Gage Skidmore photo

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

Barack Obama’s race became a factor when he was a candidate for president. Addressed about the subject, Obama opined that the issue of his skin color cut both ways. There’d be some who would not vote for him because of it. Then, there’… Read full post »

John Morgan photo

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

The Los Angeles times reports that 1,470 millionaires paid no taxes in 2009.

How did they get away with this? Quite legally.

They were either tax exempted because of their foreign investments. Or because they gave to charity.

So let me… Read full post »

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

This is the kind of freedom that we see coming out of the Palestinian territories.

Palestinian security forces have arrested the brothers of an award-winning investigative reporter who refuses to turn herself in for questioning because she refused to sign a document which/… Read full post »

Interview with Patricia Farrell

What went on in the mind of admitted terrorist Anders Behring Breivik which caused him to set off a bomb outside the Norway prime minister’s office and then go to a youth camp outside Oslo to gun down scores of teenagers?

Psychologist Patricia Farrell, author of&… Read full post »

Interview with Gary Moskowitz

The terrorist attack in Norway shows that not all terrorists are Muslims. And it also indicates that vigilance against terrorism should not just be directed at the Muslim community.

But former NYPD officer and counter-terrorism expert Gary Moskowitz, in an interview with… Read full post »

Obama, compromising?

President Obama has been steadfast in his contention that any plan to raise the debt ceiling that is short-term ought to be rejected. But now it seems he is wavering on that a bit – a move that may be necessary to get Republicans on board to rais/… Read full post »

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

Casey Anthony was sentenced to four years, one for each count of lying to police, the only counts for which she was convicted. But because of time served and good time, she could be released from jail by the end of July or sometime next month.… Read full post »

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

The case against Casey Anthony was not just played out in court. It also took place in the court of public opinion.

It’s pretty evident the day after the verdict that while Anthony was acquitted by a jury of her peers in the death of her… Read full post »

EronsPics/Flickr

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

First a disclaimer. Or an admission. Or an attempt at transparency.

I, too, am guilty of some of the transgressions – maybe all of the transgressions – I’m about to bitch about.

If you’ve been on the receiving end – my&nb… Read full post »

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

Yesterday we reported that the Greek government was offering to take the humanitarian aid on the so called Freedom Flotilla boats and deliver it through pre-established channels to the Gaza on their behalf. Thus accomplishing the flotilla’s goal of getting the aid to… Read full post »

haglundc photo/Flickr

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

A friend of mine in Georgia was recently widowed. The house she and her husband raised their daughter in is much-too-much for her to maintain. The daughter lives in California.

She wants out.

She’d like to move someplace else – into a new,… Read full post »

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

Now we’ll see whether the so-called Gaza Freedom Flotilla is about bring humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory or only about embarrassing Israel.

Israel is maintaining a naval blockade of the Gaza, it says, to prevent the transporting of weaponry into the hand… Read full post »

Kobi when he was welcome on Coney Island

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

It’s really supposed to be fun, the world famous hot dog eating contest on New York’s famed Coney Island. Not about contract disputes, arrests and protests from exile.

But the contest is losing some of its allure. Becaus… Read full post »

Seamus Walsh photo

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

Dominque Strauss-Kahn, the former IMF chief and once touted as possibly the next president of France, may just walk out of court in New York City a free man.

The sexual assault case against DSK is falling apart – because the hotel maid wh/… Read full post »

xomiele photo/Flickr

The chances that the DREAM Act, which would permit children of illegal immigrants an opportunity to become U.S. citizens, will pass this time around is not particularly good.

In an interview for News Talk Online on the Paltalk News Network, Eleanor Palta, presid… Read full post »

Huntsman. calon photo/Flickr

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

There are those in the Republican camp who are confused over why Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor and former U.S. amabassador to China, entered the GOP presidential nomination race. Among them Alan Moore, aconservative blogger, w/… Read full post »

Cuba, unchanged. Alcino photo/Flickr

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

People are fighting for their rights throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa. But for decades, repressions have remained in place in Cuba, and the lack of attention about the plight of the people of that island nation, a… Read full post »

Shock and awe: the bombing of Baghdad

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

Hopefully they’ll have a better job finding the money than the WMDs that caused the U.S.-led coalition to invade Iraq.

Some $17 million the U.S. sent Iraq to pay for reconstruction after its bombs decimated the nation in a… Read full post »

Juan Cole

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

I’m a big fan of the TV show Covert Affairs, about a fictional CIA agent who does spy stuff right here in the USA. Because I know this is fiction, I overlook the fact that it’s entirely implausible – given that the CIA is… Read full post »

Gage Skidmore photo

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

If you’re unemployed, Mitt Romney says he is your man for president.

That’s because he understands your plight. He feels your pain. Because, see, he’s unemployed as well.

Yep, that’s what the former Massachusetts governor says. H… Read full post »

Missile identification document in Persian found on board the Victoria. IDF photo

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

There’s a renewed push to minimize and even discredit the claims and concerns of those, including the United States and Israel, who are insistent that Iran is building nuclear… Read full post »

Obama with Cameron in London

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

President Obama had a message for the Palestinian leadership Wednesday. Don’t bother going to the United Nations for recognition of a Palestinian state.

Obama, speaking in London during a news conference with British Prime Minister David… Read full post »

Netanyahu addressing a joint meeting of Congress

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

Israel is prepared to give up large amounts of land for peace so that a Palestinian state can be created. But Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has to first recognize the right of the Jewish state of Israel to… Read full post »

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

He actually didn’t say anything new. But he said it in a way that was more palatable to the Jewish community. Emphasizing friendship, security and Israel’s right to exist. As President Obama addressed an enthusiastic crowd at the AIPAC national policy confe… Read full post »

White House photo by Lawrence Jackson

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

As President Obama prepares to give his so-called Arab Spring speech, which will be carried live at 11:40 AM New York time here, a new Gallup Poll shows that most Americans aren’t optimistic that any peace plan pushed by the/… Read full post »