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Cato Daily Dispatch for May 10, 2004

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(Links to outside sources were active as of the date of this dispatch; however, not all news sources maintain links to current stories indefinitely. Some links also may require registration.)

Bush Facing Complaints from Conservatives
EU Offers to Eliminate Farm Export Subsidies
Concealed-Carry Law Challenged in Utah

Bush Facing Complaints from Conservatives

"After three years of sweeping actions in both foreign and domestic affairs, the Bush administration is facing complaints from the conservative intelligentsia that it has lost its ability to produce fresh policies," the Washington Post reports.

"The centerpiece of President Bush's foreign policy -- the effort to transform Iraq into a peaceful democracy -- has been undermined by a deadly insurrection and broadcast photos of brutality by U.S. prison guards. On the domestic side, conservatives and former administration officials say the White House policy apparatus is moribund, with policies driven by political expediency or ideological pressure rather than by facts and expertise."

In "Righteous Anger: The Conservative Case Against George W. Bush," Senior Fellow Doug Bandow writes: "Despite occasional exceptions, the Bush administration, backed by the Republican-controlled Congress, has been promoting larger government at almost every turn. Its spending policies have been irresponsible, and its trade strategies have been destructive. The president has been quite willing to sell out the national interest for perceived political gain, whether the votes sought are from seniors or farmers. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 encouraged the administration to push into law civil-liberties restrictions that should worry anyone, whether they are wielded by a Bush or a Clinton administration."

EU Offers to Eliminate Farm Export Subsidies

"The European Union will today offer to eliminate its agricultural export subsidies and soften its demands for controversial new trade rules in an attempt to revive progress in the Doha world-trade round," the Financial Times reports.

"The offer, in a letter to trade ministers from all 148 World Trade Organisation members, is intended to show that the EU is committed to pushing ahead with the stalled round and is willing to take a more flexible stance."

In "Whither the WTO? A Progress Report on the Doha Round," Razeen Sally, associate professor at the London School of Economics, writes: "For the new round to succeed, the major players, the United States and the EU, must contain domestic political difficulties, defuse bilateral conflicts, and co-operate intensively. A Bush administration leading from the front, notwithstanding protectionist blemishes at home, must forge issue-based and across-the-board alliances with market-access-oriented WTO members, especially within the developing world. Only then will the WTO head in the right direction."

Concealed-Carry Law Challenged in Utah

"A small town called Virgin, Utah once passed a law requiring that all households have a firearm. Here, an American with a concealed-weapons permit from any state can carry a handgun into a day-care center or an elementary school, and residents once protested a speech by Vice President Dick Cheney because they weren't allowed to bring their weapons," the Christian Science Monitor reports.

"Not surprisingly, Utah again took a strong Second Amendment stand this spring, overthrowing a 30-year University of Utah policy that banned concealed weapons on campus. But in a twist, 'the U' is fighting back."

In "Fighting Back: Crime, Self-Defense, and the Right to Carry a Handgun," attorney Jeffrey Snyder writes that concealed-carry laws have actually reduced violent crimes.

"Concealed-carry reform," writes Snyder, "reaffirms the basic idea that citizens have the right to defend themselves against criminal attack. And since criminals can strike almost anywhere at any time, the last thing government ought to be doing is stripping citizens of the most effective means of defending themselves."

Jonathan Block, editor, jblock@cato.org