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Pakistan held its elections on Monday, which are fateful for the future of the country and also probably for the Bush-Cheney foreign policy. Bush and Cheney put most of their eggs in the basket of a military dictator, Pervez Musharraf, who has been on a self-destructive downward spiral during the past year that makes Amy […]

A massive suicide bomb ripped through crowd in Qandahar on Sunday, killing over 80 and wounding a similar number. The Afghan newspaper Rah-i Sulh took a dim view of the public’s activities at that site, which included dog racing. It observed that people who went to get a thrill from seeing dogs mangled unexpectedly saw […]

The below is a guest editorial that will appear the coming week in Elet es Irodalom, a Hungarian weekly. (Hungarian journalists should please consider it embargoed until it appears there.) Andrew Arato, Dorothy Hart Hirshon Professor of Political and Social Theory, The New School for Social Research, New York Frankfurt February 13, 2008 Is it […]

A week from Monday, Pakistanis will go to the polls to elect their federal parliament, in one of the more consequential elections of the past two decades. The campaign season started out Saturday with an unfortunate bombing at a rally in Charsadda near Peshawar that killed 27 and wounded 40. The Awami National Party, a […]

John McCain is the Republican nominee for president. He promises “victory” in Iraq while never defining the word, except that he sometimes promises a long-term enmeshing of the US in a Korea-like war and decades-long military aftermath. It is eerily familiar. The president who started the war is not running for office. His popularity is […]

In his victory speech on super Tuesday, John McCain said: ‘ I want to congratulate Governor Huckabee and his supporters on their success today. Not for the first time, he has surprised the rest of us, and proved again his exceptional skills as a campaigner, and the extraordinary commitment and determination of the people who […]

Zogby is circulating the below: Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby Poll: Ahead of Super Tuesday, McCain Dominates Everywhere Except California; Obama Enjoys a Super Sunday UTICA, New York—Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain leads in three out of four key Super Tuesday states – winning more than 50% support in New York and New Jersey – while Democrat Barack Obama […]

My Salon column is out: Blowback from the GOP’s holy war:The 2008 Republican race has left a bitter legacy of sloganeering against Muslims. It may well haunt the party this November. Excerpt: ‘Giuliani complained that during their debates, Democratic rivals “never mentioned the word ‘Islamic terrorist,’ ‘Islamic extremist,’ ‘Islamic fascist,’ ‘terrorist,’ whatever combination of those […]

Here are the Iraq portions of the Barack-Hillary debate in Los Angeles Thursday night. Both candidates impressed me with their grasp of detail and the serious thought that they have given for how to get out of Iraq without leaving behind a catastrophe that will come around to bite us on the ass. Chuck Todd […]