy and Europe" which would prevent France becoming the new Greece or Italy.
Mr Hollande, however, was "not up to the job".
"(He) constantly changes his mind. If he's elected we'll have Chirac II in power," he said.
Stuck with the nickname of "President of the rich", Mr Sarkozy is trying to recast himself as a man of the people, the underdog which the "system" – the media, pollsters and the Left – want to evict.
"I won't be the candidate of a small elite against the people," he said.
His strategy has infuriated Ms Le Pen, the self-styled "candidate of popular revolt", who implored her supporters not to heed the Sarkozy siren as they did in 2007.
"The President of the rich, the little candidate of the fat cats, the bling-bling president would now suddenly be the candidate of the people?," she said in a presidential convention on Saturday in Lille.
"Only imbeciles would be taken in by such a U-turn."

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

PoliticsRussia: Presidential candidate: Mikhail Prokhorov comes from new business elite


Russian Presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov left the gilded halls of extreme business success, a captain of industry he, to enter the fray of Russian electoral politics.  From his success in the mining industry, Prokhorov, has diversified his portfolio (as Wall Street woud term it), bringing into his campaign regional bases where his enterprises have personnel and local clout, as well as public relations acumen.  His organization knows how to advertise (TV, radio, print, maybe billboards and other s+nage).  He doesn't attack Russia's leading citizen and public office-holder, Vladimir Putin.  Now, Putin was once Russia's president, naming his colleague Dmitry Medvedev to be prime minister, and then due to constitutional requirements when Medvedev succeeded Putin as president, Putin was named prime minister by the same colleague and now Putin is completing his term in the latter office, only to turn around to run again constitutionally to become president again).

This is what Prokhorov is up against in making his Presidential bid.  Many both at home and abroad are rooting for the man (me too!); but the new factor in Russian politics has as yet only a little bit above 5% of the voters who support.  He is a long-distance runner, and something of a "dark horse."

-- Politicarp, refWrite Frontpage politics columnist

For Russia, a New Kind 

of Presidential Candidate: 

a Billionaire


photo: James Hill, NYT

"People come to power not to work for us, the people, but to make money on us. I don't need to make money," said Mikhail D. Prokhorov, a Russian billionaire who's running for president.




SOCHI, Russia — The scene at a hotel conference room here could have sprung whole from a daydream by Donald Trump. Hundreds of young people milled about, buzzing with praise and admiration for a billionaire who decided to run for president.
World Twitter Logo.

Connect With NYT on Twitter

Follow@nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines.
“Oh, he is such a successful man,” Alyona S. Rudakov, who is 22, gushed about the Russian businessmanMikhail D. Prokhorov, who this winter became the first of the post-Soviet set of ultrawealthy financiers to run for president.
Latching on to one of the themes of Mr. Prokhorov’s campaign, she asked, “Why shouldn’t we let him try, on a larger scale, what he has already achieved at his corporation?”

———————————————————————————
New York Times (Feb20,2k12)
— NYT article intro reposted here with refWrite comment by Politicarp, refWrite Frontpage political columnist
general editor, refWrite Frontpage

-----------------------------------------------------------
In another country, Mr. Prokhorov’s presidential campaign might appear little more than a lark, one of the periodic efforts by rich people with political aspirations to translate one kind of success into another. But his campaign is, improbably, gaining momentum in a way that speaks to the state of Russian politics — in particular, the extraordinary hunger for a fresh face in a small but distinct part of the electorate.
Still, Russia poses particular challenges for his candidacy. It does not help, for example, that Mr. Prokhorov’s wealth, from running a mining company, is directly tied to the natural resources that a large part of the electorate believes were stolen from them in the 1990s.
Or that in Russia’s still tightly controlled political system, much debate takes place over whether he is or is not in the pocket of the very autocrat he is running against, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin.
Read more ... of this informative article in New York Times ...

PoliticsUSA: Contraceptive Mandate: Evokes growing chorus of religious dissent, rejection



Religious Freedom concern 


about Obama-Sibelius


contraceptive mandate 


keeps growing 


President Obama's February 10th press conference and other actions by 
his administration satisfied the conscience concerns of some religious 
leaders and organizations but only increased the concerns of many others.

In an "interim final rule" issued last summer, the administration had decided 

to carve out only a very narrow exemption to its requirement that all health 
insurance plans must cover, without co-pays, contraceptives, abortion-
inducing contraceptives, sterilization, and reproductive counseling and 
education.  Churches would be exempted, the administration said, but not 
parachurches — because religious organizations that serve more than only 
fellow believers and that offer more than "inculcation in religious values" 
do not fit the administration's narrow definition of a "religious employer."  
When, on January 20, HHS Secretary Sebelius said that the administration 
was sticking with this narrow exemption despite all of the criticism, the 
uproar dramatically escalated, including loud protests from many liberal 
Catholic allies of the administration. 

