US politics

By Juan Cole President Barack Obama of Hawaii had fondly dreamed of bidding turbulent and unrewarding West Asia farewell and turning the attentions of American diplomacy to East and South East Asia. From his point of view, the Bush administration had unwisely entangled the US too deeply in the Middle East, where no good deed […]

Counter-Terrorism

Not Serious re: Terrorism: GOP House Cut out funding for al-Qaeda, Iraq Records & Research

Juan Cole

Representatives on the Hill talk a good game about going back into Iraq or pursuing a global war on terror, but they aren’t actually very interested in all that. Exhibit A: they’ve applied the same austerity to the Conflict Records Research Center as they did to the working poor and Veterans on food stamps. This […]

Economy

Highway Patrol Officer aims Knockout Punches at Woman along Freeway

contributors

CNN: “A highway patrol officer was caught on camera hitting a woman with what a witness says were “knockout punches.” Aviva Shen at Thinkprogress writes: “The officer said the woman was walking barefoot along the freeway on Tuesday and refused to stop when asked. The video shows the cop tackle her, pin her down, and […]

Algeria

Algerian Soccer/ Football and the Black Box of French History

contributors

By Francis Ghilès Senior Research Fellow, CIDOB When Algeria qualified for the knockout stage of the World Cup by winning against Russia, the Algerian press celebrated their team’s qualification as the greatest victory ever. In France large street celebrations were accompanied by the usual firecrackers and Algerian flags and were followed by clashes between groups […]

Barack Obama

If you read Boing Boing, the NSA considers you a target for deep surveillance

contributors

By Cory Doctorow via Boing Boing In a shocking story on the German site Tagesschau (Google translate), Lena Kampf, Jacob Appelbaum and John Goetz report on the rules used by the NSA to decide who is a “target” for surveillance. Since the start of the Snowden story in 2013, the NSA has stressed that while […]

Barack Obama

As Hundreds of US Troops are Sent to Iraq, Fears of Mission Creep

contributors

By Lauren McCauley Lawmakers and anti-war groups raise flags about additional troop deployments and calls for executive "flexibility" As the number of American troops sent to Iraq nearly doubled on Monday and the White House continues to flex its executive privilege to make unilateral military decisions, citizens and lawmakers alike are raising concerns and objections […]

Dissent

Not War on Poverty but War on the Poor: Washington’s Real Foreign Policy Aims

Juan Cole

By Noam Chomsky via Tomdispatch The question of how foreign policy is determined is a crucial one in world affairs. In these comments, I can only provide a few hints as to how I think the subject can be productively explored, keeping to the United States for several reasons. First, the U.S. is unmatched in […]

Bill of Rights

Police: No Searching Journalists’ Cellphones w/out a Warrant, Either (SCOTUS Decision)

contributors

By Josh Stearns According to the Supreme Court, police need a warrant to search the cellphones of people they arrest. The unanimous decision, which was handed down this week, is being heralded as a major victory for privacy rights and a landmark case with implications far beyond cellphones. The New York Times reports, “The ruling […]

Bill of Rights

SCOTUS: Corporate “Persons” have Religions, can Deny You Birth Control Coverage

contributors

By Mindy Fischer On Monday the Supreme Court handed down its ruling on the Hobby Lobby case. They ruled in a 5-4 decision that corporations who have religious objections to birth control no longer have to pay for insurance coverage of those contraceptives, as mandated under Obamacare. This decision actually marks the first time that […]