CNN’s Objectivity Questioned in Sacking of Mideast Reporter
CNN's firing of Octavia Nasr, the editor responsible for the network's Middle East coverage, over a Twitter post in which she expressed her sadness over the death of a Lebanese cleric has set off a firestorm of debate about what the decision says about CNN's fairness...
Thursday: 33 Iraqis Killed, 119 Wounded
Solemn observances at the Imam Kadhim shrine in Baghdad culminated today. Although pilgrims began to return to their homes, they remain vulnerable to attacks. At least 33 Iraqis were killed and 119 more were wounded, mostly in the capital. Due to the nature of these reports an exact count is difficult at best: The confusion of numerous or larger attacks can lead to wildly conflicting numbers and vague locations. Meanwhile, the Iraqi Parliament is to meet next Tuesday, just ahead of a constitutional deadline.
read moreThese Explosions Are Saviors
GAZA CITY - At precisely 12 noon on a Thursday afternoon, among the rolling sandy hills in southern Gaza, a controlled explosion destroys another round of white phosphorous shells left in Gaza following the 2008-2009 Israeli war on Gaza. Explosives experts from the...
Transportation Stupid Agency
Wednesday: 84 Iraqis Killed, 362 Wounded
Updated at 2:49 p.m. EDT, July 8, 2010
Shi’ite pilgrims streaming in to Baghdad for Imam Kadhim observances were met by a number of bombs across the city. One blast targeting them killed or wounded over 120 people in a Sunni neighborhood. Earlier in the day, however, most of the attacks were curiously focused on areas just west of the capital. At least 84 Iraqis were killed and 362 more were wounded in these and other attacks. Meanwhile, a Rasmussen poll found that less than a third of Americans would call the war in Iraq a success, and only 55 percent think that Iraqis are better off now than under Saddam.
read moreNew Rankings Overrate Obama
The periodic Siena College poll [.pdf] of 238 presidential scholars in colleges and universities across the nation ranked Barack Obama, after only a year-and-a-half of his presidency, as the 15th best president out of all 43 in American history. His predecessor,...
European Parliament Set to Approve Snooping Bill
BRUSSELS - Private information on innocent citizens will be handed over to U.S. law enforcement authorities under an agreement slated for approval by the European Parliament this week.In February, members of the Parliament (MEPs) rejected a plan to allow data on...
Plotting Terrorism
Barack Obama may not have come into office pledging to get the U.S. out of Afghanistan, but he did pledge one thing: to close the Bush-era prison at Guantánamo within a year. That couldn't have been clearer. And as I wrote back then, it was also a reasonable...
The Real Sin of Michael Steele
"This was a war of Obama's choosing. This is not something the United States has actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in." Strictly speaking, Republican Party Chair Michael Steele was way off base when he made this remark at a closed-door meeting of party...
