[Margaret Carlson] Pledging allegiance to the special interests

Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman may be trailing the pack in the Republican presidential primary, but he is a leader in one important regard: Unlike his colleagues, Huntsman has refused to sign any of the special-interest pledges that are increasingly turning political office into an ideological straitjacket. Huntsman has been joined by Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty in rejecting one particularly o

July 24, 2011

[Michael Smerconish] How Bachmann lost a young conservative

Michele Bachmann, meet Ben Haney.In other circumstances, Ben could have been a real asset to your campaign. He’s a 28-year-old Republican with experience as a traveling advance man for John McCain and Sarah Palin in 2008. Ben was born and raised in the critically important suburbs of Philadelphia. Having taught government at a high school, Ben now runs his own real estate investment company and co

July 24, 2011

[M.J. Rosenberg] Israel: ‘Delegitimization’ is just a distraction

Suddenly, all the major pro-Israel organizations are anguishing about “delegitimization.” Those who criticize Israeli policies are accused of trying to delegitimize Israel, which supposedly means denying Israel’s right to exist.The concept of delegitimization has been used as a weapon against Israel’s critics at least as far back as 1975, when then-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Daniel Patr

July 24, 2011

[Editorial] Burmese army’s licence to rape is region’s shame

In 1989, following the collapse of the Communist Party of Burma, a number of armed ethnic armies entered into a series of ceasefire agreements with Rangoon. The fighting stopped, to a degree, but deep down nobody believed it would last. It was just a matter of time before the various groups resumed fighting.For more than two decades, the so-called peace deals rested on shaky ground with little eff

July 22, 2011

[Editorial] Again, justice for victims of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge rule

The wheels of justice turn slowly in Cambodia, but they grind nevertheless. Last month, a United Nations-backed tribunal began the second war crimes trials that attempt to hold accountable the former leaders of the Khmer Rouge. This trial is proving more contentious than its predecessor ― in which the defendant accepted both the legitimacy of the tribunal and the need for an accounting. This time,

July 22, 2011

[Editorial] Japan’s electricity crisis will continue to deteriorate

Kansai Electric Power Co. manually shut down the No. 1 reactor at its Oi nuclear power plant in Oicho, Fukui Prefecture, on Saturday (July 16) to investigate what caused the pressure to drop inside a tank in the reactor’s emergency cooling system.The Oi nuclear plant is a major source of power, with an output capacity of nearly 1.2 million kilowatts. Kansai Electric, which depends on nuclear power

July 22, 2011

[Editorial] Forced finale is fitting end for Murdoch’s Frankenstein

On July 7, News Corp, one of the world’s most powerful media organizations, announced that it was closing News of the World, Britain’s largest-selling newspaper. This decision was taken in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal that first emerged in 2007, but which has deepened significantly over the past few weeks. Although Rupert Murdoch has claimed that News of the World was closed on moral grou

July 22, 2011

[Mike Hoyt] Britain’s phone-hacking scandal and newspapers

A few years ago my old boss, David Laventhol, had an extended conversation with Rupert Murdoch about newspapers. It was after some sort of big-deal journalism dinner, and they talked long after the tired waiters wished they’d go. David had a storied career in newspapers. He helped invent the Style section of the Washington Post when he was a young editor there. He was editor and publisher of Newsd

July 21, 2011

[Steven J. Davis] Why employers are slow to fill empty positions

Bill Clinton put his finger on a distressing aspect of the U.S. jobs situation in a recent television interview. The former president remarked that openings are being filled at only half the rate of previous recessions, even though current unemployment is much higher. He stressed the bleak outlook for job-seeking construction workers and the need for retraining and skills development.He has a poin

July 21, 2011

[William Pesek] Joke is on China as U.S.’s ‘AAA’ becomes laughable

Suddenly that $3 trillion of currency reserves looks like a bad idea. Make that very bad for China, as investors display an obvious preference for yen over dollars. That the IOUs of a debt-ridden, aging, politically adrift nation smarting from a huge earthquake and nuclear crisis seem safer than U.S. Treasuries says it all. Many investors still see China’s monster currency stash as a strength. The

July 21, 2011

[Jeffrey Goldberg] Michele Bachmann’s hazardous love for Israel

Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman and Republican candidate for president, is making a muscular showing in the polls. She is telegenic. She is clever. Some of her Republican opponents worry she may be unstoppable. But never fear, oh Republican opponents of Michele Bachmann: I’ve devised a fail-safe way to bring her to a state of cognitive paralysis. This method will require some travel

July 20, 2011

[Sheril Kirshenbaum] Facebook might be to blame for your divorce

In the 1960s, young Americans questioned social traditions one after another, ringing in the feminist movement and celebrating sexual freedom. Today they have become the divorced generation. While the overall divorce rate in the U.S. has declined over the past 20 years, it has doubled for Americans aged 50 and over. Today, more than one in three in this category has ended a marriage. No doubt, the

July 20, 2011