It is hard not to think of that Gallic witticism when observing recent international events. Aside from almost daily threats from the governments of Israel and the United States to attack Iran – a violation of the United Nations Charter – Iran has been subject to sabotage, violations of its airspace by military drones and…

Cet animal est tres mechant; quand on l’attaque, il se defend. (This animal is very wicked; when you attack it, it defends itself) – French proverb It is hard not to think of that Gallic witticism when observing recent international events. Aside from almost daily threats from the governments of Israel and the United States to attack Iran —…

Although Mitt Romney used the word “conservative” 19 times in a short speech at the February 10, 2012, Conservative Political Action Conference, the audience he used this word to appeal to was not conservative by any traditional definition. It was right wing. Despite the common American practice of using “conservative” and “right wing” interchangeably, right wing…

For most of my three-decade career handling national security budgets in Congress, Iran was two or three years away from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The idea of an Islamic bomb exerts a peculiar fascination on American political culture and shines a searchlight on how the gross dysfunctionality of American politics emerges synergistically from the individual dysfunctions of…

For most of my three-decade career handling national security budgets in Congress, Iran wastwo or three years away from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The idea of an Islamic bomb exerts a peculiar fascination on American political culture and shines a searchlight on how the gross dysfunctionality of American politics emerges synergistically from the individual dysfunctions of…

Published Wednesday, January 18, 2012, in the guardian.co.uk,. Link to Article What hope does the public have of making informed choices about parties’ tax policies when the press is not telling the story? How the media lost the plot on US taxation What hope does the public have of making informed choices about parties’ tax policies…

The media doesn’t seem to understand the basics about budgets — and the inescapable relationship between aggregate revenues, aggregate spending, and total deficits. Either that, or reporters just choose to play dumb. The end result is the same, however: Journalists don’t probe deeply — or they probe when it is too late to matter —…