Oil industry benefits on campaign contributions

The day after House Speaker John Boehner demanded trillions in budget cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, Senate Democrats offered him a small down payment Tuesday: a plan to cut $21 billion in unneeded federal subsidies to the extraordinarily profitable oil industry.Not surprisingly, Republicans quickly labeled the proposal a tax increase and declined to provide any support, probably d

May 16, 2011

Fewer volunteers at Japan’s disaster area

During the Golden Week holidays from April 28 to May 8, a total of some 78,000 volunteers worked in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, which were devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, according to “disaster volunteer centers” set up by local governments in the prefectures.On and after May 9, however, that number dropped sharply. On a peak day, there were some 11,000 volunteers,

May 16, 2011

[Michael Oren] Wrong pact for peace in Middle East

The world shared the American people’s gratitude for the special forces who rid us of Osama bin Laden, but there was one flagrant exception.“We condemn the assassination of an Arab holy warrior,” declared Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister of the Hamas regime in Gaza, who also deplored “the continuing American policy ... of shedding Muslim blood.”This is the same Hamas that has launched hundreds o

May 16, 2011

[Nicolas Moore] Sub-par English education in Korea: Root of the problem

The symptoms of sub-par English education are often discussed in the pages of this paper, but I’ve yet to read an accurate description of the cause. The cause of the lack of quality teachers is simply government interference in the marketplace, and specifically the preposterous restrictions, and poisonous regulations discouraging native English speakers from coming to Korea to teach, produce, and

May 16, 2011

[Dick Polman] Meet new Newt as presidential hopeful

When I first heard that Newt Gingrich was mapping a Republican presidential bid ― he formally announced Wednesday ― I recalled what conservative Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said recently about the guy. It sure wasn’t pretty.Coburn was a Newt soldier back in the 1990s, when Newt was riding high as House speaker and conservative Pied Piper. Nevertheless, Coburn told C-SPAN in March that “having served

May 16, 2011

A necessary ultimatum on cutting federal debt

Let’s call it Boehner’s Law: When you issue an ultimatum, make sure that whatever you’re threatening really is ... the ultimate. In that spirit, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, says Republicans need to see trillions of dollars in spending cuts in exchange for letting the Obama administration raise the nation’s debt limit.Hair-on-fire Democrats react that it’s perilous to delay upping the debt

May 15, 2011

[Tim Rutten] They drank the tea

If congressional negotiators fail to resolve their impasse over the federal debt ceiling, we may recall this moment in history as one of the nation’s worst since the morning Custer awoke thinking it might be amusing to go and annoy Sitting Bull.Ensuring the U.S. government’s full faith and credit is a matter of such consequence to the global financial system that everything else concerning the bud

May 15, 2011

[Fakhruddin Ahmed] Yunus’ place in history is secure

The Bangladesh Supreme Court has upheld the High Court’s verdict that professor Yunus’s removal from Grameen Bank is legal. So professor Yunus has been permanently removed as the managing director of his brainchild, Grameen Bank. This is a sad day for Bangladesh. The decision will embolden those who had always opposed professor Yunus, such as the religious fundamentalists and others opposed to wom

May 15, 2011

[William Pesek] China’s economic colonization starts down under

All in.That’s essentially the message Treasurer Wayne Swan is sending about Australia’s odds-defying bet on Chinese growth. The government’s latest budget pledges to deliver the quickest improvement in the nation’s finances on record ― without specifics about how that will happen.The absence of such detail is telling and can be boiled down to one thing: an even bigger gamble on China’s 10 percent

May 15, 2011

Internet data collection: The privacy line

Apple introduced its Macintosh computer in 1984 with a now-famous Super Bowl commercial that showed a lone rebel striking out against Big Brother. So it was ironic that researchers recently accused the company of an Orwellian intrusion into consumer privacy: Its iPhones and iPads appeared to be tracking their users’ movements. Apple eventually offered a rebuttal, and it hustled out a software upda

May 13, 2011

[Gregory Rodriguez] For Americans, to infinity and beyond

President Obama tried to use the announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden to get Americans to think big again. The successful end of a 10-year manhunt, he declared last week, was a “testament to the greatness of our country and the determination of the American people.”But bin Laden’s death instead seemed to feed stubborn domestic divisions and conjure thorny geopolitical stalemates. Maybe the

May 13, 2011

Pakistan and the U.S. need to work together

The language was a bit murky at first but inevitably the true nature of Pakistan-U.S. relations began to unravel. Immediately after the reported death of Bin Laden, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari would only speak in general terms about military and intelligence cooperation between the two countries, and would not go into specifics about the operation ― specifics that Islamabad didn’t have in

May 13, 2011

Legal assistance for disaster victims

“I can’t repay loans for my house and fishing boat, which were swept away by the tsunami.”“I was fired by my company immediately after the disaster.”Day after day, these and other complaints are heard during legal consultations for people in areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.Local lawyers associations have generously given counsel at evacuation centers and elsewhere. So have

May 13, 2011

Pakistan’s proxy war against India

The involvement of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate in the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai will be publicly aired in Chicago on May 16 when the trial of Hussain Rana of Pakistani origin, owner of an immigration consulting firm, begins. Six Americans were among 166 people killed in the Mumbai attacks. Though the 33-page charge-sheet does not mention ISI, it names Major Iqbal of the

May 13, 2011