A bedrock of the traditional broadcasting model has long been localism. Among the best ways to meet the FCC mandate to serve the “public interest, convenience, and necessity” is to produce quality local programming. To that end the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking last November proposing a range of options that encourage more locally-oriented radio. Ars Technica tells us that Save Christian...

The travel itineraries of the candidates for President have been interesting to analyze. A couple of weeks ago it was announced that Cindy McCain was going to travel to Rwanda as part of a group to discuss the effects of poverty and disease on the people in that country. Huh? Is there any need for this trip outside of the obvious political move to show that they care about Africa? If the McCain campaign...

Is the Bush plan to meet with Iran’s nuclear negotiator a significant change in policy? And if so, why – and why now? Say what one will about the French – they are no strangers to political intrigue and bureaucratic gamesmanship. According to this Le Figaro editorial by Pierre Rousselin, this was a major change in policy – not the minor adjustment claimed by the White House. And the...

The Pope is in the midst of a world tour, currently in Australia, and gave a speech this week where he criticized moral relativism. This took place at one of the world’s largest youth gatherings. “Relativism, by indiscriminately giving value to practically everything, has made ‘experience’ all-important. Yet experiences, detached from any consideration of what is good or true, can lead not to genuine...

Georgia’s 10th Congressional District is among the most conservative in the state. Just a year after being elected to fill the unexpired term of the late Rep. Charlie Norwood, freshman Paul Broun faces a challenge Tuesday from State Rep. Barry Fleming. The winner will take the House seat in November. Have they no shame? U.S. Rep. Paul Broun (R-Athens) is questioning the religious convictions of his opponent...

The 7th Circuit has held that a condo association rule which prevents Jews from putting up Mezuzot does not violate the Fair Housing Act. The opinion and dissent are here, my thoughts on the case are here. The rule, of course, was defended on the grounds that it was “neutral” (it banned all objects on doors, not just Mezuzot). I just call that a data point for the insufficiency of “neutrality”...

From a paper by Benjamin R. Barber, the Kekst Professor of Civil Society at the University of Maryland and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos in New York City, presented at the Istanbul Seminars organized by Reset Dialogues on Civilizations in Istanbul last month: There is a powerful rhetoric around today that claims Islam – not just fundamentalist or Wahhabist or Salafist Islam, but Islam itself is a...

Barack Obama is promising Americans another faith-based presidency but asking us to trust him not to pervert it, as George W. Bush did, “to promote partisan interests.” That may take a leap of faith on the part of those drawn to Obama’s new politics as an antidote to eight years of seeing Bush-Rove, to use a JFK era phrase, “pour God over everything like ketchup.” In his speech...

(WARNING: May contain non-political content.) For those of you who may not know, I’m currently off on vacation. The picture above is the view from my window in the evening, just as the moon was coming up. It is only through the miracle of modern satellite technology that I’m able to check in with you, as the word “remote” only begins to describe my current location. It’s on the...

Yet another point in Obama’s favor: the Christian Conservatives and evangelicals have decided that McCain is, after all, God’s candidate. That is to say, while many of them feel that McCain was most definitely not God’s first choice, God most definitely prefers him to Barack Obama. So even though they — meaning the lead mouthpieces of the Christian Right — said they would never,...

Is Barack Obama’s honeymoon with Europe over already? After months of the most effusive and unrestrained praise for America’s first serious Black presidential candidate, some of Obama’s most energetic European backers – the Germans – are growing skeptical. Malte Lehming writes for Germany’s Der Tagesspiegel: “In the end, a disappointment is a deceit. So it’s for...

What’s behind the resistance of Iraqis to the U.S. Iraq Security deal – is it a matter of patriotism or sectarianism? Criticizing Iraqi leaders for fanning public suspicion by not releasing the details of the security deal with the U.S. to the public, Malum Abu Ragheef writes for Iraq’s Sotal Iraq newspaper: “If for political and tactical reasons, the American administration won’t...

