On Feb. 25, President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a crackdown on extremist groups that were exploiting the economic crisis by sowing instability. In other words, any opposition party that organizes any protest will be charged with extremism. Two days later Prime Minister Vladimir Putin reassured t...

I read Thomas Ricks' "The Gamble" about the Iraq, well, gamble and it's well worth the day or so it takes. But for a truly remarkable book (hard work, but fascinating) you have to read "The Decline and Fall of the British Empire" by Piers Brendon. A quick excerpt about th...

The Taraz office of the opposition Azat Party was robbed on Feb. 13. The door was found open with party documents lying all over the floor. A computer that contained information on all of Azat activities was missing. All of the regional offices of the Azat Party were denied permission to hold ...

I almost cannot describe how much it infuriates me to see news articles like this.......which describe how the White House has become the national party zone. (but I'll try.....:-) Those lieing SOBs in and around the White House have the nerve to preach to us about how we need to tighten our belt an...

The U.S. Obama administration continues to teach autocratic Central Asia how to infringe on the freedom of the people under the guise of democracy. The Kazakhstan government has watched how Washington has successfully begun a campaign to dictate the salaries of business executives while the citizens...

Last December, a fractured opposition joined together and formed the United People's Movement with the goal of bringing true democracy to Kyrgyzstan and bringing to an end the tragic rule of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who has betrayed the democratic Tulip Revolution that brought him to power. ...

In this case, the question is, "Why should you pay income taxes?" Yeah, yeah.....I know what you're saying.  "It's patriotic, it's my obligation, it's my duty, the law says I have to......" etc., etc., yada, yada, yada. Well, lemme ask you a question. If you had a relative or a friend who sometimes...

"If you want a glimpse into what a country looks like that doesn't adhere to this principle, take a look at Venezuela. They have nationalized their banks, shut down opposing voices, nationalized oil (all things President Obama and Democrats have talked about) and now they are looking at a dictator w...

From an interesting article in the Atlantic about how the crash will reshape America, there is this part about NYC. It made me a little less bearish about the coming decade here... At first glance, few American cities would seem to be more obviously threatened by the crash than New York. The city sh...

Israeli election punditry Well, it's not clear what it all means, or who's going to form a coalition with whom. Is Netanyahu right to say that it's a "victory of the right-wing bloc" or is Livni right that the winner was the party who got the most seats? I dunno. But I think we can see loud and clea...