Facts & Arts

Articles

Piracy and Prosecution: Ringing in Kim Dotcom

by Binoy Kampmark Added 26.01.2012

Like money for jam, journalists have found their demon figure, their publicity machine, in the form of anti-copyright maestro Kim Dotcom. He is a figure of capacious girth with a string of white collar crimes that would make some blush and...

Syrian Snapshot I: A View From the Capital

by Sharmine Narwani Added 25.01.2012

People pray next to the coffins of people killed in explosion in the Maidan district of Damascus on Friday, at al-Hasan mosque in Damascus (photo: SANA ) Crossing over the Lebanese border into Syria was anticlimactic. It was the second week of...

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Imperatives and Choises

by Alon Ben-Mei Added 18.01.2012

For more than two decades I have been involved as a researcher, writer and as a back-channel interlocutor in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The question that has puzzled me as well as the multitude of observers, researchers and even those...

Why the Bain Capital Controversy is So Damaging to GOP Chances this Fall

by Robert Creamer Added 18.01.2012

The last few weeks of the Republican Presidential road show has been dominated by discussion of Mitt Romney's career as head of a Wall Street private equity firm - Bain Capital. Most people who enter politics have some previous career in the...

Predicting the Presidential Election, 2012

by James J. Zogby Added 10.01.2012

Amidst all the fuss about President Obama's sagging poll numbers, the struggling U.S. economy, and "who's up and who's down" in the Republican presidential primary contest, American University Professor Allan Lichtman has issued his "sure fire"...

The Settlers' Movement is a Threat to Peace and Israel's Existence

by Alon Ben-Meir Added 09.01.2012

The attack of hard-line Jewish settlers on an Israeli military base in the West Bank must not be seen as a passing incident that can simply be eradicated by punishing the perpetrators, as Prime Minister Netanyahu said in the Israeli Parliament....

Iowa Results Bad News for GOP

by Robert Creamer Added 05.01.2012

To maximize their odds of reclaiming their hold on the White House, the Republican establishment believes they need two things: · To nominate Mitt Romney; · To effectively end the Republican nominating process as soon as possible. Last night's...

Lesson to GOP: Don't Play with Fire

by James J. Zogby Added 02.01.2012

Watching Tea Party radicals triumph over reasoned compromise in the Congress and Republican party candidates drive themselves rightward off the road in an effort to appeal to their increasingly hardline base reminds me of the adage we learned as...

The Real Attack on the Spirit of Christmas Comes from the Right Wing

by Robert Creamer Added 20.12.2011

Every year about this time the gang at Fox News and others in the Right Wing blogosphere get on their high horse about the "liberal attack on Christmas" - or President Obama's "attack on Christmas." Of course all you have to do is have a look at...

The “Arab Spring” Effect

by James J. Zogby Added 20.12.2011

Nine months into the "Arab Spring," we surveyed public opinion in seven Arab countries and Iran, asking over 6,000 respondents about their primary political concerns and their degree of satisfaction with the pace of change taking place in their...

Stratfor Challenges Narratives on Syria

by Sharmine Narwani Added 20.12.2011

Since the first public protests broke out in Syria last March, the narratives about the Syrian crisis have stayed fairly true to the theme of all the Arab Revolts. An authoritarian ruler out to crush peaceful opposition to his regime opens fire...

New Ryan Proposal Still Aims to Eliminate Medicare, Replace with Voucher Plan

by Robert Creamer Added 15.12.2011

Today, Republican House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan will present his new "bi-partisan compromise" plan to a meeting of an outfit known as the "Bipartisan Policy Center." Ryan's latest proposal would allow individuals to choose between traditional...

The Iraq War Is Over… Lesson for Progressives: Yes We Can.

by Robert Creamer Added 15.12.2011

Sometime in the next fifteen days, the last American troops will leave Iraq - and the War that began almost nine years ago will finally come to an end. Today, President Obama addresses some of those returning troops at Fort Bragg, North...

GOP Candidates Discuss Israel-Palestine

by James J. Zogby Added 15.12.2011

On December 7, 2012, six Republican candidates for President (Rep. Ron Paul was not invited) appeared before the Republican Jewish Coalition (NRC) to campaign for Christian votes. There are Jewish Republicans, to be sure, but not enough to make...

The Arab Spring: Could Turn into a Long Cruel Winter

by Alon Ben-Meir Added 15.12.2011

Due to a host of common denominators in the Arab world including the lack of traditional liberalism, the tribes' power, the elites' control of business, the hold on power by ethnic minorities, the military that cling to power, and the religious...

The Postmodern Theatre: Russia, the Elections and Putin

by Binoy Kampmark Added 15.12.2011

The protest pedigree of the Putin-generation Russian is a small one. With a police state mentality well and truly in position, taking to the streets is bound to land the individual a period of true, heartfelt police inhospitality. It remains to...

Turkey's Changing Regional Role

by James J. Zogby Added 07.12.2011

In just one year, relations between the United States and Turkey have moved from tension to cooperation. This was the focus of remarks by a Turkish journalist speaking at the opening session at the second convention of the Turkic American...

