Sep
5
Tony Blair: A Journey
September 5, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Tony Blair has just published his memoirs and is now making the rounds to publicize the book. He stopped in to Christine Amanpour’s This Week show and talked about a whole bunch of interesting (to me) stuff. The New York Times gives a pretty tough review in this weeks book review but I am going [...]
Jul
5
Steele on the Ropes Again
July 5, 2010 | Leave a Comment
GOP Chairman Michael Steele is under withering fire from key members of his own party over remarks he made last week questioning our ability to win in Afghanistan and calling that war one of “Obama’s choosing”. The reaction from the neo-con right was swift, with Bill Kristol, and Liz Cheney calling on Steele to resign. [...]
Dec
1
The President Surges in Afghanistan
December 1, 2009 | 16 Comments
President Obama spoke tonight to an audience at West Point, detailing plans to add thirty thousand troops in Afghanistan but calling for a finite time frame for the mission of building Afghanistan’s military and governmental infrastructure. He spoke of the need to deal with major problems in Pakistan, and pledged to both countries that the [...]
Mar
20
The Obama Message to Iran
March 20, 2009 | 14 Comments
President Obama released a video today, reaching out in a cautious way to Iran. From the Washington Post:
The White House said the United States still has serious differences with Iran, particularly on the threat a nuclear-armed Tehran poses to the region. But aides said the president’s message was a way to speak directly to Iranians [...]
Oct
10
Iceland Collapses
October 10, 2008 | 1 Comment
The nation of Iceland imploded financially on Thursday, with its currency crashing and its financial institutions nationalized. The prospect of national bankruptcy was broached by the Prime Minister himself. From the New York Times:
Iceland’s financial system collapsed Thursday, and analysts said it was probably only a matter of time before the country would have [...]
May
23
Gordon Brown on the Ropes
May 23, 2008 | 4 Comments
What is a story about the English Prime Minister doing on this blog? Well, we need a foreign policy in Methuen, you know. As a long time fan of Prime Ministers questions on C-Span I have been fascinated by the British system and a big fan of Tony Blair. Blair’s love-hate relationship with his Chancellor [...]
Jan
5
What is Your Consumption Factor?
January 5, 2008 | 2 Comments
A recent op-ed piece in the New York Times by Jared Diamond talks of the disparity in “consumption rates’ between the first world and the developing world. He posits that the wide disparity in this consumption factor (with the first world consuming 32 times what the developing world consumes)is even more important than population growth [...]
Dec
31
Bhutto Assasination
December 31, 2007 | 5 Comments
Benazir Bhutto’s assasination and the government explanation of it are further called into question by the linked video from NBC showing a different view of the events. Link to the video here.
This assasination has left the Musharaff government teetering, and U.S. policy in disarray. I have included the below link to a New York [...]
Nov
24
Swedish Wind
November 24, 2007 | 1 Comment
With offshore wind development in the news locally the New York Times has written about the Swedish experience with wind power. The article highlights some positives, but also levels some criticisms. It highlights a new $280 million dollar offshore wind farm that will be able to light 60,000 homes. The article highlights some of the [...]
Nov
22
Free Trade Doubts
November 22, 2007 | Leave a Comment
A recent Wall Street Journal article highlighted the increasing anxiety the free trade agenda is causing, even in areas that have been considered to be “free trade winners”. The focus of the article was the state of Iowa, where agricultural exports and farm manufacturing exports have made the state a net winner in the trade [...]