The Rasmussen polling organization is out with a shock poll that the entire Washington establishment needs to study: 51 percent of voters surveyed said they wanted all US troops out of Europe, now. Only 29 percent favored keeping the troops where they are.US troops have been in Europe since World War Two. In the Cold […]

Boko Haram remains faceless and mysterious to Nigerians, but it does appear to have a strategy and organization, according to an interview with Ahmad Salkida, the Nigerian journalist widely considered to know the group more intimately than almost anyone. In 2005, Salkida began praying at Mohammed Yusuf’s mosque, where Boko Haram originally took shape, was arrested with […]

Few in Europe are happy to admit it, but Italy is looking disturbingly similar to Greece these days. Mass youth unemployment, an over-regulated bureaucratic economy and a shaky financial sector have crippled the fiscal health of both countries; both now face a future of austerity and stagnation. And the similarities became even more pronounced late […]

For much of the American public, Mitt Romney remains a cipher. As Via Meadia has noted previously, Romney has too often ceded control of his personal narrative to the press and his opponents, making him particularly vulnerable to countless attacks on his character and to damaging stories like the account of his prep school days. […]

Egypt has a problem with foreigners. More accurately, Egypt has a problem because there aren’t enough foreigners investing or traveling in Egypt anymore.After the revolution began last year, foreign investment dried up, fast. Tourists disappeared and haven’t really come back. The two groups—investors and travelers—are extremely important sources of money for the Egyptian government and […]

Here’s another reminder that the uprisings of the Arab Spring are a lot messier and more complicated than the optimists want you to believe: The Syrian opposition today issued a stinging riposte against its implacable foe…Israel. Reports YNet: Leader of the Syrian opposition bloc Burhan Ghalioun said Saturday that the Syrian regime signed an agreement […]

Greece’s exit from the Euro is looking more likely by the day, and increasing numbers of analysts now believe that that may be the best way forward—at least for the Greeks, if not the rest of Europe. Many countries stand to lose significant investments should Greece bail on the common currency.A new piece in French daily […]

We’ve been following the race in the Wisconsin effort to recall Governor Scott Walker because in our view this is the most important election in America before the Big One in November.We still hold to that belief, but this thing is looking less like a race and more like a coronation. With only two weeks […]

Together with the election of François Hollande in France, a European bank walk (more and more depositors moving money out of the banking systems of countries they think might be at risk of leaving the euro) is steering Europe toward a new set of policies. As the Financial Times details, Germany in particular is being […]

In a recent piece at Bloomberg, Mark C. Taylor makes a provocative argument that cuts against the grain of the usual thinking about college reform: Competition is killing higher education, he says.This is certainly a controversial position, but Taylor has amassed considerable evidence for his conclusion. An atmosphere of intense competition for new applicants, he […]