The Kurdish Conflict: The Real Challenge to Turkey's Democracy

by Alon Ben-Meir Added 07.12.2011

In the wake of the Arab Spring and Prime Minister Erdogan's championing of political reforms throughout the Arab world, it has now become more urgent than ever before to find an equitable solution to the Turkish-Kurdish conflict. Short of...

Dubious Dealings: Syria and the Arab League

by Sharmine Narwani Added 06.12.2011

The ongoing diplomatic tug of war between Syria and the Arab League took an unexpected turn Monday with rumors of a potential breakthrough. A positive outcome would signal a major political - not procedural - change of heart at the Arab League,...

Newt Threatens Mitt's Position as Top Banana in Republican Nomination Circus

by Robert Creamer Added 06.12.2011

Last week, after yet another episode of bizarre behavior on the Republican campaign trial, one of my partners - political consultant John Hennelly - came into my office and asked, "Next, will all eight of these guys ride into the arena piled...

Keystone Influence: Syria's Arab Spring and the race for Regional Hegemony

by Alon Ben-Meir Added 06.12.2011

The Arab Spring is changing the political and strategic map of the Middle East as we know it in ways that will persist for decades to come. Notwithstanding the domestic developments in each country, the Arab Spring is uprooting long-standing...

Johnny Depp, Jesus and Blasphemy

by Binoy Kampmark Added 06.12.2011

I can't remember where I was last night Think I was hanging naked off a church spire Babybird, Jesus Stag Night Club, 2011 In that rather well minted British comedy Blackadder, an altered version of the Scrooge legend is offered. Baldrick,...

Without Accountability, No Lessons Learned

by James J. Zogby Added 05.12.2011

With the date for US forces to be fully withdrawn from Iraq fast approaching, it is important to remind ourselves how we got into that long and deadly war in the first place, to recognize that this conflict is far from over, and to hold...

Super-Committee Democrats Refuse to Buckle to Republican Demands for Draconian Cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid

by Robert Creame Added 25.11.2011

Inside-the-beltway pundits have already begun to decry the so-called "failure" of the Super Committee to hammer out an agreement that would have almost certainly resulted in huge cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits for...

The Way it Was

by James J. Zogby Added 25.11.2011

Shortly after Barack Obama's inauguration as the 44th President of the United States, I was invited to a dinner at the Lebanese Embassy in Washington, D.C. in honor of Ray Lahoud. Lahoud had just been named as Secretary of Transportation, and...

The Irony of Netanyahu's "Success Story"

by Alon Ben-Meir Added 16.11.2011

It is ironic how those loyal to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have created a narrative of a success story of Netanyahu's achievements where failure is clearly rampant. They point to the solidity of the governing coalition, the halting of the...

Republicans Debate Foreign Policy

by James J. Zogby Added 16.11.2011

This Presidential election couldn't have come at a worse time for America and the Arab World. Since candidates are more focused on politics than on sound policy, critical issues will not receive the thoughtfulness they require. And so instead of...

A Lost Decade

by James J. Zogby Added 31.10.2011

"To govern is to choose, and the choices made [by the Bush Administration] in 2002 were fateful. The United States began that year shocked and wounded, but with tremendous strategic advantages. Its population was more closely united...World...

Whether in Egypt or America, It Takes Organization to Win

by James J. Zogby Added 29.10.2011

In 1981, my brother, John Zogby, ran for Mayor of Utica, New York. Like other factory towns across New England, the Mid-Atlantic and Mid-Western states, Utica was in decline. The factories that had employed tens of thousands had closed and gone...

Three Reasons Why It's Better for the Economy if the Super-Committee Fails to Get a Deal

by Robert Creamer Added 26.10.2011

Last Thursday's Washington Post headline blared: "Debt panel's lack of progress raises alarm on Hill." In fact it is far better for everyday Americans if the so-called Super Committee fails entirely to get a deal. The overarching reason is...

A Great Day - Obama Ends The War in Iraq

by Robert Creamer Added 22.10.2011

This afternoon President Obama announced that at the end of this year, America will withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq. Obama began his campaign for President by forcefully, clearly promising to end that war. This afternoon he delivered on that...

Why Democratic Strategists Have Begun to Root for Mitt Romney

by Robert Creamer Added 19.10.2011

It wasn't long ago that conventional wisdom among Democratic strategists handicapped Mitt Romney as President Obama's toughest potential Republican challenger. But lately there has been a big shift. In fact, it is becoming clearer and clearer...

Deja Vu 2012 and 1996

by James J. Zogby Added 18.10.2011

This Presidential election is beginning to look a lot like the contest of 1996, which saw a battered Bill Clinton win a second term in office by defeating Republican Senator Bob Dole. There are differences, to be sure, but the similarities are...

Arab Spring and Revival of the Islamic State

by Alon Ben-Meir Added 17.10.2011

Few Muslims would dispute the notion that Islam should guide their private as well as public lives, since the Quran and the Sunna - the tradition of Prophet Muhammad - which the two primary sources of Islam's religious law, or Shari'a, provide...

Five Reasons the Occupy Wall Street Movement Really Frightens the Right

by Robert Creamer Added 12.10.2011

The Occupy Wall Street movement really frightens the Right Wing. It is not frightening to the Right because of Congressman Eric Cantor's feigned fear of "the mob" that is "occupying our cities." It is not frightening because anyone is really...

