Inauguration Day—from class to crass
I have differed with Barack Obama on various issues during his presidency, but on one point I hold no reservations: he is the classiest U.S. president in my lifetime. A…
Obama (Barack)
Inauguration Day—from class to crass
I have differed with Barack Obama on various issues during his presidency, but on one point I hold no reservations: he is the classiest U.S. president in my lifetime. A…
Barack Obama and the ghost of Che
An historical photograph. Barack Obama, on his recent visit to Cuba, stands at attention for the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner. The president and his companions are standing at the…
Barack Obama and the ghost of Che
An historical photograph. Barack Obama, on his recent visit to Cuba, stands at attention for the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner. The president and his companions are standing at the…
Barack Obama and the ghost of Che
An historical photograph. Barack Obama, on his recent visit to Cuba, stands at attention for the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner. The president and his companions are standing at the…
Paris—the blowback of imperialism
U.S. President Barack Obama has referred to the atrocities in Paris as attacks “on all of humanity.” He is wrong, of course. The attacks were specifically directed at France, an…
Obama stopped in his free trade tracks
Free trade agreements are frequently referred to by dissenters as corporate rights agreements, and as I pointed out in a recent post, there are powerful reasons why politicians negotiate them…
Netanyahu sabotages U.S. Palestine policy … a good thing?
How much will the Americans put up with from this yahoo? He is the most arrogant leader in the international community, making even Vladimir Putin look modest by comparison. He…
Good use of the American military
As a frequent critic of how the United States uses its military in the world, I was delighted to hear that President Obama has made a major commitment to use…
The man from Goldman Sachs comes to Canada
U.S. President Obama has nominated another one of his major fundraisers as ambassador to Canada. Like David Jacobson, the current ambassador, nominee Bruce Heyman was a “mega-bundler” for Obama’s presidential…
Lynching Obama
Allow me to offer a theory about the recent bizarre behaviour of the Republican Party in the U.S. Congress. All countries have a substantial ultraconservative component of their political spectrum.…
McCain answers Putin—great stuff!
I love it—war with words rather than guns. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times laying out his views on international law…
Wow! This NSA stuff is getting serious—Rouseff snubs Obama
There seems to be no limit to the cats whistleblower Edward Snowden has put among the pigeons. Among the gems about the U.S. National Security Agency’s spying mischief Mr. Snowden…
Is Obama forgetting that many Syrians support Assad?
As humanitarian concern over the Syrian tragedy transforms into a call for war, I wonder if we in the West—and most importantly President Obama—aren’t forgetting that many Syrians support Bashar…
Odds against Obama
Lay your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Will President Obama get the support he wants from Congress for an attack against Syria, or will he suffer an historic and humiliating defeat?…
World losing confidence in Obama
Most of the world breathed easier when Barack Obama was re-elected, but it would seem more a sigh of relief than enthusiasm for the man everyone fell in love with…
Americans increasingly belligerent as foreign policy debate looms
On Monday, Obama and Romney will debate foreign policy. Recent surveys indicate that Americans, on at least two important issues, are feeling increasingly hard-nosed which probably means advantage Romney. Regarding…
Obama’s twin challenges
An interesting article in an Al Jazeera blog poses the question, Who is Obama really running against? The answer isn’t Mitt Romney. It’s Obama himself, or at least the 2008…
Jimmy Carter, drone attacks and moral authority
Jimmy Carter was, in the opinion of this non-American, one of the better presidents the United States has had in recent history. Americans didn’t agree of course, and dumped him…
"Due process just means there’s a process that you do"
The above quote was comedian Stephen Colbert’s take on the U.S. Administration’s latest definition of due process. The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel prepared a memo justifying the murder…