Remarking on the Unremarkable Politics of Today

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49508399106037405302011-11-27T17:10:51.234-08:00Remarking on the Unremarkable Politics of TodayAn informed commentary on U.S. and international political and economic events. This blog is inspired by the unremarkably obtuse, narrow and imperceptive political discourse dominating the U.S. media, and hopes to correct that one small, unremarkable post at a time.JAGShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05082618854166649106noreply@blogger.comBlogger121100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950839910603740530.post-80746891552342579682007-12-29T18:38:00.000-08:002007-12-29T19:25:14.603-08:00Is Bhutto’s Death Boon or Blow to the U.S.?

Does the fear and chaos created by Bhutto’s death benefit Bush-Cheney by protracting their “war on terrorism”? Or does it mean the assured failure of the Bush administration’s policy in Pakistan and the Middle East? Analysts agree that the assassination of the strongly loved and hated Benazir Bhutto will cause more instability in the nuclear-armed nation. However, there seem to be more

JAGShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05082618854166649106noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950839910603740530.post-15591187542691625222007-12-28T14:57:00.000-08:002007-12-28T15:03:35.075-08:00Al Qaeda Blamed for Bhutto’s Death

In a press conference held on Friday, the Pakistani government laid the blame for the combined shooting and suicide bomb attack that killed Bhutto on al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Shocker of all shocks, just a day after the fatal rally, Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz said investigators had resolved the "whole mystery" behind the opposition leader's killing. The government claims it intercepted a

JAGShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05082618854166649106noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950839910603740530.post-6878203415277068132007-12-27T17:47:00.000-08:002007-12-28T15:00:00.800-08:00Bhutto Assassination: Who Stands to Benefit?

The assassination of Pakistan’s twice-elected Prime Minister raises many a question of grave concern.Ask yourself who benefits most from the removal of Benazir Bhutto from the Pakistani political landscape. As he does with mostly everything these days, President Musharraf was quick to tie the assassination back to the fight against terrorism. When President Musharraf addressed the Pakistani

JAGShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05082618854166649106noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950839910603740530.post-51500227977285495412007-12-24T21:10:00.000-08:002007-12-25T15:14:29.845-08:00What You Didn’t Know about Foreign Aid

As the U.S. rethinks its promise of $750 million in civilian aid to Pakistan’s tribal regions, and Australia, Britain and France promise new aid packages to Afghanistan, I was reminded of a highly insightful research paper that analyzes the determinants of foreign aid. The authors, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith, both professors of politics at New York University, approach

JAGShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05082618854166649106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950839910603740530.post-84315153732234973412007-12-24T13:13:00.000-08:002007-12-25T15:13:51.784-08:00Pakistan’s Tyranny Continues

The New York Times published this must-read op-ed by Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan yesterday. A former minister of the interior and of law and justice, Aitzaz Ahsan is the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan.He successfully represented now-deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Chaudhry’s case in the Supreme Court which reinstated the Chief Justice and declared his March

JAGShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05082618854166649106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950839910603740530.post-16229796970952612882007-12-23T17:11:00.000-08:002007-12-23T17:16:55.597-08:00Why Pakistan’s Islamic Parties are Struggling for Support

This report in the Washington Post should put to rest any fears that a Taliban-style cleric may emerge as the new Prime Minister of Pakistan following its January 8 elections. A recent survey shows that only 4 percent of Pakistanis intend to support the religious parties in the upcoming elections. The results of the last Pakistani parliamentary election in 2002, the high-water mark for the

JAGShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05082618854166649106noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950839910603740530.post-6756022488302930572007-12-22T13:48:00.000-08:002007-12-23T17:17:15.767-08:00Top 10 Reasons Not to Grow up in Iraq as a Child

Imagine growing up in Iraq which has been dubbed the world’s best-known conflict and its least well-known humanitarian crisis. The continuing violence in Iraq displaces 25,000 children every month as their families are forced to seek shelter in other parts of Iraq or outside its borders. Approximately 75,000 children were living in camps or temporary shelters

JAGShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05082618854166649106noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950839910603740530.post-85294398837665422482007-12-21T13:32:00.000-08:002007-12-21T13:36:51.860-08:00Earmarks: Bad Policy yet Good Politics

President Bush’s press conference yesterday sparked a fierce debate about pork barrel spending which has been skyrocketing over the past decade. Many regard earmarks as corruptive and wasteful, arguing that they stymie progress, thwart innovation, and generally muck up the spending process. Others point out that earmark money is at least spent in the U.S., boosts the American economy, and employs

JAGShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05082618854166649106noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950839910603740530.post-66029181866716558702007-12-20T13:10:00.000-08:002007-12-20T13:19:13.671-08:00Clinton and the Battle of the Sexes

Does Senator Hillary Clinton’s fight for the White House reflect a nationwide Battle of the Sexes? This article in the Washington Post today claims just that. The author’s argument is two-fold. Firstly, Lois Romano points to the unmistakable gender gap in voting preferences. The New York Daily News national poll shows that in a head-to-head match-up with Hillary Clinton, she would

JAGShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05082618854166649106noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950839910603740530.post-69388887089964214722007-12-19T16:22:00.000-08:002007-12-19T16:40:55.027-08:00Estonia: The Baltic Tiger

Dubbed as the Baltic Tiger, the small former Soviet Republic of Estonia has successfully rid itself of its communist-era shackles and has rapidly become the epitome of economic freedom. Merely fifteen years after Estonia first emerged from Communist oppression in 1992, Heritage.org ranks Estonia as the 12th freest economy in the world.Estonia owes its transformation from an isolated,

JAGShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05082618854166649106noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950839910603740530.post-91408099860129249412007-12-18T15:55:00.000-08:002007-12-23T17:17:44.785-08:00The Kyoto Protocol: Why the U.S. must ratify the climate change pact

As the U.S. continues to drag its feet on the Kyoto treaty, a fierce debate continues worldwide about the efficacy, fairness and even the very need of the climate change pact. As is the norm with any hotly contested issue, a lot of misinformation is being thrown around with regards to the Kyoto plan for tackling global warming.An article in the American Thinker reports:If we look at carbon

JAGShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05082618854166649106noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950839910603740530.post-57804461816395911782007-12-17T14:21:00.000-08:002007-12-20T06:24:16.731-08:00Obama and the Audacity of Naiveté

Political analysts and rival U.S. presidential candidates are fast realizing that bashing Obama's lack of experience may be the most viable line of attack against the Illinois Senator. Rumors that Obama is secretly Muslim have not done much and will likely take a backseat after his appearance at Church last Sunday. Furthermore, Hilary Clinton's recent slide in the polls painfully highlighted the

JAGShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05082618854166649106noreply@blogger.com0