Is the American missile shield in Europe meant to defend against an Iranian missile attack, as the U.S. claims, or is it a thinly-disguised offensive weapon aimed at Russia – which endangers the nations that host it? For Romania’s AZI newspaper, Razvan Voncu warns his countrymen about turning Romania into ‘an American ballistic missile base.’ For AZI, Razvan Voncu writes in part: Thus,...

Continuing with our global sampling of reaction to U.S. health reform, we have posted this article from Russia’s Izvestia newspaper. In order to help his readers understand the issue, Vyacheslav Nikonov offers this primer on American politics. Here is Nikonov’s outline on the differences between the two U.S. political parties: Despite all of the apparent similarities between the two major U.S....

Now that President Obama has his health care victory, can we say that the global media been too quick to pronounce President Obama a messiah, and then dead, and then resurrected? Continuing with Worldmeets.US’ coverage of the global reaction to U.S. health reform, Brazilian columnist Clovis Rossi writes that while he is convinced that time in the modern world is speeding up – the case of Barack...

In my continual quest to lighten things up when Murphy’s Law strikes — i.e. the cantankerous new health legislation — I download U-Tube versions of the late night comics. Well, folks, I can’t wait nor plan to stay up tonight hours past my bedtime so I stole what’s available from the Huffington Post. From Lea Lane: She offers 10 bonuses from the health legislation you might not have...

Have U.S. Republicans made a colossal mistake by battling health care reform right up to the end? Continuing with our look at global reaction to President Obama’s legislative triumph, Philippe Coste of France’s L’Express writes that he’s shocked not only at Republican shortsightedness, but, compared with European health care, with the modest size of the reform itself. For L’Express,...

Extreme politics isn’t being practiced just on Capitol Hill right now. In Columbus, Ohio, the Ohio Democratic Party has been placed in what at least some Ohio Democrats feel is an untenable, undesirable and improper although absolutely legal and rightful (in that a candidate can do this) position: they’ve received a request from Ohio Lt. Governor and U.S. Senate primary candidate Lee Fisher to make...

With Mexico’s cataclysmic drug war rapidly bleeding into the United States, this editorial from Mexico’s La Jornada warns people to prepare for extensive U.S. meddling in their nation’s internal affairs. According to the newspaper, Mexico’s government is deteriorating at such an alarming rate, that it is incapable of exercising control over ‘huge swaths’ of the country. The...

How badly has American credibility been damaged by Israeli treatment of Vice President Biden during his visit to the country? According to this article by columnist Elias Harfoush of Saudi Arabia’s Dar al-Hayat, seeing Washington get pushed around this way is making it hard for Arabs to resist Iranian threats – and support harsher sanctions over its nuclear program. Harfoush also writes that Israeli...

Google is being bombarded with lawsuits and criticism around the world. So what became of the California company that everyone loved and that lived by the credo ‘Don’t Be Evil’? According to Philippe Escande of France’s Les Echos newspaper, Google has encountered the inevitible backlash against all innovators, ‘whose careers always begin in euphoria and usually end in the courts.’ For...

Is the United States coming down too hard on Iran, which it believes is building a nuclear weapon? That is the ever-more popular narrative being espoused by important powers that include China, Russia and now, Brazil. According to this article by columnist John Saxe-Fernandez of Mexico’s La Jornada, Brazil’s rejection of U.S. demands for harsh sanctions is a demonstration of the ‘change in...

There seems to be no end to the controversy over Google’s activities. This article from Germany outlines how people across that country are struggling to come up with novel legal challenges to the company’s ambitious “Street View’ service. As the article shows, its a very complicated problem. For Germany’s Die Tageszeitung, columnist by Ingo Arzt writes of how citizens across...

It would appear that some disillusion has set in at the Kremlin over Ukraine’s new president, Viktor Yanukovych. While Russia initially applauded what it saw as a defeat for pro-Western politicians brought to power as a result of the Orange Revolution, Yanukovych has been making some decidedly pro-Western noises, even suggesting that NATO ships might be allowed to dock in Sevastopol – home of Russia’s...

