ITN has early video of the earthquake devastation of Port au Prince, Haiti. For a quick overview of the Haitian economy, see this site. It was a sad story even before the earthquake. (courtesy Daniel Morel at twitter; for more, see here. Obviously, the country will need a lot of aid to come back from […]
6 Allied Troops Killed in Afghanistan; Poll Shows Afghans Upbeat
Six NATO troops were killed in hostile action in Afghanistan on Monday, three of them Americans. The US troops appear to have been killed in close combat, whereas most of the other deaths were from roadside bombs. The notorious Bagram prison in Afghanistan will shortly be turned over to the Afghanistan army by the US. […]
Republicans Reject Reid Half Measures, Embrace Gangsta Rap
Satire Republicans were outraged Monday by two-year-old remarks of Democratic Senate Majority leader Harry Reid about the electability of Barack Obama, in which Reid (an early Obama supporter) spoke of Obama’s light skin color and his lack of “Negro dialect.” The GOP, they said, would never apply such superficial criteria to the choice of high […]
Could the Pakistani Government Fall over Karachi Violence? What would it Mean for Obama’s War on al-Qaeda?
The ongoing political turmoil in a major Pakistani city to which few Americans pay much attention could nevertheless prove pivotal to the Obama administration’s AfPak project. Ten more functionaries from various parties were assassinated in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi on Sunday, on top of the three dozen killed from Thursday through Saturday. […]
Ahmad: Shahid Alam on Israeli Exceptionalism
Ahrar Ahmad reviews M. Shahid Alam. Israeli Exceptionalism: The Destabilizing Logic of Zionism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 274 pp., for IC Ahrar Ahmad writes: Shahid Alam is primarily an economist and an educator. But, he is also a public intellectual, and often a lively polemicist, who writes with insight and conviction on issues dealing […]
The Other Cartoon Death Threats
Drudge Retort says, “Political cartoonist Mark Fiore wrote on his blog that he’s receiving death threats over a 90-second animated film he created that teaches viewers “how to speak Tea Bag.” Comparing his predicament to that of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, Fiore writes, “Muslim extremist, meet Tea Party extremist.” See Mark Fiore’s blog. This is […]
Why Republicans are Worried
The corporate media are in the tank for a Republican comeback in 2010, and the GOP may in fact pick up some seats in the Senate and the House, though if employment ticks up by the fall, not as many as some are implying. The corporate media made a big deal about two Democrats who […]
Allah Muslim-Christian Controversy in Malaysia
The riots by some Muslims in Malaysia and attacks on Christian churches over a recent court ruling allowing Christians to call God “Allah” are as baffling and dismaying to me as to everyone else. I mean, there is a post-colonial dimension to these things. Malaysia was conquered by the British in the 19th century and […]
Something Screwy about that Liveability Ranking
International Living has issued its annual ranking of countries as the best places to live. I do not know anything about the site, International Living, which seems to be oriented to selling real estate abroad to American retirees. At least some subscribers have raised questions about whether it is genuinely an informational site as opposed […]