Voters Are in a Deep Funk

by James J. Zogby Added 11.10.2011

Having spent time this week in both New Hampshire and Iowa, the states featuring the first presidential nominating contests of 2012, and having been in Michigan the week before, I am getting the feeling that this has all the makings of a very...

9/11 Memorial is a Tribute to True American Exceptionalism-Wall Street Bankers and Immigration Opponents Take Note

by Robert Creamer Added 09.10.2011

Last weekend, my family and I went to visit the new 9/11 Memorial located at Ground Zero. Three things were striking: First, is the scale of the disaster. Two huge pools - each filling the acre-sized area that once held the foundation of the...

The Settlements - The cancer that will kill any prospect for a two-state solution

by Alon Ben-Meir Added 06.10.2011

Both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas profess to seek a two-state solution, but still have not discussed the core issues that divide them. These issues are borders, security, refugees,...

Netanyahu's Lie: "I Already Gave at the Office"

by James J. Zogby Added 06.10.2011

Back when I was in Catholic elementary school and in the Boy Scouts, we would often be enlisted to participate in fund-raising drives that had us going door-to-door in our neighborhoods collecting money for various charities or causes (school or...

Why Right Wing Policy is the Enemy of Economic Growth

by Robert Creamer Added 06.10.2011

The American press is full of declarations from Republican Members of Congress, "financial commentators", and conservative columnists declaring that "America is broke," that we "can't afford" public spending, that we need to "tighten our belts."...

Do not Veto

by Alon Ben-Mei Added 22.09.2011

American, Israeli and Palestinian officials today are frantically grappling with the various pros and cons concerning the Palestinian Authority's (PA) plans to seek recognition from the United Nations this week. Regardless of the merit or wisdom...

Obama Isn't Trying to Start 'Class Warfare' -- He Wants to End the Republican War on the Middle Class

by Robert Creamer Added 21.09.2011

History will record that on September 19, 2011, the Republicans made a huge political miscalculation -- a miscalculation that could potentially doom their chances for victory next year. If I were a Republican, the last thing I'd want to talk...

On a Collision Course with Arab Opinion

by James J. Zogby Added 21.09.2011

It took mass demonstrations followed by the take-over of their embassy in Egypt last week for some in Israel to wake up to the fact that the Palestinian issue remains a flash point for Arab public opinion. The U.S. Congress and policy-makers in...

A Different Election

by James J. Zogby Added 10.09.2011

For Arab Americans, the 2012 election will be different. Many of the same critical issues that shaped the 2008 contest are still in play, and will define the national agenda in 2012: Iraq remains unsettled; there is no Israeli-Palestinian peace;...

Obama Takes the Offensive on Jobs

by Robert Creame Added 10.09.2011

President Obama's speech to Congress tonight reset the political battle lines and put Progressives back on the offensive. The speech included provisions that Republicans in Congress may actually agree to pass - like continuing the payroll tax...

Mutual Assured Self-Destructive Policies

by Alon Ben-Meir Added 10.09.2011

No serious observer of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should have any doubt that both the Netanyahu government and the Palestinian Authority have been pursuing self-destructive policies during the past 30 months. President Obama's failure to...

"Irhal Amreeka"

by Sharmine Narwani Added 02.09.2011

Note: The Arabic "Irhal," which means "Leave" or "Go away," is the most powerful slogan of the Arab Awakening that has emerged through much of the Middle East and North Africa since January 2011. It has been chanted against dictators in street...

Enough! Pass A Clean Debt Ceiling Increase

by Robert Creamer Added 30.07.2011

Enough already. Time for Congress to pass a clean debt ceiling increase in order to avoid default - the same way it did repeatedly during the Reagan and Bush years. It's time for Congress to act simply and responsibly to avoid the prospect that...

Root Causes Behind the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse

by Alon Ben-Meir Added 18.07.2011

On the surface, the current stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process seems illogical. After all, each side knows, with the exception of the Netanyahu government, that the basic framework of a negotiated settlement: a two-state solution...

Strategic Thinking Needed to Juggle Israeli-Palestinian Equation

by James J. Zogby Added 12.07.2011

On the very day that the New York Times reported that the Israeli military had demolished the homes of Palestinians in the Jordan Valley in order to clear the area to consolidate Israeli control, that very same military was being rebuffed in its...

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No significant global warming since 1995

by Jarl R. Ahlbeck 49528 downloads

The recovery of the earth's climate from the little ice age started about 200 years ago, but the concentration of the atmospheric carbon dioxide started to increase significantly as late as in the 1950s, probably due to rapidly increased burning...

Wilson Is the Poster "Child" for the New Republican Party

by Robert Creamer 21673 downloads

When Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC) yelled out that President Obama was a "liar" in the middle of Obama's nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress, he became the poster child for the new Republican Party. I definitely mean...

Fareed Zakaria: The Post-American World – A Book Review

by Olli Raade 14196 downloads

Above there is an interview with Fareed Zakaria by the New Perspectives Quarterly about his book "The Post-American World". Below there is a summary of the book as for a background for the interview. Zakaria argues that America's relative weight...

