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Archives for April 2011

Uncategorized
Romney Haunted by Ghosts of Romney Past

Romney Haunted by Ghosts of Romney Past

Juan Cole

Mitt Romney Has announced another run for the White House. Here is his 1994 debate with Senator Teddy Kennedy, in which he talked about his deeply held and obviously relatively liberal beliefs. He rejects Reagan-Bush, declines to impose a ban on abortions, etc., etc. Where is that guy? I kind of like that guy.

Uncategorized
Wisconsin is not Broke, “Budget Crisis” a Fraud

Wisconsin is not Broke, “Budget Crisis” a Fraud

Juan Cole

Wisconsin was not and is not “broke.” Its pension system gets a “gold star” for soundness, and it has no enduring structural shortfall in revenues. Gov. Scott Walker gave business a $500 million tax break and caused the budget deficit thereby, and then claimed that social spending had to be slashed and public unions destroyed […]

Africa
AU proposes Ceasefire, NATO protects Misrata, Ajdabiya

AU proposes Ceasefire, NATO protects Misrata, Ajdabiya

Juan Cole

NATO finally seemed to get its act together on Sunday, striking multiple Qaddafi tanks at Misrata and Ajdabiya and allowing the rebels to hang on in each place. At Twitter we read, “@feb17voices: LPC #Misrata: No casualties from intense attack by Gaddafi forces but extensive damage to steel factory area, gas storage tanks. #Libya”. I […]

Iraq
Al-Sadr Threatens Mahdi Army Revival if US Troops Stay

Al-Sadr Threatens Mahdi Army Revival if US Troops Stay

Juan Cole

Al-Hayat writing in Arabic reports that nationalist Shiite clergyman Muqtada al-Sadr threatened on Saturday to revive his Mahdi Army militia if US troops tried to stay in Iraq past December 31, 2011. He said his fighters would return to carrying arms. Tens of thousands of Iraqi protesters, mainly his supporters, gathered beginning early in the […]

Egypt
Hundreds of Thousands of Arabs Protest their Governments

Hundreds of Thousands of Arabs Protest their Governments

Juan Cole

On Friday, the US Congress endeavored to decide whether American democracy has irretrievably broken down because the representatives of the Billionaires refused to compromise with the representatives of the People (“cutting spending” while “cutting taxes” means “shifting the cost of running society to the middle class from the filthy rich”). The answer was that it […]

Uncategorized
Thomas Jefferson in Arabic

Thomas Jefferson in Arabic

Juan Cole

I am excited to announce that the Global Americana Institute has, in partnership with Dar al-Saqi of Beirut brought out a volume of selected writings of Thomas Jefferson in Arabic. It was elegantly translated by Professors Mounira Soliman and Walid Hamamsy of Cairo University and is entitled in Arabic the equivalent of Revolutionary Democracy: How […]

Uncategorized
Is the FBI Lying to Congress about its Abuses of the “PATRIOT” Act?

Is the FBI Lying to Congress about its Abuses of the “PATRIOT” Act?

Juan Cole

Techdirt asks, “Is the FBI lying to Congress about its abuses of the PATRIOT Act? and answers in the affirmative. Actually there is plenty of indication in the public record of abuses in the sense of using the act for criminal rather than purely security-related prosecutions and warrantless wiretapping, something the Bureau initially promised never […]

Uncategorized
Should Professors in Public Universities Give up their Email Addresses?

Should Professors in Public Universities Give up their Email Addresses?

Juan Cole

The latest McCarthyite tactics of the American Right Wing is to attempt to intimidate professors at public universities by launching Freedom of Information Requests for their emails, as part of a witch hunt for dreaded Liberal Opinions. First, the proxies for the Koch brothers in the Wisconsin legislature went after the emails of prominent University […]

Yemen
Reuters:  Saudi-US Plan to Nudge Saleh Out as Demonstrators Stage Tsunami of Taiz

Reuters: Saudi-US Plan to Nudge Saleh Out as Demonstrators Stage Tsunami of Taiz

Juan Cole

Reuters reporters in Dubai are saying that a diplomat with knowledge of the negotiations going on between the Gulf Cooperation Council and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh told them that the plan was to have Saleh step down in favor of a transitional ruling council that would prepare for elections. Among those mentioned as potential […]

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