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November 22, 2024
 

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Bob Keefe
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jan 24, 2002
A case for campaign finance reform
WASHINGTON -- Controversy is raging about the Enron collapse. Is it a political story? Is it a criminal story? Is it a business story? Is it a story about personalities? The Enron story is all three. The real question is which category is the most important. and that all depends on your perspective....
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jan 3, 2002
A changed U.S. greets 2002
WASHINGTON -- Welcome to Year One of the time thereafter. If there is a constant in the commentaries on Sept. 11, it is that it was a day whose events changed the way we will live forever.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Dec 26, 2001
At last, Congress tackles election reform
WASHINGTON -- It was just a year ago last week that the Supreme Court elected George W. Bush our 43rd president. The mess of the elections in 2000, from the faulty voting machines in Florida to the long counts in western states (remember it took almost a month to declare a winner in the Senate election...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Dec 6, 2001
Bush scores high leadership marks
WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush continues to enjoy the support of the American people for his prosecution of the war against terrorism. His job rating on the war effort remains just under 90 percent, where it has been since it all began. The military successes in Afghanistan have quelled concerns...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Nov 24, 2001
U.S. civil liberties a needless war casualty
WASHINGTON -- Support for U.S. President George W. Bush and his handling of the war effort remains high, and the military success will help maintain this support level. Bush is testing his popular support regularly here at home as he pushes to implement his conservative legislative agenda, which is meeting...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Nov 8, 2001
Partisan politics heat up
WASHINGTON -- You can feel the change. It is not back to politics as usual -- pre-Sept. 11 variety -- but the partisan blood is flowing again in the body politic. In the spirit of accommodation that has marked the post-attack period, Congress has been passing major measures of great consequence on a...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Aug 29, 2001
A bearded Gore and the shrinking surplus
WASHINGTON -- At long last, Al Gore has reappeared! He is pursuing the political training school program that he had floated in a more full-blown way last spring. Al, sporting a full beard, is working with his fellow Tennessee loser, Republican presidential wannabe Lamar Alexander, training young people...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Aug 9, 2001
Times get tougher for Bush
WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush has now been in the Oval Office for a little more than one half year, and it has been the best of times and the worst of times for him.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jul 19, 2001
Campaign finance reform bill continues to dominate a divided U.S. Congress
This was "the week that was" for campaign finance reform. The stakes were high. The votes were close. You could cut the tension around the Capital with a knife. And when it was over, just like all the years in the recent past, there was no result. The only winner may well have been U.S. President George...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jul 5, 2001
Battle continues over U.S. health care
It is holiday time again as Congress takes its Independence Day break. Pauses in the legislative schedule tend to provide opportunities for deadlines, and this one has been no exception. Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the newly minted Majority Leader, had suggested that the break would...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jun 23, 2001
U.S. Democrats take control
Despite the confusion surrounding the changing of power in the Senate, things are still getting done in Washington. The Senate recently passed the education bill, a major item from the agenda of President George W. Bush, and sent it on to conference with the House of Representatives that had already...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jun 7, 2001
Jeffords bombshell overshadows tax bill
It has been interesting to watch the blame game explode in the week since U.S. Sen. James Jeffords decided to leave the Republican Party. In the immediate aftermath, there was a sense of disbelief, mixed with a bit of "we'll get a Democrat to switch and all will be well."
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
May 28, 2001
Time for Bush to test his healing powers
Washington is not in an area normally vulnerable to earthquakes, but on Tuesday, the earth began to shake all over town. The epicenter of the quake was up on Capitol Hill; specifically, in Suite 728 of the Hart Senate Office Building, the office of Sen. James Jeffords, the junior senator from Vermont....
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
May 23, 2001
Rookie president seizes the political initiative by zeroing in on a few core issues
Our first MBA president is managing the agenda of action in Washington in textbook fashion. Unlike his predecessor or his father, George W. Bush is limiting his exposure to the myriad issues waiting to be tackled and fights available to be fought. By this time in his first year, President Bill Clinton...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
May 10, 2001
High marks for Bush at home
It's 100 days and counting for U.S. President George W. Bush. So far, so good. His approval ratings are better than those of most of his predecessors at this stage. He survived his first international crisis nicely, achieving the return of the American aircrew who ditched their EP-3 surveillance plane...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Apr 19, 2001
Bush's mettle gets put to test
Chinese pilot Wang Wei gave U.S. President George W. Bush his first critical foreign-policy test. Wei's collision over the South China Sea with a Navy reconnaissance plane, which dropped 24 U.S. military personnel into the hands of the Chinese military on Hainan Island, provided an excellent course in...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Apr 12, 2001
Environment takes back seat to U.S. economic recovery
U.S. President George W. Bush continued his personal campaign to change previous U.S. policy two weeks ago by renouncing the nation's commitment to limit industrial emissions of carbon dioxide. He did it shortly after Environmental Protection Agency administrator Christine Todd Whitman had given the...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Mar 22, 2001
Bush rises while Mori falls
We are just past the halfway mark in the first 100 days of the term of U.S. President George W. Bush. How is he doing? How is he doing it? What is he changing?
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Mar 5, 2001
Bush works on tax cuts while Clinton dodges more controversy
WASHINGTON -- "Beauty and the Beast" was on television Monday night -- the movie, not the continuing news saga of our current president and the most recent former one. That show seems to be a never-ending saga.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Feb 22, 2001
Selling tax cuts to Congress
U.S. President George W. Bush continues his attempt to make friends and influence important constituencies. He has spent more time with the Congressional Black Caucus than with the Republican leadership. He has traveled to schools to promote his education priorities. He has been to small businesses explaining...
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

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