Democrats are increasingly divided; at the national level the strong majority of elected representatives in Congress and President Obama himself are generally associated with what Governor Dean famously called the “Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.” These are the people who reject ex-President Bill Clinton’s argument that Democrats had to adjust to economic and political […]

When Greek voters headed to the polls last month, they were presented with a choice between a motley assortment of radical groups and the mainstream parties. Contrary to the fears of many observers, the center-right New Democracy party eventually prevailed, and with center-left and equally establishmentarian PASOK, the Greek center held, barely. But now the […]

Members of the Syrian opposition in exile in Paris cheered to news that a top general defected to Turkey today. The international media was quick to hail this as the biggest crack in Butcher Assad’s armor yet.Maybe so, and maybe not.The NYT reports that Brigadier General Manaf Tlass was close to Assad and a member of […]

This could be the next stage in the Castro family’s long quest to build a new Cuba. The WSJ reports: Cuban President Raúl Castro is looking to strengthen the country’s economic ties to Beijing as it moves to liberalize its economy somewhat and limit its energy dependence on Venezuela, whose leader is battling cancer and […]

Can we all just admit this now, forty months into the Obama administration? Our economic policy mix isn’t working. Today’s job numbers for June just underline the bitter truth. We’ve spent more money and printed more money in the last 40 months than in any comparable period in American history, and what we’ve got to […]

There actually is a magic bullet solution to a lot of America’s big problems and its something we can all do in our bathrobes and slippers. It’s telecommuting, and it can make America, and the world, richer, happier, and greener all at the same time.And it can make our society more family friendly too, which is […]

After a long, bitter and expensive deadlock between the U.S. and Pakistan, diplomacy and sly semantics have finally broken one stalemate at least.On Tuesday, Secretary Clinton phoned Pakistan’s foreign minister, offered a carefully worded commiseration about the airstrike that killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers last November, and hammered out a fresh agreement. The New York […]

Wealthy and even comfortably circumstanced Brits tired of their country’s famously dreary weather head to France, where some 200,000 of them have second homes. Those homes are about to get more expensive, thanks to President François Hollande’s plans to raise taxes on foreigners who own property in France. The tax is expected to bring in 7 […]

In what was an otherwise slow 4th of July news day, Mitt Romney’s declaration that the core element of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act—the individual mandate—is in fact a tax did provide some political fireworks. Romney’s comments came just two days after his chief campaign spokesman said the governor believed the mandate should be called […]

Kevin Drum at Mother Jones asks a version of a question Via Meadia has been asking lately: “Why does it take so damn long to build stuff these days?” It’s a question that many frustrated Democrats have been asking as they look at the failure of the Obama stimulus to generate the economic growth that […]