According to Rumsfeld’s Rules, a list of the Defense Secretary’s own favorite sayings, “a person who is not criticized may not be doing very much.” In that case, Rumsfeld must feel pretty busy these days. As the Bush administration asks Congress for additional billions for Iraq, the Pentagon chief is feeling increasing heat from Congress over the mounting costs and casualties of the occupation.

Critics charge that he misled the public about pre-war intelligence, that he alienated allies and failed to adequately plan for Iraq’s reconstruction. But Rumsfeld also has his admirers, people who praise his leadership, and admire his dismissal of what’s politically correct. When the man in pursuit of the axis of evil, himself becomes the axis of upheaval, Donald Rumsfeld under fire.

Guests:

Vernon Loeb, staff writer, The Washington Post

Andrew Bacevich, Director of the Center for International Relations at Boston University

Ruth Wedgewood, professor of Law and Diplomacy at Johns Hopkins.

For three decades, the Twin Towers dominated the lower edge of Manhattan. 110 stories tall, they helped define a skyline, and a city. And perhaps more than any other architectural creation in the second half of the 20th century, the Twin Towers defined an idea.

Born during the age of space flight and lofty expectations for a post-war America, they reflected the American urge to aim higher. And soaring a quarter of a mile into the sky, they did just that. Back on earth, they were many things to many people. For the documentary film maker Ric Burns, they became what sealed their fate, the symbol of globalization. After their fall, Burns decided to find out how they came to be, as he calls them, the Center of the World.

Guests:

Ric Burns, Documentary filmmaker and Director of “The Center of the World;” Guy Tozzoli, President of The World Trade Centers Association.

In the run up to the war in Iraq, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder and French President Jacques Chirac made political hay of their anti-war positions. Each leader soared in popularity at home. In the U.S., those two leaders and their nations were re-classified as old Europe and relegated to a diplomatic dustbin.

But fast forward several months to George Bush delivering a message on American television for his foreign audience, and he’s saying that “we cannot let past differences interfere with present duties.” Now, as Germany and France consider their positions on a draft UN resolution seeking international assistance in Iraq, America is making nice. But once again, the nations seem some distance apart.

Guests:

Karsten Voigt, Coordinator for German-American Cooperation in the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany

Georges Le Guelte, director of research at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations in Paris.

Instability in Iraq, a shaky economy at home, and a yawning deficit, it’s a tough time to be president. Even so, no fewer than nine Democrats say they can do the job better than George Bush. Now, a tenth is standing in the wings, the as-yet undeclared General Wesley Clark.

The former Supreme Commander of NATO and Rhodes Scholar is the focus of two “Draft Wesley Clark for President” efforts. Some say the decorated veteran who shone as a soldier in Vietnam and as a general in Kosovo packs the military mettle the Democrats need for victory in 2004. Others say his shadow campaign’s measly war chest falls far short of the multi-millions needed to run for the White House. Ubiquitous as a military analyst but still untested as a candidate.

Guests:

Wesley Clark former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, and possible United States presidential candidate in 2004

A resignation. An assassination attempt. And three days that have dealt a major blow to the Roadmap for Peace. Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas resigns after a protracted power struggle with Yasser Arafat. A new man is proposed for the job. Ahmed Qurei, speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, and another long time colleague of Arafat, says he wants new guarantees from the West and from Israel that they’ll re-commit themselves to the road map for peace.

However, on this same weekend, Israeli forces bomb an apartment building wounding the spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, and send thousands of people into the streets of Gaza, calling for Israeli blood. New players, the same old problems, and still no progress on the Roadmap.

Guests:

James Bennet, New York Times correspondent in
Jerusalem

Ghassan al Khatib, Palestinian Labor Minister

Ofer Shelah, journalist, Yediot Ahronot

Ambassador Richard Murphy

When the lights went out across the Northeast last month, TV news cameras from New York to Cleveland stood ready to capture what seemed inevitable: urban dwellers setting fires, smashing shop windows, and making off with large appliances. But fears of widespread violence and looting proved unfounded. It’s been a similar story across the country.