Genetically modified plants benefit everybody

by Petter Portin 13456 downloads

We consume approximately one gram's worth of genes in every meal. This may not seem like very much, but each of our meals contains trillions of individual genes. The transfer-genes contained in genetically modified food-stuffs are identical to...

Effects of banning smoking in restaurants

by Pentti Huovinen 10817 downloads

Latest research shows that the banning of smoking in restaurants has reduced heart attacks by as much as a fifth. Researchers in the University of California have analysed relevant studies undertaken after 2004. In all the studies it was...

Behind the scenes at piano competitions

by Michael Johnson 9984 downloads

Has the time come to rethink the concept of piano competitions? Many participants and leading musicians believe so. The proliferation of international competitions - now numbering more than 750 - is producing hundreds of annual laureates who...

Brzezinski: Russia's Invasion of Georgia Is Reminiscent of Stalin's Attack on Finland

by Nathan Gardels 9597 downloads

On Sunday (Editor's note: August 10, 2008) I talked with Zbigniew Brzezinski, the elder statesman who was national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter, about the Russian invasion of Georgia. He long tangled with Soviet power. Now he takes...

Finland show the way to coffee binge-drinking

by Michael Johnson 9511 downloads

I was between jobs a few years ago when I stumbled into a bit of public relations work for the coffee industry. The coffee marketers seemed a decent lot, just men and women trying to make a living. They had only one characteristic that bothered...

What does Ms. Palin’s tattoo tell us?

by Michael Johnson 9349 downloads

BORDEAUX - I have witnessed the gradual penetration of tattoo culture into the middle classes in Europe and the United States over the past two or three years but I always thought it would go away. So I was stunned to see that now we have...

Firewalls to Freedom

by Rebecca MacKinnon and Evgeny Morozov 9100 downloads

NEW YORK - Even the most cold-hearted realists would agree that the failure of Communist censorship played a role in the collapse of the Iron Curtain: Voice of America, the fax machine, rock 'n' roll, and the lure of Western capitalism helped to...

Future low solar activity periods may cause extremely cold winters in North America, Europe and Russia

by Jarl R. Ahlbeck 8686 downloads

Summary. The observed winter temperatures for Turku, Finland (and also generally for North America, Europe and Russia) for the past 60 winters have been strongly dependent on the Arctic Oscillation index (AO). When the Arctic Oscillation index...

Why Growing Income Inequality is Bad For America

by Robert Creamer 8223 downloads

The recent controversy over the huge bonuses at financial firms like AIG and J.P. Morgan Chase have served to highlight both the disproportionate growth of the financial sector, and the perverse incentives that led traders and executives to take...

Putin's doctrine surfaces

by Stefan Forss 8188 downloads

A few Georgian battalions - trained to fight terrorists, not to manoeuvre against a powerful Russian army! - undertook a militarily deficient offensive against Tskhinvali in South Ossetia on August 8. The Russians replied promptly and...

How the French take their sex in stride

by Michael Johnson 8077 downloads

BORDEAUX -- Our glamorous, doe-eyed Minister of Justice, Rachida Dati, is the talk of France again - this time over her surprise pregnancy. Always controversial, she has now added spice to the gossip by politely declining to reveal who the...

New cheap power source heading for independent tests

by Michael Johnson 7877 downloads

As Middle East oil climbs to record highs, research into alternative energy sources is attracting a wave of new science, much of it still experimental and untested. One of the most advanced concepts, scheduled to go live about a year from now,...

Republicans Take Huge Political Risk Opposing Obama Jobs Bill

by Robert Creamer 7724 downloads

You'd think that the results of November's election -- coupled with the collapse of the economy -- would begin to make Republican lawmakers question the consequences of their blind commitment to right wing economic orthodoxy. Apparently most...

A Tribunal for Kenya: the Waki Commission Report

by Binoy Kampmark 7561 downloads

The Waki commission, charged with the task of investigating post-election violence in the aftermath of the Kenyan elections last December, has called for a special tribunal to try various perpetrators. The Commission of Inquiry into...

The Real Che Guevara

by Guy Sorman 7481 downloads

PARIS - Hollywood history is often nonsensical, but filmmakers usually have the good sense not to whitewash killers and sadists. Steven Soderbergh's new film about Che Guevara, however, does that, and more. Che the revolutionary romantic, as...

Odd couple share Cliburn gold

by Michael Johnson 7355 downloads

The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas, ended Sunday on a somewhat sour note, with some critics and former winners wondering how the jury could award the top prize jointly to the two young winners - one a Chinese...

Fareed Zakaria: Facing a Post-American World - An Interview

by Nathan Gardels 6660 downloads

Fareed Zakaria is author of The Post-American World and editor-in-chief of Newsweek International. He spoke with NPQ editor Nathan Gardels in June. NPQ | Barack Obama has been reading your book The Post-American World. If he becomes president,...

Global Warming – Man-made or Natural?

by Kenneth Rundt 6238 downloads

One of the most interesting global questions today is whether the climate is changing and, if it really is, whether the reasons are man-made (anthropogenic) or natural - or maybe even both. The United Nations appointed Intergovernmental Panel on...

