Barack Obama

Iran has decided to intervene directly in Iraq and has already sent fighters to the front, according to the Wall Street Journal, based on Iranian sources. It is alleged that Iranian special forces have helped the Iraqi army push back in Tikrit, the birth place of Saddam Hussein that was overrun earlier this week by […]

Barack Obama

And the Walls Come Tumbling Down: Israeli PM Netanyahu on Notice from both Left and Right

contributors

By Carlyn Meyer If there was any doubt about which side came out stronger from the failed Kerry peace initiative, it’s been put to rest by events since. Neither side wanted to be the first to disrupt the talks and be blamed for their demise. Once Netanyahu reneged on releasing the last contingent of Palestinian […]

Barack Obama

Student Debt: Blame Law-Makers, Tax-Shirking Rich, War on Drugs, not Universities

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole In honor of President Obama’s support for Senator Elizabeth Warren’s bill to address the student debt crisis by offering students with older debt loads lower interest rates [see video below], I’m reprinting this golden oldie. The statistics in it have only gotten worse from a social point of view in the past […]

Afghanistan

Dear Sen. McCain: No, the Taliban Prisoners didn’t Carry out 9/11; but you Supported Muslim Radicals

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Sen. John McCain on Sunday maintained that President Obama, in releasing the five officials who had served in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in the 1990s and until 2001, had released people who were “hard core al-Qaeda who were responsible for 9/11.” I am shocked and dismayed that the knowledgeable Sen. McCain […]

Barack Obama

Can Obama Make good on his Pledge to overturn Citizens United with a Constitutional Amendment?

contributors

In his new book, Ken Vogel claims that President Barack Obama told Democratic donors he believes he is in a good position to pass a constitutional amendment to repeal Citizens United. The book, entitled “Big Money: 2.5 Billion Dollars, One Suspicious…

Barack Obama

Does our and Obama’s Paralysis on Global Warming come from American Exceptionalism?

contributors

By William Espinosa President Obama’s proposal to modestly curb carbon emissions from power plants is – if carried out—a serious one. But opposition was immediate, so is there reason to think anything will really change this time? The warnings have been issued before, the underlying process has been understood for decades, yet at least in […]

Barack Obama

Another Pivot: Can Obama’s New CO2 Rules Break Our Stalemate With China?

contributors

There’s going to be a long fight over the Obama administration’s new carbon emissions caps, and it’s just getting started. But today brings encouraging news from beyond our borders: As if on cue, the world’s biggest polluter, China, announced…

Barack Obama

Is the Prisoner Swap Hysteria a sign of GOP War withdrawal Symptoms?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The United States has been continually at war since October of 2001. In many of the succeeding years, until Dec. 31 2011, The US was at war in both Iraq and and in Afghanistan. Wars fulfill multiple functions for the US elite. They justify vast expenditures that benefit the political clients of […]

Barack Obama

Faced w/ Global Warming Threat, Obama fudges EPA Carbon Reduction

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole President Obama’s decision to unleash the Environmental Protection Agency on US carbon dioxide emitters is a sea change in environmental policy and is extremely welcome to any who care about the planet. But its real significance does not lie in the targets for carbon dioxide reduction Obama has set. Those are way […]