by Ahmed E. Souaiaia* The country that started the Arab Spring made its first step towards pluralistic, representative governance. On October 23, 2011 and before the eyes of hundreds of national and international monitors, observers, and reporters, Tunisians lined up to elect their representatives for the Constituency Council (Assembly). Nearly ten months after the overthrow Read more
Continue Readingby Henry Blodget The “Occupy Wall Street” protests are gaining momentum, having spread from a small park in New York to marches to other cities across the country. So far, the protests seem fueled by a collective sense that things in our economy are not fair or right. But the protesters have not done a Read more
Continue ReadingHow is this for Fair and Balanced Coverage: Thus far Fox’s only pieces on Occupy Wall Street have been poorly developed hit jobs like this [Clip] one from Bill O’Reilly, in which a producer makes fun of ill-informed children. But when Greta van Sustern attempted a similar stunt later last week, her producer got far Read more
Continue Readingby Ahmed E. Souaiaia* The mainstream media, analysts, and the so-called experts are struggling to make sense out of the emerging global protest movements. Recent articles published in major papers like the New York Times, Washington Post, and almost all cable television websites contained an assertion that the protesters are leaderless, goal-less, and fragmented. Apparently, Read more
Continue ReadingWill people’s encampments emerge in financial districts around the world? by Micah White and Kalle Lasn On Saturday, September 17th, many of us watched in awe as 5,000 Americans descended on the financial district of Lower Manhattan, waved signs, unfurled banners, beat drums, chanted slogans and proceeded to walk toward the “financial Gomorrah” of the Read more
Continue Readingby Ahmed E. Souaiaia* The horrors of war and war crimes cannot be diminished by engaging in semantics especially when it comes to state sanctioned mass killings. It is criminal, it is genocidal, and states that engaged in such acts must be held to account. It is not a revenge mentality and it should not Read more
Continue Readingby PETER BERGER Society is the social science journal superbly edited by Jonathan Imber. In its fall issue it carries an article by Philippe Portier (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris), entitled “Religion and Democracy in the Thought of Juergen Habermas”. Coincidentally, in a recent issue of the German news magazine Der Spiegel, Habermas Read more
Continue Readingby WALTER RUSSELL MEAD The Arab Spring has reached its first autumn, and it is still not clear whether Egypt will have a revolution. In my view, it hasn’t had one yet. The Mubarak family attempted a revolution of its own early in the year, replacing the military-business regime that has ruled the country since Read more
Continue Readingby Noam Chomsky Since we often cannot see what is happening before our eyes, it is perhaps not too surprising that what is at a slight distance removed is utterly invisible. We have just witnessed an instructive example: President Obama’s dispatch of 79 commandos into Pakistan on May 1 to carry out what was evidently Read more
Continue Readingby Maximilian C. Forte…The U.S. Embassy cables published by WikiLeaks present numerous very interesting stories about how Al Jazeera was brought to heel by the U.S. Government. The U.S. Embassy in Doha, and officials from Washington, used a variety of direct and indirect methods of ensuring a greater degree of compliance on the part of Read more
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