US politics

(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, […]

Human Rights

Descent into Bigotry: 21st Century Americans increasingly negative toward Muslims, Minorities

contributors

(By Charles Kurzman via IslamiCommentary) Islamic terrorism has proved to be a relatively small threat to public safety in America since 9/11. Isolated individuals have engaged in sporadic violence such as the Boston Marathon bombings, but radicalization has remained far more limited than security officials feared. A report issued this month by the Triangle Center […]

censorship

Sen. Al Franken: Comcast-NBC / Time Warner Merger Concentrates Media, Hurts Consumers

Juan Cole

CNN: “Sen. Franken: We need more cable competition” Karl Bode writes in a similar vein at TechDirt: Comcast: Allowing Us To Get Immensely, Inconceivably, Ridiculously Massive Is ‘Pro Consumer’ (via Techdirt) Comcast has confirmed reports that the company will be acquiring Time Warner Cable in a deal estimated to be worth around $45 billion. With […]

Republican Party

We’re all Living in the World Dick Cheney Made

Juan Cole

(By Mark Danner via a href=”http://www.nybooks.com/”>NYRB and Tomdispatch.com) If you’re a man of principle, compromise is a bit of a dirty word. — Dick Cheney, 2013 1. “We Ought to Take It Out” In early 2007, as Iraq seemed to be slipping inexorably into chaos and President George W. Bush into inescapable political purgatory, Meir […]

Barack Obama

Obama & Hollande stress Hope for Iran Breakthrough

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) In his news conference with French President Francois Hollande, President Obama outlined four areas of diplomatic progress. The first is foreign policy, including Iran, Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian struggle. Re: negotiations with Iran, Obama said, “Our unity with our P5-plus-1 partners, backed with strong sanctions, has succeeded in halting and rolling back […]

CIA

Assassination by Leak: US floats Trial Balloon of Droning an American to Death

contributors

(By Tim Cushing) Administration Officials Perform Some Very Public Handwringing Over Extrajudicial Drone Killing (via Techdirt) The administration has sort of painted itself into a corner with its new rules on drone strikes. It’s apparently seeking to take out a US citizen who has joined al-Qaeda and is “actively plotting” against the US. Multiple issues […]

Economy

8 Unsustainable Delusions of the American Way of Life

contributors

(By Tom Giesen) The ideal of the American way of life as formulated in the twentieth century has collapsed early in the new Millennium without most Americans even realizing it. Its basic tenets are either by now just false, or are unsustainable, so that we’re in a barrel and about to go off the edge […]

Economy

Brokers of Deceit: Massive US Aid to Israel has Enabled a Colonial Project

contributors

(By Chase Madar via Tomdispatch) We Americans have funny notions about foreign aid. Recent polls show that, on average, we believe 28% of the federal budget is eaten up by it, and that, in a time of austerity, this gigantic bite of the budget should be cut back to 10%. In actual fact, barely 1% […]