Word: reformer
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...bounty-hunting industry might not exist if the government were more competent. The state is supposed to collect child support free of charge. The welfare-reform act of 1996 tried to make the job easier by linking government databases and requiring firms to report new employees to child-support agencies. The Bush Administration made deadbeats an issue in July when it began arresting dozens of delinquent parents nationwide. But collection rates are still feeble. The amount of unpaid child support nearly doubled from 1996 to 2000, according to the latest available figures from the General Accounting Office, paving...
...secret. But one decision has so riled the Bush Administration that it is loudly airing an appeal. The court is a federal judicial panel that approves requests for wiretaps and searches in espionage and terrorism cases to ensure conformity to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a reform intended to keep the FBI from abusing its power and, say, targeting peaceful dissenters. The ruling, issued on May 17, was made public last week at the bipartisan behest of the Senate Judiciary Committee, worried about the perceived excesses of Bush's antiterror campaign. The court ruled that the Justice Department...
...president have long believed the only card he can play, short of calling for mass street protest, is to invoke the constitution. Senior advisors have told him the constitution gives him the power to respond when hard-liners use their control over unelected clerical state bodies to circumvent reforms. The timing of Khatami's challenge signals the extent to which tension has mounted in Tehran since President George W. Bush named Iran as part of an "axis of evil." Hardliners have exploited the security threat implied by Bush's rhetoric to further consolidate their hold on power - sentencing reformist legislators...
...first skirmish of the new battle will come when the parliament passes Khatami's bill, and it goes to the hard-line Guardian Council for approval. The hard-line clerics who dominate this unelected body have vetoed scores of pro-reform legislation in the past, but the President's bill would place them in a quandary: reject the legislation and risk an explosion of popular protest, or approve it and suffer the inevitable consequences. If their recent track record offers any guide, the Council may duck the confrontation by approving the bill, then seek to undermine its implementation via their...
...from a direct confrontation, appearing to value the stability of Iran's Islamic political system over a quick march to greater freedoms for its people. But his challenge to the religious authorities suggests he's finally absorbed a message some of his allies have promoted all along - that the reform movement can only succeed if it relies on its primary strength, which is its support on the streets. And on Wednesday he expressed confidence in the victory of his bill. "The Guardian Council can either say a bill is against Islam or the constitution," Khatami said in Tehran. "The bill...