A Heartening Trend: Strengthening its bid to enter the EU, Turkey's parliament has voted to abolish the death penalty.

While it was thought that last month's Supreme Court decisions and the recent state moratoriums might have renewed debate on capital punishment, little has been brought up of late. But let's see...Disregarding all moral arguments against the death penalty (which produce nothing but pointless platitudes from both sides), the rest of the world is quickly rendering capital punishment archaic. Just take a look at this list of countries still retaining the death penalty, and contrast it with the 62 countries that abolished it since 1976. It sure seems as though the US, the world's most developed country, is on the wrong list. Just looking at this list makes me want to drop the Medieval-era sentencing to gain a little national self-respect.

In Shocking News: Last night, half asleep yet in full control of the remote, I flipped to C-SPAN, which was airing the White House photo-op from earlier in the day. I awoke in a jolt as I realized something: Abdullah II, King of Jordan, speaks English more fluently than President Bush. And not just by a little bit. Check it out for yourself - it's embarrasing. For the first time in a while, I'm ashamed to be an American.

Useful Knowledge: With the economy as sickly and unpredictable as a two dollar hooker, the ignoramus in me was pleasantly surprised to come upon an article on the markets I could understand. Check it out to learn the vastly understated importance of the Standard & Poor's 500, and why many investors currently pawning their children have the S&P index to blame.

A New Majority: An interesting take on forthcoming electoral trends from this week's issue of The New Republic. While the authors may have misjudged the movement of "Reagan Democrats" back to their party as something other than what it was, they have some solid arguments pertaining to the voting trends among the assorted ethno-socio-economic groups in the country. Also, they construct a solid reiteration of why Karl Rove is, in fact, a delusional nut.

Some Reading Material: Take some time to read President Clinton's new essay, printed in the DLC Blueprint Magazine. While in a sense he expounds upon some of the themes from his speech at Berkeley last spring, Clinton is not redundant, and seems visionary in his scope. It's refreshing to know that we have Presidents who can thoughtfully ponder the questions that Clinton does, and unsettling that our current one would have to spend a lifetime to churn out a three page document so rich in philosophical reflection.

A Future Strategy: As the centrist Democratic Leadership Council meets in New York this week, the question of how to approach the party's biggest political opportunity this year has taken center stage. While non-Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton gave the most well received speech of the night, the aspiring candidates instead resorted to an intra-party struggle to strike a balance between the liberal populism of Al Gore's 2000 campaign, and the strategies of the DLC, President Clinton, and others in the party -- to be seen as the party of growth, and not one that is anti-business.

The Washington Post's E.J. Dionne has the great analysis -- it was not that Al Gore was fundamentally wrong to run on his "people vs. powerful" contention, but rather that he should have buttressed that argument with the fiscally disciplined accomplishments of Clinton/Gore. It is this balance that is so important to hammer into party ideology. The next Democratic President, whenever he or she is elected, will likely be a DLC member. He or she must not completely abandon the liberal Democratic base - it is this constituency that needs to be assumed in a general election. If Gore's populism scared away two million Nader voters, a fully centrist campaign in 2004 will cause a party uproar. The Democrats' feuding philosophies need to be synergized, and soon.

And Why Shouldn't He? President and Senator Clinton have filed in court to have their Whitewater legal tab picked up by the government, as per the Independent Counsel statute. The bill is placed somewhere between $1.75 and 6.5 million. Now, normally a non-story such as this would have the Clinton-haters screaming foul at their usual unbearable decibel. Yet, most have seemed quiet on the issue. Why? Because AMERICAN HERO Ronald Reagan, as well as his VP, Bush the First, did the exact same thing, vis-a-vis the Iran-Contra investigation. And as we know, speaking of Reagan in anything but the most complimentary of tones is blasphemy in the Republican world. So Clinton may just catch a break for once. I hope.

While Bill Clinton did made $9.2 million last year, and yes, never had the keenest instinct for gauging public reaction when filing for these kinds of things, the Clintons are, as usual, on sound legal ground. Besides, if there were any justice in this world, Kenneth Starr would have to pay for this whole debacle. The government has already paid $70 million of taxpayers money pursuing a dead-end - what else is there to be embarrassed about?