France banking on laser research

by Michael Johnson 5866 downloads

At the heart of the French advanced research program is a little-known project for a giant laser cannon -- not for shooting down satellites but for something potentially much more powerful. It will test theories for the next generation of...

Nathan Gardels interviews Joseph Stiglitz about Wall Street meltdown

by Nathan Gardels 5649 downloads

Joseph Stiglitz was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001. I spoke with him on Tuesday (Editor's note September 16, 2008) about the Wall Street meltdown. Nathan Gardels: Barack Obama has said the Wall Street meltdown is the greatest...

Renewable Energy: The Cold Facts

by David Eichler 5570 downloads

Renewable energy sources, such as wind, direct solar power, hydroelectric power, and biomass and the biofuels derived from it may be the basis for future civilization. The primary source of energy that generates each of these forms, however, is...

The curious story of Sarah Bernhardt’s leg

by Michael Johnson 5451 downloads

It has been 94 years since the right leg of the great actress Sarah Bernhardt was sawed off by a Bordeaux surgeon. Still preserved in formaldehyde, it remains an object of great - if somewhat morbid - curiosity despite the passage of time. The...

The Coming Battle of the Atlantic: Euro vs. the Dollar

by Kenichi Ohmae 5334 downloads

Tokyo - Because Americans are more proactive than the Japanese, they are likely to avoid the same kind of deep slump as we had for almost a decade. Nonetheless, with the value of their key assets-their homes-diminished, they will become a land...

Time to Nationalize Insolvent Banks

by Nouriel Roubini 5269 downloads

NEW YORK - A year ago, I predicted that the losses of US financial institutions would reach at least $1 trillion and possibly go as high as $2 trillion. At that time, the consensus among economists and policymakers was that these estimates were...

French aren’t saying neigh to horsemeat

by Michael Johnson 5115 downloads

As Europe feels the effects of rising prices - mainly tied to energy costs - at least one sector is benefiting. The new big thing appears to be horsemeat, increasingly a viable alternative to expensive beef as desperate housewives look for...

Is There Moral Progress?

by Peter Singer 5021 downloads

After a century that saw two world wars, the Nazi Holocaust, Stalin's Gulag, the killing fields of Cambodia, and more recent atrocities in Rwanda and now Darfur, the belief that we are progressing morally has become difficult to defend. Yet...

The Secret World of Female Circumcision

by Juliet Torome 4932 downloads

NAIROBI - As a child in rural Kenya, I was a secret admirer of female genital mutilation. I was swayed by talk of friends and elders about how once a girl undergoes "the cut," she gains respect and grown men consider her suitable for marriage....

The last financial crisis?

by Tom Berglund 4885 downloads

" The more actors there are who can read the signs of an approaching crisis, the less serious will be the consequences when the crisis breaks out." The world's financial markets are going through a crisis that is rapidly developing into what...

"God's Continent" by Philip Jenkins - A Book Review

by Olli Raade 4706 downloads

Jenkins writes about Islam in Europe and Islam's impact on Europe, Christianity, and about Islam itself. He examines a number of undesirable trends generally attributed to Islam. Jenkins, however, argues that phenomena such as high criminality...

Take Action against the non-democratic developments in Russia

by Björn von Sydow. The article was translated into English from Swedish by Jeffrey Ganellan. 4672 downloads

Russia's government - with considerable support from domestic opinion - has recently taken a turn towards a new, authoritarian system of governance, with control over the establishment of political parties and the nomination of candidates, the...

Séraphine’ film wins 7 French Césars

by Michael Johnson 4518 downloads

Presenting a new and earthy face of French cinema, the outsider candidate "Séraphine" won seven awards at the Césars, the annual French film competition, including best film and best actress of 2008. The near-clean-sweep on Friday night...

The crash course that educated Mrs. Palin

by Michael Johnson 4516 downloads

Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate for vice president of the United States, finally submitted to a television interview after intense coaching from top-level White House advisers. Never in U.S. history has a candidate for high office had to...

Does Legalizing Prostitution Work?

by Heleen Mees 4478 downloads

AMSTERDAM - Prostitution is virtually the only part of the personal services industry in the Netherlands that works. One can't get a manicure in Amsterdam without booking an appointment two weeks in advance, but men can buy sex anytime - and at...

Starving the Archive: Dick Cheney and his Records

by Binoy Kampmark 4393 downloads

What are we going to do about old Dick's subterfuge and an office he did much to undermine during his time in power? All sorts of conjecturing has been taking place about how best to deprive the archival records of the US Vice President's papers...

How to kill a river: the Murray-Darling System

by Binoy Kampmark 4273 downloads

It's looking more than just grim. A vast river system in Australia, the Murray-Darling Basin, seems terminally affected by drought and decades of environmental abuse. Cosmetic measures have been suggested by the Australian authorities dealing...

When a frog Is not a frog

by Michael Johnson 4258 downloads

The main French defense manufacturer called a group of experts and some economic journalists together a few years ago to unveil a new military helicopter. They wanted us to choose a name for it and I thought I had the perfect one: "The Frog". I...

