President Obama’s proposed budget offers no real cuts to the Pentagon, and further spreads the divide between Defense and State Departments spending.
Two Big Errors Plague Budget Reporting
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Mubarak’s Defiance
After deliberately raising the hopes of millions of Egyptians and millions more around the world, U.S.-backed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak defied the rising demand of the millions of protesters who have taken to Egypt’s streets, to announce he will remain in office. Claiming he wouldn’t bow to “foreign pressure,” Mubarak, he said he had “laid down a vision…to exit the current crisis, and to realize the demands voiced by the youth and citizens…without violating the Constitution.”
Military Spending Cuts: Depends on what the Meaning of ‘On the Table’ Is
The budget Obama will present to Congress next week will likely begin what the Pentagon is billing as $78 billion in cuts to its budget over five years. In fact these are cuts to their plans for expansion, i.e., slowing a proposed increase is being defined as a cut.
Sushi Reverses Course: Consuming American Sushi in Tokyo
The nascent American sushi trend brings into relief aspects of Japan-US relations that are seldom articulated in the context of discourse about food – in particular the continued symbolic dominance of the US in Japanese eyes; and it also is emblematic of how Japan engages aspects of globalisation, in this case fetishising a mundane product that has become something new in its reimported form.
Tunisia’s Spark and Egypt’s Flame: the Middle East is Rising
The breadth and depth of the spreading protests, the helplessness of the U.S.-backed governments to stop them, and the rapidly diminishing ability of the United States to protect its long-time clients, are resulting in a level of revolutionary fervor not visible in the Middle East in a generation.
An Opening for Progressives? Obama to Step up Outreach to Africa in 2011
Can Obama change Africa policy as Big Oil and other powerful U.S. companies remain a serious challenge to peace and stability on the continent?
Disarmament and Nonproliferation: Which Is the Cart, Which Is the Horse?
Heretofore coexisting peacefully, the two are now juxtaposed.
WikiLeaks Reveals U.S. Twisted Ethiopia’s Arm to Invade Somalia
Even though Washington claims to have counseled Ethiopia not to use military force against Somalia.
WikiLeaks XV: Does Tehran Really Press-Gang Ninjas Into Its Services?
Just how strong is Iran’s supposedly fearsome Revolutionary Guard if it’s both fearful of local karate clubs and reliant on them for training and assistance?
Assange’s Arrest: Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop
Is the WikiLeak founder’s threat to drop the rest of the documents motivated by revenge or concern for WikiLeaks?