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On Tuesday morning, major clashes broke out between government security forces and local Basra militias (including the Mahdi Army) that sent black smoke billowing in the air above the oil port. A strict curfew was imposed and schools were closed. Reuters reports: ‘ “Basra is half empty. There are no vehicles and no one is […]

Some readers have complained that occasionally postings are partially obscured when viewed with the Firefox browser. I haven’t seen this effect in Firefox myself, so I assume it is a setting problem. Or CSS formatting conflict? It can also occur in in I.E., apparently, and it positively does not in Safari 3.0. A reader has […]

On Thursday, Bush lied about Iran again: “President Bush said the Iranian government has “declared they want to have a nuclear weapon to destroy people . . .” The Iranian leaders have consistently condemned nuclear weapons as inhumane and denounced them and said that they don’t want them and it would be illegal in Islamic […]

William R. Polk writes: Cassandra and Yogi Berra are an unlikely pair, but I hear both of their voices today. Cassandra, like some of us, was cursed to be always disbelieved as she correctly predicted the future while baseballer Yogi Berra will be remembered for his penetrating insight into the flow of history, “This is […]

For my class, reports on Mubarak’s Egypt: Journeyman pictures clip on the Muslim Brotherhood and Kefaya in Egypt, 2005 Journeyman Pictures clip on Islamic Jihad and other oppositional groups in Egypt. Aljazeera: Inside Story, Hosni Mubarak, Nov. 2007 Part 1: Part 2:

I listened to Senator Barack Obama’s speech on race issues as a resident of the Detroit area. Barack Obama was talking about something very personal to him, about being rooted in family and community. He recognizes that race had shaped both and had wounded both. He refuses to give up on the communities in which […]

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama“A More Perfect Union”Constitution CenterPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania First the video, then the text of the speech, below: “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.” Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these […]

The Pakistani parliament convened on Monday for the first time since the February 18 elections, with the Pakistan People’s Party and the Muslim League-N and their allies having a two-thirds majority in the lower house. They have indicated that they will seek to reinstate the Supreme Court and dozens of judges dismissed by dictator Pervez […]

At the Napoleon’s Egypt blog, Gen. Berthier describes how the French, having failed to take the fortress at Acre, destroy the city’s aqueduct in revenge and then pillage and loot the Palestinian countryside. Word arrives to Gen. Bonaparte from Cairo that during his absence, popular uprisings have broken out in Sharqiyyah and Buhayra Provinces. (The […]