Dec. 10, 2007

--Last month, a federal judge in Canada ruled that the US had violated international conventions on torture and the rights of refugees. NYT A16

--Seven South American countries planned to found yesterday a development bank to demonstrate their joint independence from multilateral lending practices that some have blamed for economic crises. Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela will be founding members of Banco del Sur, or Bank of the South, an initiative of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. All of the countries except Paraguay are led by leftists. WSJ A14

--...regime change, it turns out, is infectious—a militarily transmittable disease, almost invariable fatal, so far, to any political party or head of government so careless of hygiene to have had intimate relations with the Bush Administration’s Mesopotamian adventure[: Spain, Italy, Tony Blair, Australia, Hungary, Ukraine, Norway, Slovakia] NEW YORKER, Dec. 10, 2007 Hertzberg

--Madison Avenue is taking you back with a skein of campaigns celebrating sights and sound s of [the ‘60s] ...What is most intriguing about the rend is that the ads present many of the contentious aspects of the ‘60s--=the protests, the hippies, the challenge to authority—in a positive, even romantic light. ... The approach is ... a far cry from the demonization of the decade that still pervades political advertising, as evidenced by recent commercials for Senator John McCain that attacked Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has a product of the ‘60s culture. NYT C6