Week of April 16, 2007

Gonzales' introductory statement:"I shoulda been more precise… My misstatements were my mistakes, no one else's… I have been extremely forthcoming with information… not the actions of someone with something to hide…"

Responses to Committee Chairman Sen. Leahy (D-VT.):"I can only recall… I don't recall… I did not know… it appears… I was not responsible for… I have no recollection… Again, Senator, I was not responsible for compiling that… I don't recall a specific mention… It appears… as I recall… I don't recall Senator Dominici ever…That rationale was not in my mind, as I recall… Senator, that's an answer that I have to get back to you… Senator, I'd like to give you that information, but…"

Responses to Sen. Specter (R-PA.):"Senator, I don't want to quarrel with you… Based on what I thought, what I understood was going on… I believed that was ongoing… I don't recall… What I recall is… I don't recall whether Mr. Mercer presented me the numbers… Senator, I have no recollection about that, but I presume that that is true… Senator, I do recall having a conversation with Mr. Rove… Senator, you're talking about a series of events that occurred over possibly 700 days… putting it in context, Senator, I would say that my involvement was limited… Senator, of course, in hindsight…"

Some Bruneian youth say they remember little of the history lessons they received in secondary school, raising the need to instil love for national history among the young.

"It is imperative that Brunei's history be preserved," one young adult told The Brunei Times."Without our history, we are nothing. If tomorrow something comes along and wipes Brunei from the face of the earth, what will still be there to commemorate us or our achievements?"

Some of the young people that The Brunei Times spoke to said they felt the history of Brunei was"boring" or"drab" when compared to the history of some countries, thus, the disinterest.

"I believe, in life, you should always look forward. I'm not really interested in what's already happened," one student said. When some students were asked why they chose not to reflect on the past, one student said,"I found something very meaningful in a television show I was watching. To have happiness, one must live only in the present, with no thought of the future or the past... So if it were up to me, I would choose happiness."

Several teachers felt the challenge to make history lessons interesting for students. One of the teacher said, “We have to teach history the way it is, but maybe if we relate the current topic to what's happening in the present, it might interest them a little more."

Americans have gotten into a bad habit of believing that the outcome of every war is predictable--that wars are either short, decisive, and victorious, like Desert Storm, or long, painful, and futile like Vietnam. The truth is that the outcome of most wars remains in doubt until they are very nearly over. Until late 1864, it looked as though the Union might well lose the Civil War. Within a year, Lincoln had triumphed. The conflict in Iraq is central to our foreign policy, indeed to our well-being. Surely we must keep fighting to win as long as victory remains possible. And it is possible, although not certain, that we will win in Iraq. Right now, the signs are more hopeful than they have been in many months. It would be a tragedy for America and for Iraq to abandon the fight just as the possibility of success began to emerge.

Lawyers for two men charged with illegally ejecting two people from a speech by President Bush in 2005 are arguing that the president’s staff can lawfully remove anyone who expresses points of view different from his.