Tremendous news: President Obama is seriously considering signing an executive order requiring federal contractors to disclose their political spending. It’s about time. Limiting federal contractors’ influence to elect the politicians that award contracts worth millions of taxpayer dollars to those same companies seems like an obvious move to eliminate corruption or potential corruption. Moreover, so…
The Citizens United decision unleashed a new level of influence over war & peace for corporations. But there’s something President Obama can do, with the stroke of a pen, to reduce that influence. Corporations awarded federal contracts – including Pentagon contractors – should be required to disclose their political donations to candidates and SuperPACs. We…
When President Obama nominated global health superhero Dr. Jim Young Kim to lead the World Bank, Harvard development economist Dani Rodrik remarked, "It’s nice to see that Obama can still surprise us." Is it possible that Obama could pleasantly surprise us in the upcoming talks with Iran over its nuclear program? Much of the media…
The key political fact about the proposed Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico is this: at the end of the day, the decision of whether to approve the permit for the pipeline or not will be a political decision wholly owned by President Obama. The final determination…
The most important content of Presidential speeches is often what they don’t say. Here are some things that President Obama didn’t say about Libya in his speech last night. The President did not answer his critics who asked why he took America into war without authorization by Congress. This question was made sharper on Sunday…
President Obama wants credit for keeping his promise to end the war in Iraq. Some credit is due: the President reaffirmed his commitment to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011, as required by the agreement between the U.S. and Iraq. But only partial credit is due, because the war-ending task…
575: That’s how many U.S. soldiers have lost their lives in the Afghanistan war since Barack Obama became President at noon on January 20, 2009, according to the icasualties.org website, which tracks U.S. soldiers’ deaths using reports received from the Department of Defense – and which is widely cited in the media as a source…
In the next several weeks, Congress is likely to be asked to approve $33 billion more for the war in Afghanistan, mainly to pay for the current military escalation, whose focus is the planned assault on the Afghan city of Kandahar. Some Members of Congress will vote no on the funding. A larger group of…
I don’t know about all you commiepinkos, but I believe we should Support Our Troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. General Petraeus, Admiral Mullen, and Vice-President Biden say that Israel’s actions toward the Palestinians are putting our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq in danger. That’s why, to Support Our Troops, the U.S. government must effectively pressure…
On March 10, in the Israeli city of Haifa, American peace activist Rachel Corrie will get her day in court. Rachel’s parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, are bringing suit against the Israeli defence ministry for Rachel’s killing by an Israeli military bulldozer in Gaza in March 2003. Four key American and British witnesses who were…