The Karzai Conundrum—”I want to thank the American people for their sacrifice,” Dr. Abdullah Abdullah said. Abdullah might have won the 2009 presidential election in Afghanistan, which was stolen through massive ballot fraud that made Hamid Karzai president. An ophthalmologist who began his political career in the Afghan resistance to Soviet occupation in the 1980s, […]

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ON A SOMBER TUESDAY MORNING IN MID-APRIL, pews were filled in the tiny chapel of Pax Advent Christian Church. Behind the sobbing women, men wearing jeans and pressed shirts stood together, the nails of their calloused hands scrubbed clean of black dust. With red buds blooming outside, the pastor spoke of hope for a future […]

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Gaming the System—The death of 29 coal miners in Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine in April was not exactly predicted when the House Committee on Education and Labor met on February 23—to address a failed safety inspection process. But the industry’s response to tougher regulations that followed a spike in miners’ deaths midway through […]

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The New Financial Economy—In 1948, 56 percent of profits in the U.S. economy derived from manufacturing, while 8.3 percent came from the financial sector. In 2007 (the year the financial collapse began) manufacturing produced 10 percent of profits, while the financial sector produced 26 percent of profits. The $62 Trillion Question—Eighteen months ago, Iowa Democratic […]

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The Facts?—The one-year anniversary of the $787 billion stimulus bill was an opportunity for Republicans to refine one of their big 2010 campaign narratives: The stimulus bill that passed in February 2009 is a failure. “The facts are the facts,” said Minority Whip Eric Cantor at a Heritage Foundation panel discussion. “I have gone so […]

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