After the massacre in Andijon, Uzbekistan, on May 13, the U.S. military airfield in Karshi-Khanabad (or “K2,” as it is affectionately known) has become a liability to U.S. foreign policy. The 2002 intergovernmental declaration undergirding the U.S.-Uzbek strategic partnership obligates Uzbek President Islam Karimov to democratize his regime, something he has pointedly failed to do […]
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End of the Private New Deal
A ripple of economic anxiety passed through middle America this spring when a bankrupt United Airlines ditched its pension obligations and General Motors announced it would cut 25,000 jobs. That’s capitalism, you may say: Individual companies rise and fall, and America’s prosperity should never be equated with their fortunes. But United’s abandonment of its pensions […]
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Lowball Warming
There are few who understand the ins and outs of the U.S. government’s climate-change research program better than Rick Piltz. A political scientist by training, Piltz moved to Washington, D.C., from Texas during the scorching summer of 1988, when NASA climatologist James Hansen put global warming on the map with his famous congressional testimony warning […]
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Endtroducing…
I’m taking a week off, heading up to the mountains with the girlfriend. Sadly, this’ll actually make the site much better. Filling in will be: • Scott Lemieux, an assistant professor of political science at Hunter College and one of the excellent bloggers helming Lawyers, Guns and Money; • The Jew, who writes the smart […]
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Elections in Iran
In the week’s most underblogged story (wherefore art thou, Democracy Arsenal?), the Iranian elections are rapidly hurtling towards the nightmare scenario. The reformers have been demolished, though it’s uncertain whether that’s by voter rejection or fraud, and what’s left is unsavory at best, dangerous at worst. When the polls first closed, the government announced that […]
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Elizabeth Anderson Will Set You Free
The full moon is out, and I’m about to change into my werewolf form and run off into the night, performing various ethical deeds. But while I’m still a mild-mannered philosopher, let me point anyone interested in political philosophy to Elizabeth Anderson’s latest post. It contrasts two kinds of freedom — freedom as non-interference and […]
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A Strike Against Canonization
Yeah yeah, not the most credible source, but if true…
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The Personal Isn’t Political
David Brooks’ paean to the pre-Senate Bill Frist is a puzzling piece of work. I mean, I’m as glad as the next guy that Frist broke off his engagement, has loyal friends, and wrote an occasionally self-critical memoir, but really, who cares? Since hitting the Senate chambers, He’s been such a stunning flop, such a […]
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Things happen in Gitmo
The first time I saw the “What Happens in Gitmo Stays in Gitmo” T-shirts, I thought some liberal group was selling them to call attention to prisoner abuse and to the government’s ability to control the news flow out of Guantanamo. Furthermore, anything that makes people more aware of the existence of Guantanamo hurts Bush […]
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You Trust Me? Really? Why?
Powerful article in the Times today about the real-world impacts, effects, and uses of Social Security. The piece profiles a set of seniors in Grand Rapids, digging into how Social Security affects, and in some cases, dictates their lives. One quote in particular stood out: But others, like James Townsend, who worked as a forklift […]