As lgbt pride marches step off in big cities across the country, it’s important to note what takes place at some of the smaller ones.Central Pennsylvania was a focal point in the Democratic primary for its white working class voters. Those same voters are made uncomfortable by gays on the march.While this year marks the 38th pride march in San Francisco and New York, it will be only the third time that...

From the New York Times: Jeff Strabone of Brooklyn now signs credit card receipts with his newly assumed middle name, while Dan O’Maley of Washington, D.C., jiggered his e-mail account so his name would appear as “D. Hussein O’Maley.” Alex Enderle made the switch online along with several other Obama volunteers from Columbus, Ohio, and now friends greet him that way in person, too. … “I am sick...

Just as it has in the United States, Barack Obama’s strategic ambiguity in regard to the Middle East and foreign policy in general has definitively shown up on Europe’s radar screen. For Germany’s Die Welt, Lord George Weidenfeld writes of Obama’s recent speech to AIPAC – the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee: “The candidate of American Democrats, Barack Obama, is...

One of the more bemusing stories of the day involves a man from Texas named Robert Hurt. Hurt is a rancher (and father of 14) from Kerrville Texas. Over the years he has made several trips to Washington DC and he is not happy with what he has seen. While visiting our nations capital he was appalled to find that many of the buildings have artwork that portrays women who are (hold on to your hats)…. NEKID...

Most people observing the American presidential election of 2008 regard health care, Iraq and perhaps immigration as the major issues of the campaign. But Juan Gabriel Vasquez, a columnist for El Espectador of Colombia, believes that there’s one issue that overshadows all the rest. Vasquez writes in part: “Among the things of most concern to citizens, according to the polls, are the war in Iraq,...

Let the Arab-Israeli battle for Barack Obama’s heart and mind begin … For Yemen’s Al-Wahdawi newspaper, Ziyad Abu Shaawish writes of the crushing disappointment felt by Palestinians when Obama appeared before the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee calling for a united Jerusalem under Israeli control.

Are Arabs finally coming to accept that the United States is not really part of a Zionist conspiracy in pursuit of a Jewish takeover of the world? In this hopeful op-ed from Yemen’s Alsahwa newspaper, Sabah Al Kheshni makes quick work of the global Zionist conspiracy and argues against the common habit in many Arab countries of blaming everything that’s wrong on a conspiracy. In regard to the Iraq...

You have to love Al Sharpton. You really do. Well, unless of course, you’re the IRS. They seem to have a few questions about millions of dollars in back taxes.

Outside the Beltway’s Robert Prather notes a shift: The creationists deserve a few props here. Since the Dover loss they’ve switched strategies away from claiming that ID is science and are instead focusing on “academic freedom”. That the concept of academic freedom doesn’t generally apply at the elementary and secondary levels seems to be of no consequence. The Louisiana legislature has passed,...

Charlie Crist—the Republican Governor of my very own state— is right:    “Once somebody has truly paid their debt to society, we should recognize it, and we should honor it and we should welcome them back into society and give them that second chance.”  (NYT)   I’ve always thought that it was disgraceful that Florida permanently banned ex-felons from voting, serving...

This morning at 11:00 AM eastern time, I’ll be taking part in a panel discussion on internet radio which is being hosted by Fausta Wertz of Fausta’s Blog. The subject will be (brace yourself…) hymen reconstruction surgery. We’ll be taking a second look at a previous New York Times article and accompanying analysis from National Review Online regarding the growing phenomenon of young women...

While the advent of Barack Obama onto the American political scene has done wonders for America’s global image, in Kuwait, which is regarded as a key U.S. ally in the Middle East, Obama’s appearance has done little to allay suspicion in many quarters about ‘Zionist control’ of the United States. This fascinating and disturbing op-ed article from Kuwait’s Arabic-language Al Seyassah,...

Are Iraqis passing up the ‘chance of a lifetime’ by rejecting the proposed long-term security agreement with the United States? That is the conclusion of Khadir Taahar, one of Iraq’s most pro-American op-ed writers. Taahar writes for Iraq’s Kitabat newspaper: “As expected, the demagogues have begun shouting hostile ideological slogans without taking a moment to consider the advantages...