News Roundup

Prince of the Citi Abu Dhabi’s bailout of Citi is sinking-in and some critics are distressed by potential consequences of Citi’s petrodollar assistance. The Telegraph explains the widespread reaction of collective relief about this deal is eschewing the darker reality that Citi's irresponsible behavior forced them to take this "desperate" course of action. The Wall Street Journal highlights the last time Abu Dhabi was a high-profile player in the US economy. General Fall-Out A question about the moral and practical propriety of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in the US Military sparked a cumbersome exchange between a retired general and the Republican candidates for President last night. Now the questioner, Retired Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr, is the object of media scrutiny. Although the General is denying that he "works" for the Clinton campaign, the Politico reports that he is "co-Chairman of Hillary Clinton's National Military Veterans group." At this point a couple questions are in play for the pundits: what’s the definition of “works” and is the essential content of the question affected by whether or not he “works” for any campaign? Leahy Again Marvels at the Power of His Own Subpoena Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) ruled that he rejects any White House interpretation of executive privilege that ensures that top-level advisors to President Bush (like Josh Bolton and Karl Rove) may refuse to appear before the Judiciary Committee for questioning. Leahy claims they may not decline the Committee's subpoenas and is deciding whether he will attempt to issue "contempt citations" to those White House figures. China at the WTO China agrees to eliminate several of its subsidies to domestic business sectors that the US and Mexico believe violate the terms of participation in the World Trade Organization. Fight the Power Iran’s Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry has pulled a Tipper Gore and banned rap music. Wonder what Mos Def thinks of this? Do your part to fight Islamic tyranny and burn (no, not in effigy, on your iTunes) and send copies of the new Wu-Tang record to our Persian brothers and sisters! Indie or Not? This week the nominees for the Independent Spirit Awards were announced and Todd Haynes’ astonishing I’m Not There garnered five nominations. Coincidentally, the 2008 film festival calendar year began with the unveiling of the next slate of Sundancers. The Stillborn God George Weigel's new review juxtaposes Mark Lilla's The Stillborn God with Rémi Brague's The Law of God. The two books maintain rival theses about how religion and politics have coexisted in the West. Lilla defends the notion that secularism is a distinct and alternative political theory that emerged as a reaction to the over-mingling of church and state. Brague, on the other hand, argues political secularism was a (perhaps unintended) consequence of a longstanding disagreement about the interpretation of the concept of divine law that had always existed WITHIN Western forms of theology. Two Interviews: Gay and Levy Peter Gay pitches his new primer on Modernism and Bernard-Henri Levy discusses his book Who Killed Daniel Pearl?, the problem of Pakistan, Sarkozy and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

English to Russian; Russian to English Recently two languages exchanged the products of gifted native writers. More Intelligent Life covered the translation and debut of Tom Stoppard’s Coast of Utopia trilogy in Moscow. James Wood, over at the New Yorker, explains the approaches to translating Tolstoy and describes the merits of the new Pevear and Volokhonsky version of War and Peace.