The latest news on Dems in Selma, marriage decline, veterans health care, Iraq, Afghanistan, NAACP President resigns, Gordon Brown, Iran, Taxcredits for middle class, evangelicals and global warming, Republicans, nuclear weapons, foreign policy, and select Op-Eds.

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Iraq-Congress. Democrats making gains on new war resolution – “The Democratic-led Senate is moving closer to rewriting the measure that paved the way for President Bush to invade Iraq nearly four years ago.” Antiwar Caucus Wants to Be Heard Now– “though the members are united in their desire to bring American military involvement in Iraq to a speedy end, they are still debating the best way to do so. In that sense, they reflect the broader struggle among Democrats in Congress, who have been unable to coalesce around a single position on how strongly to confront President Bush over the war.”

Afghanistan. 16 Civilians Die as U.S. Troops Fire on Afghan Road– “American troops opened fire on a highway filled with civilian cars and bystanders on Sunday, American and Afghan officials said, in an incident that the Americans said left 16 civilians dead and 24 wounded after a suicide car bombing in eastern Afghanistan.”

Dems in Selma. Clinton, Obama Link Selma March to Present – “The two presidential candidates spoke at separate Sunday morning services and later joined in the ritual march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, led by Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who as a young civil rights leader was beaten on the bridge with other protesters on the morning of March 7, 1965,” Clinton and Obama Unite in Pleas to Blacks– “It was an extraordinary sight: the Clintons and Mr. Obama, two of them competitors for the Democratic presidential nomination, walking – with two black congressman, and sometimes others, in between them – down Martin Luther King Jr. Street to commemorate the footsteps of black demonstrators.” In Selma, a uniting of rivals – “Two of the Democratic Party’s leading presidential candidates came to an emotionally evocative touchstone of the civil rights movement seeking to strengthen their bonds with African-American voters and tie their campaigns to the cause’s unfinished work.”

NAACP President resigns. NAACP President Quits, Cites Conflicts – “Bruce S. Gordon, the former telecom executive who was named NAACP president in a surprise choice less than two years ago, has resigned after a long-running disagreement with the group’s 64-member board over how to steward the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization.” President Is Leaving N.A.A.C.P.– “In interviews, black leaders close to the organization said the reasons behind his departure stemmed from a dispute over its future role in a nation where the battlefront for civil rights has shifted. “We want it to be a social justice organization; he wanted it to be more of a social service organization,” said Julian Bond, the chairman of the N.A.A.C.P. board.”

Gordon Brown. Britain’s Gordon Brown: a change in tone for US – “Members of Parliament, political analysts, and people who know Mr. Brown say he will be a much different prime minister from Blair. His interests are Africa and trade justice rather than the Middle East; he was never enthusiastic about Iraq; he appears to have little in common with President Bush.”

Iran. Attack on Iran ‘would backfire’ – “Any military action against Iran’s atomic programme is likely to backfire and accelerate Tehran’s development of a nuclear bomb, a report today by a British former nuclear weapons scientist warns.”

Tax credits for middle class. Democrats seek tax perks for slices of middle class – “After years of complaining that Republicans were cluttering the tax code with provisions that enriched the wealthy, leading Democrats in Congress now want to add tax credits and deductions to benefit narrow groups of largely middle-class constituents.”

Marriage decline. Numbers Drop for the Married With Children – “Punctuating a fundamental change in American family life, married couples with children now occupy fewer than one in every four households — a share that has been slashed in half since 1960 and is the lowest ever recorded by the census. As marriage with children becomes an exception rather than the norm, social scientists say it is also becoming the self-selected province of the college-educated and the affluent. The working class and the poor, meanwhile, increasingly steer away from marriage, while living together and bearing children out of wedlock.”

Evangelicals and global warming. Evangelicals seek to oust leader over global warming – “More than two dozen evangelical leaders are seeking the ouster of Rev. Richard Cizik from the National Association of Evangelicals because of his “relentless campaign” against global warming.” Evangelical’s Focus on Climate Draws Fire of Christian Right – “Leaders of several conservative Christian groups have sent a letter urging the National Association of Evangelicals to force its policy director in Washington to stop speaking out on global warming.”

Republicans. Conservatives Look for a Winning Hand – “Each
year for more than three decades, a handful of icons of the American conservative movement have met for a friendly game of seven-card stud in a Washington hotel suite the night before the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC.” Romney and Giuliani Make Pitch to Conservatives – “Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York are both Republican presidential candidates who have been voted into office by largely Democratic electorates. They both have a history of taking liberal positions on social issues. And both are viewed warily by conservative Republicans who are integral to the party’s presidential nominating process.” Giuliani Has No Real Chance With GOP Voters . . . or Does He? – “The 2008 presidential campaign is just weeks old, but already an article of faith within the Republican Party — the belief that no politician who favors abortion rights and gay rights can win the GOP nomination — is being challenged by the candidacy of former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.”

Veterans health care. Army Secretary Ousted in Furor on Hospital Care– “Francis J. Harvey was forced to resign over the handling of revelations that wounded soldiers were receiving shabby and slow treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.” Army Secretary Ousted – “President Bush vowed to investigate allegations of substandard treatment of wounded soldiers as the administration scrambled to contain fallout from the scandal over squalid housing and bureaucratic delays in outpatient.” ‘It Is Just Not Walter Reed’ – “Stories of neglect and substandard care have flooded in from soldiers, their family members, veterans, doctors and nurses working inside the system. They describe depressing living conditions for outpatients at other military bases around the country.”

Nuclear weapons. Nuclear Warhead Plan Draws Opposition – “The selection of a basic design for what could become a new generation of U.S. nuclear warheads has drawn immediate opposition from some key members of Congress.” New Design for Warhead Is Awarded to Livermore– “The Bush administration announced the winner of a competition to design the nation’s first new nuclear weapon in nearly two decades.”

Foreign policy. Diplomacy yielding results for the US Progress on Iran, N. Korea cited – “Specialists on international relations, as well as current and former US officials, describe the developments as small victories in the decades-long diplomatic battle to prevent Iran and North Korea from building nuclear arsenals. Many credit a new spirit of compromise and greater US openness to work with both allies and adversaries.”

Op-Eds.

Candidates’ stories tell us what we’ve become (James Carroll, Boston Globe) – “The political contest is, above all, a competition of stories…”

Faith as a peacemaker (Henry G. Brinton, USA Today) – “Religion and violence are often seen as kindred souls – one always leads to the other. In fact, bloodshed is a sign of religion’s failures, not its successes. Faith can be an essential ingredient in ending the violence, inviting the peace.”