Bush's legacy will be NGOs with a truly global vision

by Jean-Paul Marthoz 4245 downloads

A year from now, the Bush administration will be history. Opinion polls around the world assessing the unpopularity of the current US president suggest that the departure of one of the most controversial administrations in American history will...

The triumph of Game Theory in various sciences

by Vesa Kanniainen 4151 downloads

A book review: A Beautiful Math: John Nash, Game Theory, and the Modern Quest for a Code of Nature Author: Tom Siegfried, Science editor of Dallas Morning News Publisher: The Joseph Henry Press of the National Academy of Sciences Many of us saw...

After the war in Georgia…

by Göran Lindblad and Björn von Sydow 4001 downloads

Two European countries have waged war against each other - Georgia and Russia. Numerous civilians have been displaced and no one really knows how many have been killed or wounded. The current ceasefire agreement is fragile and the crisis has...

Britain trades free speech for security

by Michael Johnson 3982 downloads

Britain's decision to ban outspoken Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders from entering the United Kingdom last week dramatizes the religious tensions that once again loom over humankind. Specifically, it is a sign that intolerant Muslim faithful...

The best medicine yet – a good laugh

by Michael Johnson 3862 downloads

My sister died a year ago after a 13-year bout with various cancers. She had been cut to pieces by surgeons - mastectomy, hysterectomy, the lot -- but somehow she always managed to return to her productive normal role as wife and mother. She...

Danger: piano can take over your life

by Michael Johnson 3847 downloads

The late Glenn Gould made some powerful enemies in the music world when he decided to record Bach's Goldberg Variations at a slow tempo. He also made music history. The Canadian virtuoso pianist was tired of hearing the same old Goldberg played...

Stendhal at his best : a “worthless” historian

by Micael Johnson 3777 downloads

When I was young and the world was different, I used to hide Stendhal's classic novel "The Red and the Black" in the dust jacket of a Bible and read it on Sunday mornings in church. Parishioners peered over my shoulder to try to see what was so...

George Orwell is Reborn as Mitch McConnell

by Robert Creamer 3668 downloads

Sixty-one years ago, the novelist George Orwell published the novel "1984" - a social science fiction classic about a future totalitarian regime that had perfected the art of propaganda and mind control. The book contributed several iconic terms...

Beijing’s Olympic Challenge

by Linda Jakobson 3662 downloads

BEIJING - The Beijing government appears to be facing a daunting Olympic challenge. On the one hand, China's leaders must ensure the safety of 80 visiting heads of states, some 16,000 athletes and hundreds of thousands of Olympic spectators. On...

Bob Woodward: The reason for the decrease in violence in Iraq is not the surge, but "highly classified techniques"

by Olli Raade 3514 downloads

The surge in Iraq is not the reason for the decrease in violence. Instead the reason is "highly classified techniques". This is what Bob Woodward claimed in an interview with Bill Maher. Woodward refused to specify what he meant with the term...

The case for climate change optimism

by Angus McCrone 3511 downloads

Finding grounds for optimism in the global warming debate isn't easy. But Angus McCrone points out that investment in clean renewable energy sources is rising much more quickly than human CO2 emissions. And game theory suggests that nations will...

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Republicans Begin to Question the Competence of their Leadership

by Robert Creamer

686 reviews

If there is anything that the Republicans hate, it's losing. And when it came to the health care bill Republicans lost big. They had bet all the marbles on stopping health care reform cold and then convincing voters next fall that Obama's...

What will life be in 2020: Leading Thinkers answer - Video

by Ericsson Multimedia Channel

598 reviews

What will life be like in 2020? The telephone equipment company, Ericsson asked 20 thinkers--including professors, inventors, 'futurists,' and digital experts "What will life be like in 2020? Ericsson explains the project: In 2020 - Shaping...

Britain trades free speech for security

by Michael Johnson

1205 reviews

Turkey's Changing Regional Role

by James J. Zogby

16 reviews

Muddled over Banksy: Street Art in Melbourne

by Binoy Kampmark

277 reviews

The occasion is an opening reception at the upmarket Melbourne art gallery, The Metro. The location is affluent Armadale. The show is titled 'On the Wall - International Street Art Group Show', where cliques of constipated art viewers and...

Future low solar activity periods may cause extremely cold winters in North America, Europe and Russia

by Jarl R. Ahlbeck

605 reviews

Why the Bain Capital Controversy is So Damaging to GOP Chances this Fall

by Robert Creamer

2 reviews

Lesson to GOP: Don't Play with Fire

by James J. Zogby

2 reviews

8 Ways to Unplug and Recharge Your Brain

by Matthew Edlund, M.D.

243 reviews

Do you feel stressed, tired, fatigued, rushed, drained, zapped? Join the club. Add an economic crisis to multiple jobs, kids, elderly parents and a body-crushing lifestyle, and lots of Americans feel whacked-over-the-head overloaded. What's the...

An Intercourse with the Natives

by Dhiraj Singh

261 reviews

WE STAND IN THE middle of New South Wales' Royal National Park holding hands and looking heavenwards to invoke Yullangur-'the dreaming' of the creation serpent-as our guide Les Bursill starts us on a tour of Australia's sacred sites. 'The...

