US politics

Alice K. Ross writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: The Pakistani government estimates at least 400 civilians have been killed in drone strikes – a figure close to the Bureau’s own findings. In evidence to Ben Emmerson QC, UN special rapporteur on counter-terrorism, the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that CIA drones […]

Drones

Obama & Brennan Brought GOP Filibuster on themselves by Extreme Secrecy on Drones

Juan Cole

John O. Brennan was confirmed as head of the Central Intelligence Agency yesterday, after the confirmation was held up for 13 hours by a filibuster by Rand Paul and other Senate libertarians or tea partiers. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas gave as his reason for the attempt to delay the vote his concerns that the […]

US politics

Did the Man who Tried to buy our Presidential Election Get rich by Bribing Communist China? (Engelberg)

Juan Cole

Stephen Engelberg writes at ProPublica Last week’s admission by Sheldon Adelson’s casino company that it had “likely” violated provisions of the federal law barring U.S. companies from bribing foreign officials raises some intriguing questions. Chief among them: Which transactions by Las Vegas Sands and its far-flung subsidiaries are at issue? Adelson, one of the world’s […]

Iraq

Mission Accomplished: Iraq as America’s biggest Blunder (Van Buren)

Juan Cole

Peter van Buren writes at Tomdispatch.com I was there. And “there” was nowhere. And nowhere was the place to be if you wanted to see the signs of end times for the American Empire up close. It was the place to be if you wanted to see the madness — and oh yes, it was […]

Egypt

Austerity and the threat to Democracy, in the US, Europe and the Middle East

Juan Cole

The “sequester” is actually, of course, the American form of austerity, or cut-backs in government spending during a recession. Austerity, or stingy government in Europe has kept employment extremely depressed compared to what it would have been with government stimulus, as Paul Krugman argues. Saturday, there were massive protests throughout Portugal against Scrooge policies by […]

Uncategorized

Taking on Creeping Creationism in Public Schools (Moyers Video)

Juan Cole

Bill Moyers interviews Zack Kopplin on keeping the teaching of Creationism in public-funded public schools. US students are not making the gains in science and math learning that students in other countries are, which isn’t surprising since their teachers are being mandated by fanatic ignoramuses in state legislatures to tell them that Jesus rode a […]

US politics

Why Scalia is Wrong about Voting as “Racial Entitlement”: Texas’ Long History of Minority Vote Supression (Beckett & Lee)

Juan Cole

Lois Beckett and Suevon Lee have updated their earlier article at ProPublica. Although published earlier, it inadvertently serves as a canny intervention in the debate kicked off by Justice Antonin Scalia’s snarky comment that the Voting Rights Act extends ‘racial entitlement.’ Scalia is attempting to erase the history of voter suppression in the South. Oral […]

Iran

Hagel Confirmed, but Bloodied by American Nationalists Seeking Wars & World Dominance

Juan Cole

The GOP senators have their own foreign policy, and it isn’t the same as that of President Obama or Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. For them, the US is a 900 pound behemoth that can boss the world around with its high-tech military at will. Their foreign policy is to shoot first and ask questions […]

US politics

Taming Capitalism Gone Wild (Bill Moyers Interviews)

Juan Cole

Bill Moyers and his guests look at how Wall Street has captured the government regulators that are supposed to be its watchdogs, how restaurant workers are underpaid, and generally how the super-wealthy are getting away with murder while the 99% have it stuck to them.