There is apparently a disagreement within the U.S. government about the validity of the CIA’s 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE). The key bullet points of the NIE, found here, were: We assess with high confidence that until fall 2003, Iranian military entities were working under government direction to develop nuclear weapons. We judge with high […]
This movie will make the viewer grateful for even the worst pair of shoes. This Iranian film is a drama set in a poor neighborhood. Ali (Amir Farrokh Hashemian) and his sister Zhara (Bahare Seddiqi) concoct a scheme whereby she will wear a pair of sneakers in the morning and give them to her brother […]
A week after a 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti, international aid efforts are the subject of global appeals from governments, relief organizations, journalists, entertainers and more. Experienced relief organizations like the American Red Cross have benefited the most from campaigns to raise funds, and are starting to mobilize more effectively to help Haitians survive. Relief for […]
A disastrous harvest in 2009 rendered the North Korean government and officials to make a recent response regarding the South Korean offer of 10,000 tons of food aid to feed the burgeoning hungry. A resounding “yes” in acceptance to this amount in aid, seen as somewhat historical, as the last several years had brought a […]
News of the disaster in Haiti drowned out most other concerns last week but the earthquake was not the only newsworthy thing that happened in the world. Earlier the same day as the earthquake, Google posted a surprising message on its official company blog that raised the possibility the search engine giant may leave the […]
The P5+1 (U.S., U.K., France, China, Russia, and Germany) met on Saturday to discuss sanctions on Iran. China signaled dissatisfaction by sending a low-level envoy. The FPA Middle East Blog has the story here.
First this. Now this… The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c John Yoo Pt. 1 www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c John Yoo Pt. 2 www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care […]
Today is a national holiday here in the U.S., celebrating the life and achievements of Martin Luther King, Jr. There is nothing I could add to the many paeans to King (but I recommend that anyone needing a refresher look up his writings and speeches). But in thinking about the times King lived in and […]
My last post highlighted the efforts of the U.S. military to assist the Haiti relief effort and now I’m turning to the commercial and private sector, they have really stepped up to make it easy for people to donate to earthquake relief. Many major U.S. media companies have created special donation portals to allow the […]
1) Although Nigeria reached a tentative peace agreement with the militants in the Niger delta region in October, the fledgling peace was threatened by attacks of a Chevron Nigeria pipeline last week. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), according to the Associated Press, claims they sanctioned the attack but did not […]
On January 13, only one day after the earthquake in Haiti that has probably killed 200,000, and the moron Pat Robertson was already at it. “They made a pact with the devil,” were more less his words because “they wanted to free themselves from the French.” As if God is now punishing these people 200 […]
The movie Avatar is a blockbuster, and now the third-highest grossing movie of all time. It is also a story about migration. In short, it depicts humans in the year 2154, seeking to extract a valuable mineral from a far-off planet called Pandora, and willing to do so at any cost, including the extermination of […]
Ban Ki Moon visited Haiti for five and a half hours on Sunday. As Huffington Post reports: The U.N. World Food Program plans to start feeding 1 million people in two weeks and 2 million people in one month, the secretary-general said. WFP spokesman David Orr said the agency hoped to reach more than 60,000 […]
In terms of U.S.-North Korean relations, the year began auspiciously, mysteriously, or even inauspiciously, depending on how one interpreted North Korea’s New Year’s state-run media editorial. The full text can be found here. The passage most frequently quoted in the Western press seemed promising. The editorial stated: The fundamental problem arising in guaranteeing the peace […]