Republicans Claim That We Must Destroy Medicare to Save It

by Robert Creame

58 reviews

People like me who came of political age in the 1960's will never forget the absurd statement from an American General, that we had to destroy a Vietnamese village in order to save it. That Orwellian proposition came to symbolize the essence of...

Palestinian Incitement against Israel

by Alon Ben-Meir

79 reviews

The adoption of nonviolent methods by the Palestinian Authority to advance the Palestinian cause is admirable and represents the most promising strategy to affect change. But for a nonviolent movement to serve the intended purpose of advancing...

Stratfor Challenges Narratives on Syria

by Sharmine Narwani

12 reviews

Kill the "Peace Game"

by Sharmine Narwani

95 reviews

The Palestine-Israel conflict is no pesky regional skirmish. This century-long battle over territory threatens to draw the entire global community into its bowels if it is not dealt with soon, and the only way out of the current paralysis is to...

The Triumph of Irrelevance: The Kagan Appointment

by Binoy Kampmark

179 reviews

The Obama administration is making every concerted effort to keep its domestic agenda interesting and perplexing. The decision to make Elena Kagan a Supreme Court appointee has been baffling. Lacking judicial experience, and a legal record...

Republicans Are So Drunk on Wall Street Money That They’re Driving Off a Political Cliff

by Robert Creamer

133 reviews

You see it all too often - a grisly news story about a kid who runs his car off a cliff. We ask, "how could he have done it, how could he have been so reckless?" The answer invariably comes back: because he was drunk. The same thing just...

Why Democratic Strategists Have Begun to Root for Mitt Romney

by Robert Creamer

18 reviews

The Week that Was, and the Week Yet to Come: Testing Obama's Mettle

by James J. Zogby

211 reviews

This coming week will tell us a great deal about the ability of President Obama to be a strong leader and an honest broker in Middle East peacemaking. With the President having postponed his Asia visit in order to be on hand for conclusion of...

Three Fatal Republican Mistakes That Could Spell Their Defeat Next November

by Robert Creamer

89 reviews

The weatherman on TV describes it everyday. "A cold front will pass through our area tomorrow afternoon and with it, a major wind shift." Historians may one day pinpoint the last several weeks as the time when the front passed -- and the...

Telecom reforms drive French workers to suicide

by Michael Johnson

310 reviews

French workers have never been known for their flexibility. But the impact of globalization has meant a gradual erosion of the cocoon inside which they have traditionally found comfort. The backlash against more rigorous management standards has...

The Urge to Surge: Washington's 30-Year High

by Tom Engelhardt

84 reviews

If, as 2011 begins, you want to peer into the future, enter my time machine, strap yourself in, and head for the past, that laboratory for all developments of our moment and beyond. Just as 2010 ended, the American military's urge to surge...

An Opportunity for a Syrian-Israeli Peace

by Alon Ben-Meir

174 reviews

While the world reacts to the recent flair-up of violence along the Lebanon-Israel border, other developments in the area could present an opportunity to advance regional peace if pursued. The recent visit by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and...

The GOP Debate:Rightward Drift on Display

by James J. Zogby

35 reviews

The contest has begun to determine who will be the Republican candidate to square off against President Obama in 2012 national elections. For months now, individuals have been announcing either their intention to run or to form what are called...

Will the Republicans Be Stupid Enough to Filibuster Bill to Hold Wall Street Banks Accountable?

by Robert Creamer

147 reviews

The big question in Washington this week is whether the Republican leadership will be stupid enough to filibuster the Senate bill to hold big Wall Street banks accountable. There are very few things the Republicans could do that would help the...

Do Americans Have the Right to Bear Weapons of Mass Destruction?

by Robert Creamer

112 reviews

The massacre and assassination attempt in Tucson have reignited the ongoing battle over what limitations should be placed on our rights to bear arms. Let's assume for a moment - though there are many Constitutional scholars who disagree -- that...

Why Republicans Persist in Demanding the Elimination of 700,000 Jobs

by Robert Creamer

61 reviews

Last week, the economy showed more evidence that the Administration's economic stimulus programs, rescue of the auto industry, investments in clean energy, extension of unemployment compensation, past aid to the states and other measures are...

Real Factor in Midterms: Too Few Jobs, Not Too Much Spending

by Robert Creamer

172 reviews

"I know we should provide more money for state government to prevent hundreds of thousands of teachers, police, and public workers from being laid off, but I just can't vote for one more bill that increases the deficit." If I had a dollar for...

Paul Krugman - The Conscience of a Liberal - Chapter 1 (Audio)

556 reviews

Audio: Part 1 of 3: Part 2 of 3: Part 3 of 3:

It is too late for Assad

by Alon Ben-Meir

50 reviews

One month after the uprisings began in Syria, I wrote that President Basher al-Assad had a choice: "Continue to convey an image of an inept dictator ... or display bold leadership and vision in order to use the opportunity of the unrest to...

Khaled Meshaal Interview: A Hamas Take on Mideast Geopolitics (Part 2)

by Sharmine Narwani

136 reviews

Palestinian resistance group Hamas has beaten some unusual odds to survive today: Israel's unlawful siege of Gaza has crippled the coastal strip's economy and left Hamas scrambling to govern a restless population living under increasingly...

