Does the reaction of U.S. lawmakers to the shooting in Tucson bode ill for some kind of healing process? Columnist Patrick Etschmayer of Switzerland’s News worries that the political gamesmanship that has already begun offers little hope that the rhetoric in the United States – or in Europe for that matter – are likely to be tamped down anytime soon. For News, Patrick Etschmayer writes in part: For many who knew her, Christina Greene was a little vessel of hope. The girl, a little...

Continuing with our look at the German press reaction to the attack in Arizona, columnist Frank Herrmann of the Rheinische Post expresses relief that finally, Americans are looking inward and asking what it means when holding public office is synonymous with risking one’s life. America is in a state of shock. The bloodbath in Arizona has shaken a nation which must recognize that when hateful rhetoric poisons the political climate, brutal violence may follow. Perhaps this was the act of...

After the attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, what can the American people do to bring their politics back to a place where differences don’t devolve into a veritable war against the opposition? According to columnist Peter Craven from Germany’s Berliner Morganpost, “it’s time to revive the rules of civilized coexistence and fair political discourse.” Even if the background of the bloodbath in Arizona remains unclear, parallels can be noted with Oklahoma....

The world is looking on, wondering what will happen in America next, after the massacre and assassination attempt on an Arizona Congresswoman last weekend. In this article from Poland’s Polityka, columnist Tomasz Zalewski asks if this is the beginning of a wave of political violence like the one that claimed the lives of John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s. America has never lacked deranged, frustrated types like Jared Laughner, who take their revenge for a lack...

Have extremist Republican attacks against President Obama and left-wing Americans resulted in the assassination attempt against an American lawmakers and the murder of six others? Continuing with our coverage of the massacre in Tucson, columnist Axel Zacharias of Germany’s Die Thüringische Landeszeitung writes that Republican party spokespeople like Sarah Palin have a lot to answer for. For Die Thüringische Landeszeitung, Axel Zacharias writes in part: Slander and threats against Obama partisans...

How responsible is right-wing rhetoric for the assassination attempt against Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords? According to columnist Thomas Spang of Austria’s Salzburger Nachrichten, where to pin the blame couldn’t be clearer. For the Salzburger Nachrichten, Thomas Spang writes in part: For months, the political right has been turning up the heat in the United States. In this poisoned atmosphere, a young man reaches for his gun. In the political discourse of the United...

With Goldman Sachs’ $50 billion Facebook buy-in, is a new type of dot.com bubble being created? According to this editorial from Germany’s Financial Times Deutschland, in order to recoup such a mammoth sum, Facebook will have to become a conglomerate – a step that has killed off many of the world’s most innovative tech-savvy companies. The Financial Times Deutschland editorial says in part: Along the way, user profiles are being built that are far more accurate, and thus...

Slamming the American media’s lack of attention to the inauguration of Brazil’s first woman president, columnist Véronique Saint-Geours of France’s Le Figaro also slams Hillary Clinton’s performance at the event. Saying that this reflects a continuing “imperialist” misunderstanding of the growing importance of Brazil, the Le Figaro columnist warns that Washington has mistakenly and self-destructively pigeonholed Brazil with the rest of South America. For Le...

Is it possible that America’s natural suspicion of state-power is in a self-destructive phase, radicalized at a moment in which it needs effective government most? Columnist Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger of Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung worries that whatever the many benefits of that suspicion, “this federation in which people expect strong leadership and a willingness to embrace pragmatic solutions cannot exist without trust.” For the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,...

How transformational are WikiLeaks and Facebook? According to columnist Antonio Pedro Vansconcelos of Portugal’s Sol newspaper, Julian Assange and Mark Zuckerberg have just heralded a brave new world, and those hoping for a smooth transition from the old civilization to the new are going to be ‘sorely disappointed.’ For Portugal’s Sol, Antonio Pedro Vansconcelos writes in part: If Facebook is for making friends, WikiLeaks seems geared for making enemies. What they have in...

Here’s an interesting question: would the release of internal White House documents before the Iraq War began have prevented the Bush Administration from going ahead with it? According to columnist Ulrich Ladurner of Germany’s Die Zeit, not only is it likely that the war would have been prevented – but Julian Assange may well have won the Nobel Peace Prize. For Die Zeit, Ulrich Ladurner writes in part: Julian Assange has been much reviled for his dogma that everything should be...

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has had raised his public profile of late. After last week signing off on a partnership between WikiLeaks and Rossiyskaya Gazeta – the newspaper he partly owns – this week he is opining on the New START Treaty, which was passed by the U.S. Senate last week. Gorbachev wrote one op-ed piece for the English-speaking press, and a different version for the Russian. Below you will find the translated Russian version, which, unlike the English, discusses...

It seems as though the operations of WikiLeaks have set almost every source of power on the attack against a new enemy. But according to Liberation columnist Daniel Schneiderman, despite the focus on Julian Assange, pinpointing precisely what or who the enemy is – and how to stop it – is proving exceedingly difficult. For Liberation, after outlining the importance of making sure that the sexual assault charges against Julian Assange are genuine rather than politically motivated, Daniel...

