Time, June 18 The cover story makes the case for amnesty, the legalization of 12 million illegal immigrants who are “by their sheer numbers undeportable” and “too enmeshed in a healthy U.S. economy to be extracted.” The author concludes that “most of the 12 million are here to stay” and argues that legalizing them will not depress wages, undermine the rule of law, or add to the social-services burden. Furthermore, amnesty will allow educated illegal immigrants who have been relegated to menial jobs to contribute in more ways. “We infantilize undocumented workers by relegating them to second-class status, and then we chastise them for being dependent on the nanny state,” the article scoffs. … An article plugs Pixar’s upcoming effort Ratatouille, which “parades the brio and depth that set Pixar apart from and above other animation studios.” The film, which stars a rat gourmet chef, exemplifies Pixar’s artistic approach: “Pixar is always going to throw itself in the deep end and try to figure out a way to not drown.”—D.S.
Economist, June 9 A special report examines the career of Apple head Steve Jobs. With the launch of the new iPhone on June 29, Jobs “will have pioneered a third technological revolution,” after the original Macintosh computer and the iPod. Jobs has seen his share of “dramatic” career highs and lows, but as his business model has become more flexible—like when he made iTunes available to Windows users—Apple’s profits have risen. But even as the piece names Jobs an “archetypal pioneer” for Apple, it also warns that the company’s identity may be “dangerously intertwined with one man.”… An article chronicles the popularity of Indian movies in Britain. Around 20 Indian movies a year are filmed in Britain, the “biggest Bollywood market outside India.” British tourist spots now are cashing in on the Bollywood craze—even “Madame Tussaud’s waxworks museum has knocked up a set of Bollywood likenesses.” It remains to be seen, though, whether a burgeoning Western fan base will change the no-kissing rule in Bollywood films.— K.E.
New York Times Magazine, June 10 The cover article of the special “Money Issue” examines how antipoverty became the center of John Edwards’$2 2008 presidential bid. His campaign now seems like “little more than an excuse for him to talk about the issue with which he is now most closely identified … Americans living in poverty.” Edwards is finding his place among the three main viewpoints on economic inequality: trickle-down conservatives; moderate, redistributionist Democrats; and “pre-distributionists” who believe in using government to “divert money from the wealthiest Americans before they earn it.” But to be successful, Edwards needs a strategy beyond “an argument of conscience” to sell antipoverty to the American public. … An article looks at how to correct income inequality “without killing off the genie of American prosperity.” The vast gap between the incomes of poor and wealthy Americans is a relatively recent phenomenon. Washington has two options: “[I]t can change market outcomes or it can redistribute after the market results are in.”—D.S.
New York, June 11
The cover article looks at the “last remaining freak show in the United States”: the presidential race. Today, the race is “a contest between those who are fake and those who are not.” By that measure, Sens. Hillary Clinton, “simply a woman of purpose and reserve,” and Barack Obama, who is “smooth, collected, disciplined, in control,” fare well. But Sen. John McCain, who comes off as angry and irreverent, is terminally ill-fitted for a “full frontal view.”… Another article uncovers the story of toxic sludge trapped inside an aquifer beneath Brooklyn. The “hydrocarbon cocktail” of gasoline, fuel oil, and other toxic substances drained into the abandoned aquifer sitting below Greenpoint, Brooklyn, over the past century. Now, it’s at the center of a civil-action suit, one firm has estimated the damages at $58 billion. Locals, with the help of environmental heavyweight Erin Brockovich, * are putting the pressure on ExxonMobil to speed the massive cleanup of the sludge, which has started to leach into the surrounding ground.— A.B.
Radar, June/July 2007 The cover story examines the new generation of paparazzi. A few decades ago, celebrities faced “a relatively small rogue’s gallery of hard-drinking Hollywood bottom-feeders.” Today, many are “former gang members, illegal immigrants fresh from the slums of Sao Paulo, and ex-cons.” Because paps are paid by the photo, they shoot for quantity over quality, swarming their targets. Celebrities concerned about safety use security firms—“it’s not very politically correct to take much-needed manpower from either downtown L.A. or South Central to play bodyguard for overpaid actors.”… An investigation explores gang activity in the U.S. military. The Chicago-based Gangster Disciples, the largest gang in the Army, uses “the military as a training ground—like a Wharton School for gangbanging.” Lower entrance standards, instituted to boost enlistment numbers, have let in “thousands” of recruits with gang backgrounds, criminal records, and other shady histories. Gang-affiliated recruits pose a serious threat to military order: “When these dueling allegiances collide, more often than not, the gang wins out.”— K.E.
Newsweek, June 11 In the cover piece, Fareed Zakaria proposes that the United States “restore its place in the world” as an “open, confident America.” He warns against becoming a country “consumed by fear, worried about terrorists and rogue nations, Muslims and Mexicans, foreign companies and free trade, immigrants and international organizations” and rebuts the suggestion, floated by Republican presidential candidates, that the United States risks becoming complacent: “How would Giuliani really go on the offensive? Invade a couple of more countries?” He also cautions politicians against alienating America’s moderate Muslim population: “If leaders begin insinuating that the entire Muslim population be viewed with suspicion, that will change the community’s relationship to the United States.”… A piece examines the clash between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney regarding Middle East foreign policy. Cheney’s team has been challenging Rice’s approach to negotiating with Iran. But even former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton agrees that Rice’s diplomatic strategy is “riding high” in Washington.— C.B.
Weekly Standard, June 11 The cover article assesses the conflict in Afghanistan. Unlike Iraqis, Afghans, for the most part, welcome U.S. troops: A recent survey found just 25 percent of Afghans have “a somewhat or very unfavorable attitude toward the U.S. forces in Afghanistan.” Buoying this positive view is the fact that they “see even Afghan Taliban as foreigners and intruders.” But victory in Afghanistan requires financial investment and more troops. “We know how to win here. But we’re so shorthanded,” says one first lieutenant. Afghan police are also strapped: Taliban recruits earn far more than Afghan policemen, who haven’t even received their $70-a-month salaries in three months. … Executive Editor Fred Barnes notes the positives of the controversial new immigration bill. Barnes says it “gives conservatives a large chunk of what they’ve wanted for years,” like “significantly beefed-up” border security, a temporary worker program, and “the end of chain migration,” which granted residency to immigrants’ large extended families. Barnes calls detractors “crazy to oppose this once-in-a-lifetime chance to stop illegal immigration and enact sensible policies for legal immigration.”— T.B.
The New Yorker, June 11 and 18
A piece describes how the University of Texas at Austin’s literary archive became one of the best in the world. Its founder, Harry Huntt Ransom, began offering authors huge amounts for their work starting in the late 1950s. Now, the archive houses documents such as Woodward and Bernstein’s Watergate papers ($5 million) and Norman Mailer’s complete collection ($2.5 million), in addition to “Arthur Conan Doyle’s undershirts, Evelyn Waugh’s writing desk, a pair of beaded moccasins worn by D. H. Lawrence, Anne Sexton’s glasses, and Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Yiddish typewriter.”… An essay examines two new biographies of Hillary Clinton. A Woman in Charge, by Carl Bernstein, is largely sympathetic but illuminates Hillary’s missteps in laying out her failed health-care plan. The other, Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton, promises new dirt but mostly rehashes old reporting. As Clinton likes to say, “I may be the most famous woman you don’t really know.” These books won’t do much to change that.— C.B.
Correction, June 6, 2007: This article originally and incorrectly referred to Erin Brockovich as a lawyer. She is an environmental activist. (Return to the corrected sentence.)
