French interior minister claims some civilisations 'superior’

France’s conservative interior minister in charge of immigration policy has sparked controversy by claiming some civilisations are “superior” to others.

Syria's most senior defector: Assad's army is close to collapse

Bashar al-Assad's army is close to a collapse that could plunge the Middle East into a "nuclear reaction"

Question:

Romney says he is not concerned with the poor, Gingrich wants to build a moon colony for $500 Billion, Paul sent out a racist newsletter and wants to legalize prostitutes, and Santorum is unhindged.

Yet Obama is silent..... Why?

Answer:

Obama is getting a beat-up Romney and a split GOP......just like he wanted.

Heathrow cancels 50% of flights as snow and ice blanket Britain

Airport says "snow plan" has worked "far better" than in previous years, despite axing flights hours after it stopped snowing.

GOP freshmen mum on presidential politics

News on economy could alter calculus for Romney’s campaign

Philip Rucker / WashPost

If the recovery snowballs, the Republican front-runner’s primary pitch may be undercut.

"If Romney wins the nomination, his strategists argued, the fall campaign against President Obama will be shaped by what they described as an overarching sense of “prolonged misery” among voters who are just as concerned about the housing crisis as with unemployment and believe the nation is on the wrong track."

Don’t buy the GOP’s ‘Europe’

Martin Klingst

Portraying the continent as socialistic or outdated is both shortsighted and wrong.

"All 27 E.U. members believe, more or less, in mandatory health-care insurance and public education. They believe that government should offer a helping hand to struggling businesses and people during economic downturns. That is why we pay high taxes. It is also true that a number of E.U. countries have irresponsibly expanded their welfare systems and can no longer afford their bills."

The Koch Brothers Pledge $60 Million to Defeat Obama

So the Koch people really don't like Obama. But $60 million is a lot of money, and shows the kind of funding that a few people can put into a race with the advent of Super-PACs, where most of their money will probably go due to restrictions on donations to actual campaigns.

The 2016 Election, Already Upon Us

No matter what happens this Election Day, when President Obama wakes up the next morning, he will no longer be the Democrats’ future. Who might run next?

"Mr. Obama is a talented speaker, which can allow his detractors to cast him as a talker rather than a doer. The next group of Democratic candidates may not say so, but they presumably would not mind if voters favorably contrasted their backgrounds with Mr. Obama’s"

Nasdaq Hits 11-Year High as Stocks Jump

Stocks rose after the U.S. economy added more jobs than expected last month, driving the Nasdaq Composite to an 11-year high and pushing the Dow within reach of its highest reading in almost four years.

Taliban leader Mullah Omar 'sent letter to Barack Obama'

Taliban leader Mullah Omar purportedly sent a letter to President Barack Obama last year indicating an interest in peace talks, US officials have claimed.

Iran 'retaliating for scientists' deaths

Taliban eat into Afghanistan's core

Even as several tracks of peace talks with the Taliban open up, Asia Times Online has learned that senior members of the Western-trained and financed Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police plan to defect with vast numbers of their colleagues to the militants once foreign forces start to leave the country.

Should America Lead the World's Fight Against Corruption?

Fighting corruption in emerging markets is surpassingly difficult. It involves displacing those with malign power. It cannot be initiated and led by outsiders. Corruption pervades and distorts society in nations like Russia and China where the U.S. has great interests. It was a primary cause of the popular uprisings in the Middle East and elsewhere. It remains a huge issue in the emerging markets of Africa and Asia and, especially in failed and failing states. It is a pervasive obstacle to legitimate and transparent economic globalization. And it undermines a key goal of current counter-insurgency military strategy -- the building of a civil society.

Donald Trump and Mitt Romney live in a different America

An election that hinges on the smallest of errors?

The granting of Secret Service protection following Mitt Romney’s decisive Florida victory did not prevent him from immediately shooting himself in the foot. “I’m not concerned about the very poor,” he explained. “My campaign is focused on middle-income Americans.”

It is problematic for a politician to declare any group of citizens beneath his attention — either the bottom 1 percent or the top 1 percent. But those in the top 1 percent, at least, can fend for themselves.

At a Newt Gingrich event in Florida.

Conflicted American electorate has Republicans on a roller coaster

Ann Gerhart / WashPost

Voter frustration and uncertainty lead to the most turbulent GOP presidential race in a generation.

"they are angry and anxious and uncertain, sick of a bunch of elites in Washington who can’t fix their lives and suspicious of all promises"

Secrecy Shrouds ‘Super PAC’ Funds in Latest Filings

New details of the millions of dollars flowing into political groups highlight the scale of donations, as well as the secrecy surrounding “super PACs.”

Call for 'more credible' US military threat

Iran is "two to six months" from a nuclear bomb and the Barack Obama administration is failing to convince Tehran it will act militarily to prevent this, a task force has complained. Recommending a surgical strike and the deployment of US Special Forces if economic sanctions fail, the report comes amid increasingly contradictory signals from Israel and Washington over the likelihood of an attack