Time Magazine has chosen its 2010 Man of the Year: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. France’s Le Monde, a member of the five newspaper consortium publishing U.S. diplomatic cables disclosed by WikiLeaks, has made a different choice: Julian Assange. In this excerpt from the long version published in Le Monde’s Sunday magazine, reporter Yves Eudes gives a sense of why the French newspaper chose Assange: Tall, thin and elegant, Julian Assange, founder and chief of WikiLeaks, first of...

Can Julian Assange compare to the Rolling Stones in terms of public fame and elite rejection? In this lighthearted holiday analysis of the WikiLeaks saga, columnist Quico Alsedo of Spain’s El Pais depicts Assange as a man who enrages the ruling classes and is loved by the common man – as was Jagger – but with a difference: Assange has also exposed the major media as apathetic, ineffectual, and nursing at the teats of those in power. For El Pais, Quico Alsedo writes in part: Besides...

Those who have criticized WikiLeaks and its founder for targeting U.S. misdeeds and not Russia’s or China’s are about to get their wish. And in terms of Russian politics, this is sure to be a Battle Royal. That’s because Russia’s Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper partly owned by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, has just entered into a partnership with WikiLeaks. And according to this article from the newspaper by columnist Roman Anin, an acquaintance of Julian Assange,...

Christmas or no Christmas, the WikiLeaks juggernaut marches on. In this report from Juan Jesus Aznarez of Spain’s El Pais, a U.S. diplomatic cable has emerged that shows America pressuring Brazil to get Hugo Chavez to ‘show more restraint’ when speaking of the U.S. and its president, George W. Bush, who Chavez referred to as ‘El Diablo [Satan], a ‘donkey’, an ‘alcoholic’ and a ‘murderer,’ among other things. For El Pais, Juan Jesus Aznarez...

First – I want to wish a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to the entire Moderate Voice community from all the people of Worldmeets.US. As one of the Net’s great efforts to provide a platform for all viewpoints, the Moderate Voice makes a contribution to building a better world, and we are proud to play our part. As we have seen quite frequently over the past few years, sports and politics frequently collide, particularly when it involves a global sporting event. Weeks ago, the tiny...

One would be hard pressed to find a country – or a media – more supportive of American exceptionalism than Romania. In a column sure to warm the Christmas hearts of the American right, columnist Cristian Campeanu of Romania Libera writes that despite the massive evidence WikiLeaks has provided of the accuracy of America’s global view, the ‘real’ world continues to obstinately refuse to dispense with the myth of the “Great Satan” propagated by the radical...

With the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, Beijing is at its angriest. This article by writer Dai Yan for China’s state-run Global Times lays bare China’s never-ending consternation over centuries of abuse at the hands of the Western powers, and the indignance many Chinese now feel toward the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. For the state-run Global Times, Dai Yan writes in small part: Anyone with a little political common sense knows that human rights...

According to columnist Sergio Malbergier of Brazil’s Folha newspaper, the controversy over WikiLeaks’ release of classified U.S. diplomatic cables will be remembered not for its ‘rich collection of truisms and gossip,’ but for announcing a global cyberwar. And all of us are its foot soldiers. For Folha, Sergio Malbergier writes in part: This is a war that’s anything but virtual, and is fought between people, companies, organizations, countries or any combination of these...

Is the U.S. government hypocritical to castigate China for limiting press and Internet freedom, while seeking to jail WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for making use of these very same freedoms? According to this painfully ironic editorial from China’s state-controlled Global Times, in pursing the arrest of Julian Assange, America only inflicts further damage to its already tarnished public image. The Global Times editorial says in part: And all of this is happening in a country that loudly boasts...

Is Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, being persecuted for the crimes of his accusers? Patrik Etschmayer of Switzerland’s News writes that the world’s power elite don’t like – and aren’t used to – having their incompetence and misbehavior so roundly exposed, and in an effort to deflect public angst directed at them, are trying to make Julian Assange the issue. For Switzerland’s News, Patrik Etschmayer writes in part: WikiLeaks is a hot topic and...

Has WikiLeaks turned the pecking order of global decision making upside down? For Liberation, French historian Elisabeth Roudinesco asserts that if the recent massive disclosure of classified U.S. diplomatic cables through five of the world’s best known newspapers tells us nothing else, it’s that hackers now rule the world. Historian Elisabeth Roudinesco, for Liberation, writes in part: If the hacker [Assange] has been able to become a global Internet hero, he has also become the prey...

While criticism of WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange is fierce in some quarters, people in many countries long for him or someone like him to give leaders and secret communications in their countries the ‘WikiLeaks treatment.’ One example is columnist Elizabeth Araujo of Venezuela’s Tal Cual, who wonders what skeletons would be found in the confidential closet of President Hugo Chavez and his Bolivarian Revolution. For Tal Cual, Elizabeth Araujo writes in part: One thing...