The Assad family is winning the Battle of Ramadan — for what that is worth.  Brute force massively but not unintelligently applied has kept protesters at bay and prevented the consolidation of an unstoppable national movement for change.  The cost is high: every day more countries turn their backs on the regime.It isn’t over yet.  […]

The corn harvest this year won’t be as big as expected, a bad sign in a time of high food prices, low supply, and famine in parts of the world. The WSJ reports: The plant damage likely means that U.S. farmers for the second consecutive year won’t keep up with surging demand for the crop, […]

It takes a special kind of person to steal money from the mentally disabled.  And it takes a special kind of state government to let this go on year after year.  Welcome to New York, where we have both.From the NYT: Two brothers who ran the Young Adult Institute Network, an agency for the mentally […]

From the NYT: The defunct community organizing group Acorn was fined the maximum $5,000 in a voter registration scheme. Judge Donald Mosley of Clark County District Court handed down the fine on Wednesday. Prosecutors say Acorn authorized a Las Vegas operative to run a voter-registration program in the 2008 election cycle that paid cash for […]

To readers of this blog, Brooklyn is best known as a shabby wannabe borough where vagrants roast dead animals in the parks and residents dream longingly of life in glamorous Queens.But the Brooklyn library system is setting an example not just for New York but for the whole United States: faced with cuts to its […]

From Governing, insight into the future of American state politics: Facing the prospect of a statewide financial crisis arising from Central Falls’ bankruptcy case, the Rhode Island Legislature took steps to assure municipal bond investors that their interests will not be impaired by pensioner’s claims. The new law enables the city’s receiver to subordinate the […]

EU politicians face their most difficult decision since the Treaty of Rome established what became the European Union back in the 1950s: do they let the euro break up into one or more smaller currency areas or do they turn the eurozone into a “fiscal union” with national budgets and policies subject to eurozone approval.If […]

In one of those lapses of news judgment that with regrettable frequency make mainstream journalists resemble characters in Scoop, the media herd that gathered in Wisconsin to chronicle the great Democratic triumph in the state senate elections has gone back to the coasts — and missed what could grow into a much more consequential story […]

People are criticizing President Obama for going to Martha’s Vineyard for a vacation in August. We here at Via Meadia think our old family stomping ground of Pawley’s Island would have been the better choice, but we hope the President and his family have a great time.Down time isn’t just goofing off time.  It’s when a […]

Stalin must be spinning in his grave.Caviar sandwiches. McDonald’s delivery. Vodka. Toga parties. Gladiator costumes. All in a Russian jail.The Telegraph reports: The inmates are seen horsing around with cardboard swords, appear to be drinking alcohol, and are shown enjoying a banquet of fruit, vegetables and salads. The party had a Roman gladiator theme and the […]