U.S. foreign policy is disgraceful and embarrassing
@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } Arabs are once again showing grit, courage and bravery in Bahrain and Yemen against oppression and...Obama’s indecisiveness defines his presidency
He may still possess the poise of a confident leader and an eloquent intellectual, but the presidency of Barack Obama is now suffering its most difficult phase to date. President Barack Obama gestures during his news conference in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House in Washington December 22, 2010....‘McCarthyism’ rises in Israel
WASHINGTON — Israel and the Palestinians will resume direct peace talks here in early September, striving for a deal within a year to create an independent Palestinian state, U.S. officials announced on Friday. President Barack Obama will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, as well as...
Arizona is messing with the Constitution
May 2nd, 20100 Last week, the elected Republican members of the State Government of Arizona declared their support for an awful, dangerous and probably unconstitutional bill signed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer that would make illegal immigration a state crime and empower local and state law enforcement to ask people (read: Latinos and dark-skinned...More immigrants could fix entitlement mess
I was born in 1946, just when the boomer wave began. Bill Clinton was born that year, too. So was George W. So was Laura Bush. And Ken Starr (remember him?) And then, the next year, Hillary Clinton. And soon Newt Gingrich (known as "Newty" as a boy). And Cher. Why so many of us being born in 1946? Simple. My father was in World War II....Ten ways to react to attacks when going against the grain
Last week a colleague who has been facing repeated and unfair attacks in the media and the blogosphere (for making arguments that cut against the conventional wisdom) sent around an email asking a number of friends and associates (including me) for advice on how to deal with the attacks. Having been smeared in similar fashion myself, I...Unfulfilled promises: Guantanamo and torture
Last April we polled across the Arab World asking what Arabs thought was the most positive early action President Obama had taken to improve U.S.-Arab relations. High up on the list (barely topped by the decision to leave Iraq) was the president's pledge to close Guantanamo and ban torture. That this issue would out-poll Obama's early...HPV virus: Time to face reality
I recently contacted the Dearborn, Michigan Health Department to see if they provide the HPV vaccine. The receptionist said yes, but that it is only recommended for women ages 11-26. Beyond age 26, health insurance will not cover the vaccine and it is pricey. Depending on the clinic, the cost could range from $140-$180 per shot...Christian Arabs remain the best situated to combat the demonization of Islam
"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves…" Matthew 7:15. According to Christian tradition the above quote is attributed to Jesus of Nazareth by Matthew as part of the famous Sermon on the Mount, a compilation of Jesus' sayings epitomizing his moral teachingindus....Girding our loins for the underwear battle
There was a time when errant children were made to stand in corners and reflect on their misdeeds. We are made to stand in lines, in our stocking feet, with our shampoo in plastic bags and our pocket change in collection plates, waiting for others to decide how much to blur their images of what's inside our undergarments. As we reflect...
Mormon Senator, Arab singer create Hanukkah tune
December 18th, 20090 A Republican, Mormon U.S. Senator has teamed with an Arab American singer to record a song for Hanukkah. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and singer Rasheeda Azar from Indiana, recorded "Eight Days of Hanukkah," a cheerful pop ballad, in New York in October and released it through a Jewish online magazine...Confronting radicalization online
The recent arrests of five American Muslim youth in Pakistan on suspicion of attempting to join militant groups there has provoked deep concern about the existence of homegrown extremism among Muslim American youth. Until recently, it was believed that this was a problem confined to other Western countries such as the UK. The fact that...Immigration reform is good for economic recovery
There are signs that the nation is slowly emerging from the longest and most severe recession since the Great Depression. But a full economic recovery will require solid thinking about the strength of our workforce so that we are better positioned to produce and consume goods, contribute to the tax base, and expand job opportunities...
Obama switches gears on Afghanistan
December 4th, 20090 WASHINGTON (IPS) — President Barack Obama presented a case Tuesday for sending 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan that included both soaring rhetoric and a new emphasis on its necessity for U.S. national security. U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to cadets at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, December...
She’s only 17 and she’s dead either way
October 8th, 20090 Ever since Rifqa Bary ran away from her home in Columbus, Ohio in early August, the ex-Muslim's story of an alleged imminent honor killing at the hands of her parents for her conversion to Christianity has galvanized the Right in a way reminiscent of the Terry Schiavo case. Short on facts but big on opportunism, the Right sought to......
A new approach to U.S. aid in the Muslim world
The American University of Beirut (AUB), from which tens of thousands of Arab leaders have graduated over the last 140 years, is a shining example of foreign aid put to good use. What distinguishes the graduates of AUB is not only leadership and a sense of service to the Arab world; graduates of this New York-chartered university are...Eyeless in Gaza: Obama’s Palestine flop
Obama's peace initiative on Palestine suffered a stunning, perhaps fatal, blow last week. Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu rejected out of hand any freeze on the West Bank settlements which the White House had pressed as a necessary first step toward serious negotiations. The Obama plan is now stillborn, never having drawn a...Religions ring in on healthcare reform
The Centers for Disease Control estimates 44 million Americans, under the age of sixty-five, went uninsured in 2008. Grim new figures report that another 6 million would lose their coverage this year. Stirring statistics like these were the focus of an All Faiths' Festival (AFF) interfaith forum last week in Warren, MI. Members and...When did making a profit become the only reason to do anything?
It used to be that there were some services and institutions so vital to our nation that they were exempt from market pressures. Not anymore. How about this for a New Rule: Not everything in America has to make a profit. It used to be that there were some services and institutions so vital to our nation that they were exempt from......
How the Israel lobby took control of U.S. foreign policy
In the early 1960s, Senator William J. Fulbright fought to force the American Zionist Council to register as agents of a foreign government. The Council eluded registration by reorganizing as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. AIPAC has since become what Fulbright most feared: a foreign agent dominating American...Time for immigration reform is now
Editor's Note: This editorial was produced in association with New America Media (www.newamericamedia.org), a national association of ethnic media, and was published by ethnic media across the country this week to bring attention to the urgency of immigration reform. The White House and members of Congress must move quickly on......
Goodbye, GM
June 12th, 20090 I write this on the morning of the end of the once-mighty General Motors. By high noon, the President of the United States will have made it official: General Motors, as we know it, has been totaled. As I sit here in GM's birthplace, Flint, Michigan, I am surrounded by friends and family who are filled with anxiety about what will...Report ties dubious Iran nuclear documents to Israel
WASHINGTON (IPS) — A report on Iran's nuclear program issued by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month generated news stories publicizing an incendiary charge that U.S. intelligence is underestimating Iran's progress in designing a "nuclear warhead" before the halt in nuclear weapons-related research in 2003. That false......
