This year’s Oscars are about something. One marvelous movie recalls a day in June, 1939 at the New York World’s Fair, a 15-year-old boy watching an open car with the King and Queen of England slowly driving by, less than fifty feet from his excited eyes. Until then, the outside world had been grainy newspaper pictures and black-and-white newsreels, but here was a flesh-and-blood couple, he in resplendent...

Get ready for a new period of controversy over U.S. diplomatic cables being unleashed by WikiLeaks. According to this continental roundup by Rogelio Núnez of Spain’s Infolatam, in Peru, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Columbia and Guatemala, newly disclosed cables are impacting presidential elections, angering heads of state, and sparking local political squabbles that are likely to have significant consequences. For...

People Power by David Goodloe It was called the “revolution that surprised the world,” and it has been said that it inspired the movements that toppled Eastern Europe’s Communist governments three years later. I always thought it was a stirring sight. Twenty–five years ago today, the Philippine Revolution of 1986 — more popularly known as “People Power” — effectively overthrew...

As decades-long dictatorships teeter and fall, is it unreasonable to ask whether anyone in or out of our government really knows what’s going on and why? TV screens fill up with talking heads of politicians, academics and think-tank denizens whose combined wisdom comes down to admitting they don’t know why this is happening now and can’t tell how and when it will end. A New York Times panel...

Michael Hastings in Rolling Stone:

Guest post by Ali Ezzatyar Ali Ezzatyar is a journalist and American attorney practising in Paris, France. (Ed. note: Earlier this month, Ali wrote a guest post on dictatorship in Tunisia and Egypt. You can find it here. — Michael Stickings) ********** Started with the match of a Tunisian who aspired for more, a revolutionary wildfire burns near and far from his resting place. We have already witnessed...

UPDATE: The Department of Justice has posted an extensive press release at their web site with additional details on yesterday’s arrest of Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari. These are some of the highlights: Aldawsari is expected to make his initial appearance in federal court in Lubbock at 9:00 a.m. on Friday morning. Aldawsari, who was lawfully admitted into the United States in 2008 on a student visa and is enrolled...

If you suspected that the regime in Saudi Arabia was nervously watching events in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, and Libya, you’re correct. They have unveiled a $36 billion insurance policy for themselves, in the form of big bucks for their populace. The Telegraph reports: The king of Saudi Arabia last night announced $36bn (£22bn) of extra benefits for his people in an attempt to stop the wave of Arab...

West Texas Intermediate reached the magic $100 a barrel mark today and then backed off a bit while Brent Crude rose to over $110 a barrel. All because of unrest in Libya which produces a measly 1.6 million barrels a day.  Tom Whipple: It has taken two months for the contagion that began with the immolation of a fruit seller in Tunisia to reach the first significant oil producing nation. As oil production...

Say what you will about Julian Assange and WikiLeaks—and plenty has been said about them. Because of them a window has been opened on foreign relations in an age of international intrigue, conflict, terrorism and open warfare. We may not like how that window got opened; we may or may not like what we see through that open window and we may be offended by the fetor entering our home through that open window,...

You may as well click ON THIS and play this theme: according to reports, a mass exodus of foreigners from Libya has begun as beset dictator Col. Moammar Gadhafi threatens a crackdown, vows he’ll fight to the last drop of his (and his countrymens’) blood and reports surface that he intends to sabotage his own country’s oil fields: A mass exodus of foreigners from Libya accelerated today...

Could Libya’s beset dictator Muammar Gaddafi sabatoge his country’s pipelines as he clings to power and lashes out at those at home and abroad who oppose him? There are serious fears he could: Here are excerpts from Gaddafi’s speech yesterday. No this is NOT a SNL sketch but the real thing. Part of his message is “You ain’t seen nothing in terms of repression yet..”

A challenge to the US auto market? by Prairie Weather Considering how much more popular lately WalMart has been compared to GM, the new little Chinese hybrid sedan may just clean up in a bruised American economy. Here’s some of what the New York Times reviewer has to say about his ride in the little 4-door BYD (“Build Your Dream”): …If BYD clears the regulatory hurdles, its F3DM plug-in...

Tunisia. Egypt. Yemen, Iran, Bahrain. Libya. Even Wisconsin. You look at the places pitch forked into the headlines and wonder if 2011 will be “Year of the Demonstration,” where angry protesters do political — or more violent battle — against their governments. And you have to conclude that political establishments will see what has happened so far and decide to crack down. Hard. Demonstrations dotting...

Watching what’s happening in the Middle East, where sick men have held onto power for decades, I’m thankful to live in the United States. Here, we take for granted the peaceful transition of executive power. The human instrument by which that incredible blessing has come to us was George Washington. As I’ve pointed out before, Washington turned down the offer of absolute power more than once....

I’m sure I’m not the only one who is trying to keep up with the pace of events in the Middle East, marveling at the speed at which the dominoes of dictatorship are falling, and wondering why all this is happening NOW. Of course, answers to questions like that are never singular, but one that a number of commentators have been pointing to has to do with the way dictators hold on to power in the first...

The news from Libya hasn’t been uplifting for dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who has lost some beauty sleep (he needs a lot of it) trying to keep his regime in power by having planes fire on demonstrators, snipers take out protesters, and acculumating a body count of more than 200. And rising. Somehow Libya’s populace doesn’t seem to appreciate him and his efforts to foment stability via spilling...

This article by Alberto Goncalves of Diario de Noticias has created an uproar in Portugal since it was printed on Saturday. When you read it you’ll understand why. Focusing his attention on the sexual assault against U.S. reporter Lara Logan by a joyous mob of 200 in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, Goncalves goes into excruciating detail about why he and people like him have trouble trusting Muslims and...

One can always count on seeing some very exciting and spirited debates at The Moderate Voice, whether the subject or issue is religion, politics, culture, war, gender issues, our military, women in combat—or just plain principle and individual rights. Well this one has just about a little bit of “all of the above” and I am curious as to how the debate will go. Readers may remember that, back in 2001,...

Are the ongoing uprisings in the Muslim world due to ‘weariness’ with the materialism of the West, led by the U.S.? To judge from the above photo, at least, it isn’t only materialism making Iranians ‘weary.’ In this latest explanation for the Muslim revolution from Tehran, Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reports that the supreme leader has once again congratulated...