JFK was still operating normally this afternoon as my flight from Heathrow came in. Bizarrely enough, the checked baggage arrived so quickly that it was waiting for us after we cleared passport control and, though the descent was a bit bumpy as the pilot struggled with the winds that are already picking up a few […]

As WRM and Hurricane/Frankenstorm Sandy both race across the Atlantic towards the Eastern Seaboard, Via Meadia presents this week’s Week in Review.Our essay this week looked at a damning, must-read piece from the New York Times,  which outlines the misery and ruin that well-intentioned liberals combined with aggressive public sector labor unions inflict on the poor […]

If you’ve asked yourself that question in the weeks since Western darling Mikhail Saakashvili’s party took a drubbing in Georgia’s parliamentary elections, you owe it to yourself to read the FT‘s weekend feature on Bidzina Ivanishvili. To our knowledge, it’s the first good in-depth piece trying to find out more about the mysterious man who made […]

The Iraqi government is trying to walk a tightrope. A few weeks ago we noted how the crisis in Syria was pushing Baghdad further into the arms of Tehran, as Iraq’s Shiite-dominated leadership feared that the success of Syria’s rebels might strengthen Sunni groups in Iraq. But American influence still counts for something: Iraqi authorities […]

A week out from the U.S. election, the left-leaning London Guardian runs with a piece praising Jeb Bush’s education reforms in Florida—and touting Bush as the source of Obama’s own ideas on education reform. For over a decade now, schools in Florida have been graded from A to F based on the performance and progress […]

We still don’t know exactly what happened between the Pentagon, the State Department, the CIA and the White House as Americans in Libya requested support for Ambassador Stevens and his team in their final hours, and we almost certainly won’t before the election.But that doesn’t do the administration much good. As various departments and officials […]

The world’s eyes are firmly fixed on Ohio this week, and well they should be. It is mathematically possible that a candidate could lose Ohio and win an electoral majority, it is deeply unlikely.The close race in Ohio is partly a reflection of the tightness of the national race, but it also reflects a truth […]

As the Berlusconi conviction spreads, confusion and disarray follow, the FT reports: The jail sentence handed down to Silvio Berlusconi with his conviction for tax fraud by a Milan court is set to intensify a power struggle within his centre-right party while adding to the mounting problems of Italy’s government under Mario Monti.Twenty years ago, […]

As election season heads into the home stretch, all eyes are on the presidential race. But while Obama and Romney are hogging the spotlight, another very important fight over labor unions is brewing in Michigan. We reported last month that Michigan’s unions scored an important victory when a measure enshrining collective-bargaining rights and outlawing right-to-work legislation was […]

The WSJ reports from Herat, Afghanistan: “Iran is the real influence here. With one snap of their fingers, they can mobilize 20,000 Afghans,” said a high-ranking official in Afghanistan’s presidential palace. “This is much more dangerous than the suicide bombers coming from Pakistan. At least you can see them and fight them. But you can’t […]