Republican Spending Cap Would Have Caused Depression if It Were Law in 2009

by Robert Creamer

85 reviews

Republicans have proposed legislation that would cap federal spending at 20.6% of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - just below the average of the last forty years. Sounds reasonable, right? Only if you like the idea of another Great...

Reporting the News from a Police State - Chapter 17: Desperately Seeking Solzhenitsyn

by Michael Johnson

552 reviews

Every journalist in Moscow wanted to be the first to find Alexander Solzhenitsyn after he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970. I intended to be that journalist and I was unconcerned about the consequences this publicity might have for...

Developing Countries and the Global Crisis

by Joseph E. Stiglitz

377 reviews

NEW YORK - This year is likely to be the worst for the global economy since World War II, with the World Bank estimating a decline of up to 2%. Even developing countries that did everything right - and had far better macroeconomic and regulatory...

Islamophobia Can Create Radicalization

by James J. Zogby

77 reviews

Let me state quite directly: Islamophobia and those who promote it are a greater threat to the United States of America than Anwar al Awlaqi and his rag-tag team of terrorists. On one level, al Awlaqi, from his cave hide-out in Yemen, can only...

The Postmodern Theatre: Russia, the Elections and Putin

by Binoy Kampmark

6 reviews

Dirty Little Secrets the Republicans Don't Want You to Know

by Robert Creamer

156 reviews

The Republicans have a set of dirty little (actually not so little) secrets they don't what you to know - and certainly don't want you to think about when you go to the polls in November. And the fact is that some of those secrets could provide...

The Spy Who Bored Me

by Michael Brenner

228 reviews

The "Comatose Sleeper Cell" mystery shows us that the ability of the country's security services to waste resources is matched only by the media's ability to dramatize trivial material. The only surprise is that the exchange did not take place...

Thinking the Unthinkable in Europe

by Dani Rodrik

99 reviews

CAMBRIDGE - When Greece was bailed out by a joint eurozone-IMF rescue package back in May, it was clear that the deal had bought only a temporary respite. Now the other shoe has dropped. With Ireland's troubles threatening to spill over to...

Washington Just Lost the Middle East in a Big Way

by Sharmine Narwani

110 reviews

It's official. There is no longer any serious "cost" for defying the United States in the global arena. Unable to win wars or deliver diplomatic coups - and struggling to maintain our economic equilibrium - Washington has lost the fundamental...

New Rules for Hot Money

by Nouriel Roubini

149 reviews

NEW YORK - Capital flows to emerging-market economies have been on a boom-bust merry-go-round for decades. In the past year, the world has seen another boom, with a tsunami of capital, portfolio equity, and fixed-income investments surging into...

Netanyahu: Then and Now

by James Zogby

434 reviews

When Benjamin Netanyahu became Prime Minister in 1996, he ran on a platform dedicated to ending the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. That is what he said in Israel. For U.S. consumption, Netanyahu took a different approach, seeking instead to...

Firewalls to Freedom

by Rebecca MacKinnon and Evgeny Morozov

1328 reviews

Jimmy Carter, James Baker, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft on Israel-Palestine Conflict

by Steve Clemons

308 reviews

Landrum Bolling, former President of the Lilly Endowment and Earlham College, has put together a collage of commentary from four outstanding American foreign policy giants. They are former President Jimmy Carter; former Secretary of State and...

Ehud Barak Betrayed his Party and the Nation

by Alon Ben-Meir

107 reviews

Ehud Barak's bolt from the Labor Party in order to remain in the governing coalition has solidified his role as Benjamin Netanyahu's enabler. For two years, Barak has led the Labor Party to irrelevance while facilitating the right-wing policies...

Generation Jones and the New Era in Global Leadership

by Jonathan Pontell

383 reviews

U.S. President Barack Obama's trip to Europe marked the culmination of a generational shift in leadership among Western democracies. The generation yielding power -- the Baby Boomers -- are so strongly connected to the 1960's that they are often...

Behind the scenes at piano competitions

by Michael Johnson

491 reviews

Four More Reasons Why Democrats Will Retain Control of House and Senate

by Robert Creamer

143 reviews

Over the last several weeks, the Pollster.com average of polls testing the generic choice of Republican versus Democrat for Congress has begun to close from a spread of almost 5% down to only 2.3% advantage to Republicans. If the present trend...

The Wars of Austerity

by Robert Skidelsky

134 reviews

LONDON - I have become increasingly less hopeful about prospects for a rapid recovery from the global recession. Coordinated fiscal expansion ($5 trillion) by the world's leading governments arrested the downward slide, but failed to produce a...

Ethnic Politics in America

by James J. Zogby

80 reviews

I stood, this morning, before a room filled to capacity with members of the Democratic Party's Ethnic Council. The Council is an assembly of representatives of America's rich and diverse ethnic immigrant communities. Members come from across the...

Reflections on Tunisia

by James J. Zogby

80 reviews

Tunisia is on my mind. Events unfolding there have been both dramatic and inspiring, and are dominating discussions across the Arab World. The scenes coming from Tunis have been riveting. A peaceful mass revolt that persisted in the face of...

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