Conditions seem ripe for higher crime: unemployment is up, social services are being cut, the economy is sagging, and large numbers of ex-convicts are back on the streets. But just last week the federal government reported that, across the country, crime has reached a 30-year low. Some say tough on crime policies and longer prison terms are the reason, others say it’s just the calm before a storm.

Guests:

Joseph McNamara, former chief of police, San Jose, Califonia, research fellow, Hoover Institution

Phil Cline, acting superintendant, Chicago Police Department

Kurt Timken, Gang Investigator with the El Monte, CA Police Department.

From the assembly lines of Detroit’s auto factories to the textile mills of rural North Carolina, factories across the country are shutting their doors. Jobs in the once booming manufacturing sector have disappeared. Close to 2.5 million of them, in the last two years. And they’ve gone to Mexico, to China and to India.

Many workers, who spent their entire lives on the line, earning good salaries and enjoying health benefits and pensions, are now out of work, and out of prospects. Economists will tell you those jobs aren’t coming back, but no one seems to agree on what, if anything, can be done to stop the bloodletting and to make sure that the manufacturing jobs that remain here, stay that way.

Guests:

Charles Saunders, President, Saunders Thread Company, Gastonia, North Carolina;
Barry Bluestone, Professor of Political Economy, and Director, Center for Urban and Regional Policy, Northeastern University;
Steve Dobbins, CEO, Carolina Mills, Maiden, North Carolina

Matthew Carter is both a master and a slave to the alphabet. For more than 40 years he has designed the letters for everything from Sports Illustrated magazine, The Boston Globe, Ma Bell’s phone book, to the font menu on your computer. Carter’s creations read like a “Who’s Who” of fonts.

He’s the artist behind names like Verdana, Helvetica Compressed, Miller, and Snell Roundhand. He shapes and crafts something that he calls “word space.” People read, Carter says, not by seeing individual letters, but by recognizing figures. And so those figures have to be easy to discern, possessing both integrity and synchronicity so they can link seamlessly into usable blocks of text. From the days of the steel punch to the Pentium 4 chip, we look at Matthew Carter’s Life of Letters

Guests:

Matthew Carter, one of the world’s preeminent typeface designers. His fonts are used in Sports Illustrated, The Boston Globe, and starting this month, the redesigned BusinessWeek Magazine.

Add to the cost and the chaos of post-combat Iraq a brand new buzzword: Cooperation. The American-led war left European allies and the United Nations in its dust. It then became an American occupation, with U.S. leaders saying we don’t want and we don’t need your help. The script has changed.

Bygones, bygones, Secretary of State Colin Powell said in a press conference yesterday. International consensus never looked so good. The truth is American coffers aren’t deep enough; American soldiers aren’t numerous enough, and George Bush, heading into an election year, isn’t so sure anymore that America can go it alone. Seizing the moment for Iraq’s security, sizing up the prospects for a multilateral force, and saving face at the United Nations.

Guests:

Robert Orr, Executive Director for Research, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government

Husain Haqqani, visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Dr. Waheguru Pal Sidhu, senior associate at the International Peace Academy in New York

Bulent Aliriza, Senior Associate and Director, Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Turkey Project

There’s little dispute that schizophrenia is the most devastating kind of mental illness. Typical symptoms include a patchwork of paranoia, hallucinations, isolation, and fear. Treatment is often a regimen of medication and hospitalization. While the disease continues to confound even the world’s top doctors, many in society seem to have made up their minds about it.

Popular myths and stereotypes portray people who suffer from the disease as violent. Uncontrollable. Unable to live a complete life. For a small minority, that’s true. But for most, the diagnosis is quite different. Joe Wklenkski is a graduate student at MIT in nuclear engineering. This fall he is settling into his classes, his room, and research schedule.

Guests:

Joe Wleklinski, MIT student

Stephan Heckers, Director of the Schizophrenia and Bipolar Program at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.