Time Warp
The Never-Ending Fancy Shit Show That Is Iraq I leave the country for seven days and end up in a fucking time warp? Or did I misread this latest madness on getting "involved" with Iraq again, as if...
View ArticleAmerica Can't Bomb Its Way to Victory in Iraq
The world was caught flat-footed when a small band of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) forces rolled into Iraq and took control of major cities with almost no opposition. Americans watched in...
View ArticleTwo Public Policies That Transformed Our Nation
On Sunday, June 22, we will commemorate the 70th anniversary of the G.I. Bill becoming the law of the land. Innumerable individuals have benefitted from this far-sighted policy, signed by President...
View ArticleBearing Witness
It's not very often that I see something on a corporate-owned American TV news channel and go, "Wow guys, that was great." But tonight I did. CNN deserves a huge bravo -- and a huge thank you -- for...
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Blame Cantor, Not Immigration
Other Republicans who are bigger supporters of reform won their primaries. Talk about being kicked to the curb. A little-known, under-financed tea party challenger crushed seven-term Congressman and...
View ArticleSunday Roundup
This was a week that saw the return of former leaders with less than successful results. In the World Cup, Spain fell 2-0 to Chile, knocking the defending champions out even before the upcoming...
View ArticleTaking Credit and Accepting Responsibility
If I were the CEO of a company and was employed six years ago to clean up the problems attributed to my predecessor, how would the Board of Directors react if the company was still having problems and...
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Obama to Maliki: Step Up or Step Down Before U.S. Air Power
LISTEN HERE: By Mark Green Shrum and Matalin agree it's the definition of insanity for the president to reinsert U.S. into centuries-long religious war when likeliest conclusion a tripartitioned Iraq...
View ArticleWhere Did YOUR 200 Billion Dollars Go?
I get incensed. Perhaps that is my fatal flaw, but there is stuff that people do that just fries me and I cannot bury it as just a part of life. I fight and write letters and call congressmen and...
View ArticleCleaner Air Gave Americans a $4,300 Pay Raise
Published on EDF Voices. Spend too much time with economists, and you'll be convinced that there's no such thing as a free lunch. Life is full of tradeoffs. Take the Clean Air Act of 1970, for which...
View ArticleEgyptian Reform: A Coup and Presidential Election to Restore Authoritarianism?
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt's former military chief, who led the coup that toppled Egypt's first democratically elected civilian president Mohamed Morsi, was sworn in as president on June 8, 2014....
View ArticleConversations with Eusebio Leal Spengler
International Journal of Cuban Studies Eusebio Leal Spengler is City Historian of Havana, the "City of Columns," as Alejo Carpentier liked to call it. A Doctor of Historical Sciences (University of...
View ArticleWhy Cathy McMorris Rodgers Could Be the Next Speaker of the House
Now that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his bid to return to Congress, the door is open for Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R - Washington) to make a play for John Boehner's Speaker seat,...
View ArticleU.S. Delegation Visits Myanmar to Invest in Community-Based Businesses
The US Department of State, in cooperation with the Richardson Center and the Aspen Institute, led a partnership delegation to Myanmar to invest in community-based businesses from April 28-May 3....
View ArticleWhy Conservatives Should Want to End the Drug War
The issue of drug policy reform is well-understood among commentators and activists on the left. The stark facts that drug use is roughly equal among all racial groups yet brown and black people bear...
View ArticleThe Republican Party Can Learn from al-Maliki's Mistakes
Currently serving his second term as Prime Minister of Iraq, Nouri Kamil Mohammed Hasan al-Maliki took office leading his Shiite Muslim-dominated Dawa Party in 2006. His rise to prominence began as a...
View ArticlePresbyterians Divest from the Israeli Occupation: The End of the Beginning?
When there is a just resolution to the Israel/Palestine conflict, I will claim that June 20, 2014 marked a turning point. That was the day that the Presbyterian Church, USA voted to divest from...
View ArticleRIMPAC 2014 and the Future of Sino-U.S. Military-to-Military Relations
In June 2014, the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) will for the first time join the biennial Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) -- the world's largest international maritime warfare exercise....
View ArticleFor the Ocean's Sake, Tame the High Seas 'Wild West'
My love of the oceans started early. My father was a Navy man, and he insisted our family live near a body of saltwater at all times. I was raised listening to foghorns by night and following horseshoe...
View ArticleLove, Authenticity and the Joy of Service
In the frenzy -- what we call "organized chaos" -- leading up to Primary Election Day, which is tomorrow here in Maryland, I'd like to take a step back and speak once more, not only to the voters but...
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