US politics

(Karen J. Greenberg) In January 2009, Barack Obama entered the Oval Office projecting idealism and proud to be the constitutional law professor devoted to turning democratic principles into action. In his first weeks in office, in a series of executive orders and public statements, the new president broadcast for all to hear the five commandments […]

Barack Obama

Dick Cheney Broke US Military, now blames Obama for Cuts

Juan Cole

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has lambasted the Obama administration for its announcement that it will cut 8% out of the military budget and reduce standing army troop levels to the lowest level since before World War II (from 550,000 at the height of the Iraq War to 440,000). Cheney told CNN he believed that […]

Climate Change

A World Multiply Endangered: Horseman of the Four Apocalypses

Juan Cole

(Ira Chernus) For those of us of a certain age, it seems as if the world has always been ending. It’s easy now to forget just how deep fears and fantasies about a nuclear apocalypse went in the “golden” 1950s. And I’m not just thinking about kids like me “ducking and covering” at the advice of Bert the […]

censorship

The Deep State is Vulnerable to People Power

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) My remarks below were published at Bill Moyers’ site this weekend. They came in response to Mike Lofgren’s important essay, “Anatomy of the Deep State” . Lofgren is a former congressional staffer. Mike Lofgren’s long experience on the Hill has given him a small window, he might say only an aperture, into […]

Barack Obama

The GOP, Race and Ted Nugent: If you won’t Denounce Nazi Insults, What does that Say about You?

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) Musician Ted Nugent called President Barack Obama a ‘subhuman mongrel.’ He has not been denounced for this language by Greg Abbott, the Republican who wants to be the next governor of Texas, though Abbott brought Nugent along on two campaign appearances. On Friday, Nugent “apologized” (though “not to president Obama”) for using […]

CIA

The Day the 5th Amendment was Droned to Death

contributors

(By Peter van Buren via Tomdispatch) Terrorism (ter-ror-ism; see also terror) n. 1. When a foreign organization kills an American for political reasons. Justice (jus-tice) n. 1. When the United States Government uses a drone to kill an American for political reasons. How’s that morning coffee treating you? Nice and warming? Mmmm. While you’re savoring […]

Featured

Dear GOP: Top 5 Biblical Marriage Moments far worse than Gay Marriage

Juan Cole

David Edwards at Raw Story quotes Mitt Romney from Meet the Press as saying “But I think marriage should be defined in the way that it has been defined for several thousand years . . .” implying, by the Bible. (Mitt says it is all right with him if gay people just shack up with […]

Plutocracy

The Koch Brothers’ Dark Money Man: How Sean Noble got Rich undermining Democracy

contributors

(By Kim Barker and Theodoric Meyer via ProPublica) For a brief, giddy moment, Sean Noble—a little-known former aide to an Arizona congressman—became one of the most important people in American politics. Plucked from obscurity by libertarian billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, Noble was tasked with distributing a torrent of political money raised by the […]

Crime

Race Inequality in America by Graph, from Crime Sentencing to Income

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) Most death sentences are handed out for killing white people, even though African-Americans make up 50% of murder victims (they are only 12% of the population). So if an African-American male had fired ten shots into the SUV of some white suburban kids playing their music too loud, killing one of them, […]