U.S. Tightens Airport Screening for Foreigners
The Obama administration has announced that citizens traveling to the United States from 14 countries will undergo more intensive airport security screening. Eric Lipton for NYT: Citizens of 14 nations, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, who are flying to the United States will be subjected indefinitely to the intense screening at airports worldwide that was imposed after the Christmas Day ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 4, 2010 08:24
Christopher Hitchens on Edward Kennedy
Christopher Hitchens is an iconoclast's iconoclast, famously willing to piss on anyone's grave, whether it be Mother Tereasa, Bob Hope, or Teddy Kennedy. Interestingly, this time he smacks down with one hand whilst patting on the back with the other: Sure, the "tragedy" of Chappaquiddick had its necessary moment, but even in those days Barbara Walters was doing her damage control, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 31, 2009 15:09
Glenn Beck: There’s a Coup Going On. A Stealing of America.
Glenn Beck continues to impress in his ability to top himself with zaniness. Today, he explained how "they" have all manner of plans to destroy America and make it more like Cuba. And "they" may be getting away with it because "they" are so far ahead of us. For those who can't view the video or hear the audio, MediaMatters provides ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 31, 2009 14:24
Palau Takes Uighur Detainees
Remember those 17 Uighar captives at Gitmo being held in a state of limbo because nobody would take them? Palau has come to our rescue. The tropical Pacific island nation of Palau announced Wednesday it will accept up to 17 Chinese Muslims who have languished in legal limbo at Guantanamo Bay despite a Pentagon determination that they are not "enemy combatants." China's ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 10, 2009 07:06
Diplomacy Without Precondition
In my latest for New Atlanticist, "Preconditions, Preparations, and Posturing," I argue that Matt Yglesias, Kevin Drum, and perhaps even Nicholas Burns are misreading the now 16-month-old debate over Barack Obama's pledge to meet "without precondition, during the first year of [his] administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea."Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 27, 2008 14:26
On Being a Citizen of the World
Said an American politician, speaking to an international audience:"I speak today as both a citizen of the United States and of the world. I come with the heartfelt wishes of my people for peace, bearing honest proposals and looking for genuine progress." I mean can you imagine? Didn't this politician know that he was an American? What kind of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 27, 2008 22:48
U.S. Stationing Diplomats in Iran
The United States has not had a formal diplomatic presence in Iran since our embassy there was stormed and its staff taken hostage on November 4, 1979. That may soon change, Ewen MacAskin reports for The Guardian. The Guardian has learned that an announcement will be made in the next month to establish a US interests section - a halfway house ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 17, 2008 12:22
Jesse Helms’ Foreign Policy Legacy
Christopher Hitchens joins the legions dancing on Jesse Helms' grave. Rather than piling on about the racism of a Southern politician whose career began sixty-odd years ago, he instead focuses on Helms' foreign policy: His chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was a period of national embarrassment and, sometimes, disgrace. The Helms-Burton Act of 1996, imposing additional economic sanctions on ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 7, 2008 12:57
Addington Displays Contempt for Congress
David Addington, chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, was testifying under subpoena yesterday to the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. He took great delight in being a complete jackass, as Dana Milbank details. Could the president ever be justified in breaking the law? "I'm not going to answer a legal opinion on every ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 27, 2008 09:56
Online Life Rewiring Our Brains
The cover story of the current Atlantic (Monthly) is an interesting piece by Nicholas Carr which asks, Is Google Making Us Stupid? It begins with the standard "the Internet is giving us short attention spans" meme but eventually gives us much more than that. Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 16, 2008 15:20
High Gas Prices Our Own Fault
George Will joins the Blame America crowd on the issue of high oil prices. Responding to Chuck Schumer's suggestion that we block arms sales to Saudi Arabia until it "increases its oil production by one million barrels per day," which would cause the price of gasoline to fall "50 cents a gallon almost immediately," Will notes that notes that, "One ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 5, 2008 12:15
Obama 2008’s George W. Bush
John Steele Gordon makes some very slight edits to the NYT's 2000 endorsement of Al Gore over George W. Bush: Mr. Obama has asked to be judged by something more than his positions. He offers himself as an experienced leader who would end the culture of bickering in Washington and use wisdom and resoluteness in dealing with domestic social problems ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 4, 2008 13:41
Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Court
A judge overseeing war crimes cases in Guantanamo Bay has been dismissed from trial without much in the way of explanation.A judge hearing a war crimes case at Guantanamo Bay who publicly expressed frustration with military prosecutors' refusal to give evidence to the defense has been dismissed, tribunal officials confirmed Friday. Army Col. Peter Brownback III was presiding over the case ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 3, 2008 11:16
Spanish Miami’s Primary Language
Spanish-only speakers have an easier time getting by in Miami than English-only speakers, AP reports. In many areas of Miami, Spanish has become the predominant language, replacing English in everyday life. Anyone from Latin America could feel at home on the streets, without having to pronounce a single word in English. In stores, shopkeepers wait on their clients in ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 29, 2008 07:17
Obama Proposes New Cuba Policy Before Exiles
Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama further elaborated on his "accidental foreign policy" agenda Friday in a speech before the Cuban American National Foundation, the Cuban exile group that historically has been a bastion of hard-line anti-Castro sentiment. In his remarks, Obama called for a "new strategy" towards Cuba and other Latin American nations and contrasted his position with those of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 25, 2008 01:56