——————————————————————
Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance (IRFA)
eNews for Faith-Based Organizations email newsletter (Feb21,2k12)
Stanley Carlson=Thies, editor

IRFA article reposted here by Politicarp
refWrite Frontpage politics columnist


editor, refWrite Frontpage
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

On February 10, the administration took several actions in response to the furor.  

Without changing anything, it finalized the "interim final rule" with its narrow 
exemption--it is now federal law.  Only churches are exempted from the mandate
 (churches with significant community-service programs might not be, however).

What about parachurch organizations--religious colleges and schools, faith-based 

drug treatment programs, crisis pregnancy centers, and all the wide variety of 
community-serving religious organizations?  The administration said that faith-
based service organizations whose insurance plans currently do not, for religious 
reasons, pay for contraceptives would be able to maintain that exclusion for a year, notwithstanding that the mandate comes into effect for health plans that have a start 
date of August 1, 2012, or later.

And the administration promised to developed a new, separate, regulation for 

parachurch organizations concerned about the contraceptive mandate.  This is to be 
done over the next year (it is not cynical to imagine that the process will not start 
until after the November elections).  Parachurch organizations will not get the 
complete exemption that churches have received. Instead, the President has 
promised what many (even supporters) have called a "fig leaf":  the requirement to 
provide free contraceptives will be transferred from the parachurch organizations to 
their insurance companies, which will notify the employees of this free benefit and 
also will be required (in theory) to absorb all costs of the birth control drugs, 
procedures, and education.  (For more detail, see the story on IRFA's website.)

Many press reports and some religious leaders have hailed this as a great compromise 

that, as the President claims, satisfies both the requirement to respect religious freedom 
and his administration's deep commitment to ensure easy and widespread access to 
birth control.  Any opposition must therefore be due to a hatred of (take your choice):  
the President, expanded access to health care, women, birth control.

A wiser approach is to listen carefully to the growing chorus of serious voices that 

decry the purported compromise as not a real solution for the religious freedom 
problem.  If the government insists on making birth control more easily accessible, it 
must find some other way to accomplish its purpose.

Notable developments since the announcement of the grand compromise:

Feb. 16 hearing of the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, 

featuring a Catholic, a Jewish, and several Protestant religious leaders, and also representatives from five religious colleges (2 Catholic, 3 Protestant).  Video and 
written statements are available here. See also the analysis by Joshua Good, 
"Religious Liberty, The Contraceptives Mandate, and Civility," Patheos.com
Feb. 21.

Lawsuits continue to be filed against the federal government.  Suits have now been 

filed by Belmont Abbey College (Catholic), Colorado Christian University 
(Protestant), EWTN (Catholic television network), Priests for Life (Catholic), 
Louisiana College (Protestant), and Geneva College (Protestant).

All of the 181 US Catholic bishops have spoken out against the mandate.

Catholic Charities USA has warned against "mischaracterizations" of its position in 

the media, denying that it has accepted the President's compromise.

A growing number of other Catholic institutions have also criticized the supposed
accommodation.

A long list of scholars and leaders from many faiths (over 300 and counting) has 

signed a letter of protest initiated by Mary Ann Glendon, John Garvey, Robert 
George, Carter Snead, and Yuval Levin.

Family Research Council released yesterday a letter of protest signed by more than 

2,500 pastors and evangelical leaders.

Further ReadingTerry Mattingly, "Frame game:  Mere politics?  Just birth 

control? " GetReligion.org, Feb. 12.

N.C. Aizenman and Lena H. Sun, "Contraceptive rules remain in flux ," Washington 

Post, Feb. 20 (although many states have their own contraceptive mandates, religious organizations can find ways to avoid violating their convictions; the federal mandate 
will eliminate these escapes)

Pew Forum, "Public Divided Over Birth Control Insurance Mandate," Feb. 14.

Maggie Karner, "Where the Women Were During the House Contraception 

Mandate Hearing:  The effort to tarnish religious freedom concerns as sexism is clever 
but wrong," ChristianityToday.com, Feb. 17.

Michael Stokes Paulsen, "Obama's Contraception Cram-down:  The Pork Precedent,

"Public Discourse, Feb. 21.

Michael Gerson, "Clarifying the Basics of Religious Freedom," Capital Commentary

Feb. 17.

"Birth Control Mandate Is About Religious Freedom, Scholar Says," 

ChristianPost.com, Feb. 16 (interview with Stephen Monsma).

Melissa Rogers, "Honoring Religious Objections and Access to Contraceptive Coverage,"HuffingtonPost.com, Feb. 17.  ("It is not the government's job to try to 

determine what is the 'right' understanding of a faith; instead, its job is to assess whether 
the faith practice is sincere and the burden on it is substantial. Having already 
demonstrated an interest in accommodating spiritual obligations, the administration can 
and should consider different understandings of those obligations.")