What’s so foreign about foreign policy?

In a time when so much of U.S. foreign policy involves our global military footprint, ongoing engagements, waning engagements and threatening engagements, it's easy to think that war is the sole function of that governing platform. Americans are conditioned that way; like a computer that insists on entering a discarded wi-fi password at your favorite…

Truth slightly distorted – the Republicans’ latest cobbled frame

"The most dangerous untruths are truths slightly distorted." -G.C. Lichtenberg, 18th Century scientist and satirist Word has come, from a piece in New York Magazine, that former President George W. Bush has begun to paint, "making portraits of dogs and arid Texas landscapes" to occupy his time in retirement. It's a good hobby for a…

Can’t hang your hat on polls when winds of crisis blow

In politics, you can't hang your hat on a poll, because the winds of global events will easily send it tumbling away. In the battle for leading a nation, there are only two things you can plant at the top of a poll: a flag or your ass, and if one isn't up there, the…

Peace withers when religion tramples the vine

Faith requires so little - only the willingness to abandon what one knows to be true in family and society, in favor of something less certain, outside one's usual life experience. That is where a prophet of faith begins his (or her) personal journey. It is not until after others have also stepped forward, into…

Clinton: ‘A positive direction’ ahead for relations with the Muslim world

U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary R. Clinton, hosted an Eid ul-Fitr celebration, Thursday night, at the State Department, marking the end of the Muslim Ramadan month of fasting. After acknowledging the lateness of the event, since Ramadan ended a few weeks ago, Sec. Clinton took the opportunity to address the violence against U.S. diplomatic missions…

‘Careful’ and ‘Responsible’ foreign policy flusters GOP

"...we have a phased redeployment, where we’re as careful getting out as we were careless getting in..." - Sen. Barack Obama, during the 2008 presidential campaign, referring to his plan for withdrawal from Iraq, in an interview with Politico before the Potomac Primaries, Feb. 11, 2008. "As a candidate for president, I pledged to bring…

The Obama Doctrine – making Hope global

"The United States supports a set of universal rights.  And these rights include free speech, the freedom of peaceful assembly, the freedom of religion, equality for men and women under the rule of law, and the right to choose your own leaders." - President Barack Obama affirming what he intends the country to represent, in…