As is public knowledge, the CIA has been involved with a good number of coups since it came into being after World War II. One of those coups took place in Guatemala in 1954. This article from Guatemala’s El Periodico is both highly critical of the U.S. due to the consequences of that coup, and extremely complimentary, praising the importance of the United States as an example of a system that works. For...

Are we nearing the moment when the president of the United States will no longer take the risk of speaking openly about defending democracy in Taiwan, human rights in China, the Dalai Lama and Tibet, or the exchange rate of the yuan? According to Wang Wen, the international forum editor of China’s state-run Global Times, the ‘contradiction’ of an America that needs China’s help but...

The case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a U.S.-trained neuroscientist who has been charged with attempted murder and ties to al-Qaeda, continues to anger Pakistanis, many of whom who are sure she has been framed by the United States and abandoned by their government. This editorial from Pakistan’s The Nation well illustrates not only mistrust of the United States, but the deeply-held conviction that the civilian...

This is a story that had been under my radar until it was discussed on my morning radio show (Armstrong and Getty for those in Northern California). It seems that for many years there has been something called Do Not Buy in radio advertising. The basic concept being that when a company hires an advertiser to buy radio ads they would include “Do Not Buy” for certain types of stations or for certain...

Has Google gotten so intertwined in all of our personal information, and so threatening, even to rivals like Microsoft, that the only thing that can tame it is government? Two articles we have posted within the last 24 hours suggest that one way or another, the bell is tolling for Google in Europe. In the first from Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung, columnist Thorsten Riedl writes in part: “Google...

Continuing with our coverage of an issue almost completely absent from what has come to be known as the mainstream media, we posted two articles today that touch upon the hemisphere’s newest alliance, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, which is meant to be a U.S.-free answer to the Organization of American States. The first article, a news item from Spain’s ABC newspaper headlined,...

The Jewish Museum reopens at Albert Street in London on March 17. Writes David Aaronovitch in The Times of London: “The all-new Jewish Museum in North London has the sights and even the smells of an ancient British way of life. He recalls: “Five years ago I first went to an exhibition at the small Jewish Museum in North London. I suppose I saw it as a rather charming bijou museum, mostly about...

Now that Latin American and the Caribbean nations have formed a new alliance that pointedly excludes the United States and Canada, what can we expect? Earlier we posted an article from Brazil headlined Latin American Unity Cannot Be Dependent on Excluding the U.S.. Now, providing an overview about what was and was not agreed to at the launch of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in Mexico...

Tea is not your brew? Tired of weak tea? Don’t like tea parties? Looking for a tastier brew? Looking for a good, strong, honest cup of coffee, good till the last drop? Well, look no more. Annabel Park has founded “Coffee Party USA,” a grassroots online network which “advocates cooperation among elected representatives and promotes civil public discourse,” a movement which “gives voice to Americans...

Often when you are listening to the news they will use little fillers to take up the extra time in the segment. Earlier today I heard a couple I thought worth sharing. As some of you may know the government has imposed new standards for the airlines to comply with. Specifically if the airline leaves passengers on the runway for longer than 3 hours they will be fined for each passenger. The fines could total...

Iraq is at a crossroads, and the upcoming nationwide elections will greatly decide whether the country casts itself primarily as pro-Western, pro-Iranian or the least likely option – independent. According to this article from Iraqi newspaper Kitabat, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has announced that Iraq has joined an alliance consisting of Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. If true, Iraq would be...

American troops still on patrol over Baghdad. According to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, America is changing the name of it’s Iraq mission from ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’ to ‘Operation New Dawn’ to ‘send a strong signal that American forces have a new mission.’ According to columnist Fatih Abdusalam of Iraq’s Azzaman newspaper, the new name, just like the old...

Contrary to the reality, at least in the U.S., that online political ads are still a small though growing portion of how candidates spend their resources to get votes, UK politicians have made an extremely high-profile foray into cyberspace via Mumsnet, a large network of mothers and mommy bloggers. From The Telegraph (which includes an interview with the Mumsnet co-founder on this topic): Ten high-ranking politicians,...