In "South Africa Plays Ball with Dictators," Marian L. Tupy, policy analyst at Cato's Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, and James Kirchick, assistant editor at the New Republic, write:

"Friends of Zimbabwe have long hoped for a peaceful transfer of power in that country. But in spite of losing the March 29 elections to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the regime of Robert Mugabe is clinging to power. Once again, the world's democracies look to Zimbabwe's southern neighbor to stem the growing violence against the Zimbabwean people unleashed by the ruling regime. South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, however, maintains that there is 'no crisis' in Zimbabwe. He has even ordered his U.N. representative to block debate about the situation in the Security Council, which South Africa currently chairs. South Africa has not only tolerated Mugabe, it has been complicit in keeping him in office. Indeed, far from facilitating peaceful change in Zimbabwe, South Africa's government has been complicit in violating the human rights and the democratically expressed will of Zimbabweans--which is why opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has called on Mbeki to relinquish his role as the Southern African Development Community's designated mediator of the Zimbabwean crisis."

On BBC's "HardTalk with Stephen Sakur," Cato senior fellow and former adviser to Vladimir Putin Andrei Illarionov said: "Putinism" would be characterized as "some level of nationalism, some level of aggressiveness, first of all directed against people inside the country, and to some extent, outside the country as well." 

When asked if Putinism might end with Putin's departure from the Kremlin, Illarionov responded: "I don't think so, because we are talking about the policy and philosophy of aggression against Russian people, against Russia's neighbors, against other countries in the world. It does not and should not be attributed to one particular person. This is the philosophy and ideology of a group of people, of the Corporation, of the organizations that exist in the country for a long period of time, almost for a century."

In the Free Trade Bulletin "Food Fight," Sallie James, trade policy analyst, writes:

"Facts on the demand side suggest that the recent price increases are more structural compared to the cyclical, supply-driven booms of the past. Government policies in developed countries that seek to support farmers by creating artificial demand for ethanol are an important culprit. In addition, economic growth in countries such as China, Brazil, and India has created a large and growing middle class that is acquiring western-style eating habits. The Chinese, for example, have almost doubled their consumption of meat from about 44 lbs. per capita in 1980 to 110 lbs. per capita today. That in turn has pushed up demand for feed grains, because one lb. of beef requires about 13 lbs. of grain to produce. Although high prices will encourage entrepreneurs to increase production, and infrastructure investment will help increase yields and correct the current market imbalance, government actions are impeding the efficient allocation of resources that would normally see lower prices."

In the Cato policy analysis "A Gift of Life Deserves Compensation: How to Increase Living Kidney Donation with Realistic Incentives," Arthur Matas writes: "The best way to increase the supply of kidneys without drastically changing the existing allocation system is to legalize a regulated system of compensation for living kidney donors. Such a system could be established using the infrastructure already in place for evaluating deceased donors and allocating their organs. The only change required to ease and probably even solve the organ shortage is some form of payment for donors.

"The potential practical and theoretical concerns with compensated donation can be overcome, and alternative proposals will not do enough to solve the shortage. Upon careful analysis, it is clear that the benefits of a regulated system of compensated donation (chiefly, increasing the number of donated kidneys) outweigh any risks."

In the Cato-at-Liberty blog post "Deborah Jeane Palfrey, Hounded to Death," Cato executive vice president David Boaz writes: "In many ways we are more free today than we were in previous decades. But new regulations and new technology are making it much easier to monitor our activities and to actually enforce both old and new laws. It's like a silent police state that we only realize when we're suddenly served with papers.

"It's time to repeal these antiquated laws against prostitution and to take a close look at the use and abuse of racketeering, money laundering, bank monitoring, and other intrusive laws. Someone needs to step forward and start that debate. Perhaps Governor Spitzer and Sen. David Vitter would be good candidates. In the meantime, may Deborah Jeane Palfrey rest in peace. And may her persecutors have many sleepless nights."

In the Cato-at-Liberty blog post "Wishful Thinking on Cellulosic Ethanol," Indur Goklany, author of the Cato book The Improving State of the World, writes: "If cellulosic ethanol proves to be as profitable as its backers hope, farmers will divert even more land and water to producing the cellulose instead of food. All this means we'll be more or less back to where we were. Food will once again be competing with fuel. And land and water will be diverted from the rest of nature to meet the human demand for fuel.

"Does this mean that biomass -- and farmers -- should play no role in helping us meet our energy needs? Not necessarily. If farmers can profitably grow fuel rather than food through their own efforts, so be it. But we shouldn't favor growing one over the other either through subsidies or indirectly through government mandates for so-called renewable fuels."

In "Food Fight," Sallie James, trade analyst with Cato's Center for Trade Policy Studies, writes:

"Primarily derived from corn in the United States, ethanol affects the price of corn directly by adding to demand, and other commodities indirectly by drawing cropland away from their production. Indeed, in the last year the supply of corn has increased 24 percent in the northern United States during 2007, primarily because of higher corn acreage (the highest since 1933). Ethanol capacity has risen by around 40 percent in the last year because of government incentives. As farmers shifted production to meet surging demand for ethanol, the acreage devoted to rice, cotton and soybeans has decreased by 3 percent, 18 percent, and 16 percent respectively."

In the Tech Knowledge column "Voter ID: A Tempest in a Teapot That Could Burn Us All," Jim Harper, Cato's director of information policy studies, writes: "The Constitution gives Congress power to regulate the elections that select its members and, to a lesser degree, the president. But Congress does not have to use that power to its fullest extent. States recognize their own interests in fair elections, and they should experiment among themselves with ways to secure elections while making sure the vote is available to all qualified people.

"There will never be a 'perfect' voting process. Striking the balance between security and access involves tradeoffs. Top-down attempts to perfect voting processes could be quite damaging to Americans' liberties."