US tells Israelis it won't join their fight

In an unexpectedly low-key visit, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey has explicitly warned Israel's leadership that the US won't defend Israel if it unilaterally strikes Iran. However, Israel knows it can count on the US right-wing to pressurize Washington into falling in line over an attack, particularly in an election year.

Ron Paul’s Long Game

Paul’s game is to trade his supporters for a seat at the Republican table.

U.S. Press Freedom Is Now 47th in the World

The crackdown on protests took a toll on journalists this year.

"The crackdown on protest movements and the accompanying excesses took their toll on journalists. In the space of two months in the United States, more than 25 were subjected to arrests and beatings at the hands of police who were quick to issue indictments for inappropriate behaviour, public nuisance or even lack of accreditation."

For the last decade, the big winner in party registration has been no party at all. Decline to state, now known as no party preference, has boomed from just under 13% in 1999 to 21.24% in the latest numbers released by the Sec. of State's office today. While Democratic numbers have fluctuated in the lower 40s, Republican numbers continue to creep downwards. If the trend continues, the GOP may fall below 30% in the very near future.

It is no surprise that the GOP is rapidly losing adherents, what with the far right extreme becoming dominant within the Party of Reagan (née Lincoln). But with district maps that require Republicans to compete for the middle, the question is whether they really can do that. These numbers certainly don't bode well for that.

Obama is a Hollywood heavyweight when it comes to fund-raising

Boosted by the cash pipeline from the silver screen set, the President’s “Obama for America” reelection fund took in $39 million over the last three months of 2011 — bringing his war chest to a current total of about $82 million.

Have the Democrats Already Destroyed Romney?

There's already been an unprecedented effort to tarnish the GOP front-runner.

"The groups also police Romney's speeches for potential contradictions, circulating instantly any damaging information and trumpeting every would-be gaffe. When Romney on Wednesday said he was "not concerned with the very poor," the spin machine sprang into action -- though the media by this point was so well-primed for the latest hyperventilating iteration of "Mitt Romney, Out of Touch Rich Guy" that they hardly needed to."

Tricky Mitt

No exit in the Persian Gulf

The Strait of Hormuz standoff is not just about oil, with the United States viewing its Gulf dominance as a last expression of its superpower status and Iran's influence in Iraq intensifying its thirst for regional power. Throw in the domestic pressures of President Barack Obama's re-election bid and Tehran's need to distract from economic conditions, and there seems little chance of avoiding war.

How Mitt Romney suckered Gingrich in Florida

"In Spanish bullfights, the picadors torment the bull by sticking darts into his shoulders. Enraged, bleeding, frustrated and in pain, he lowers his head, snorts, paws the ground and charges straight at the matador, oblivious to the sword awaiting him behind the red cape. That’s about what Romney did to Gingrich in the January primaries."

Increasing Diversity May Make Western States Bluer

A report on population shifts predicts how recent changes will affect political races.

Country-club GOP establishment lays down the law

At some country-club golf course recently, Speaker Boehner, Haley Barbour and the Bain Capital and banking wings of the GOP probably devised the plan that is now under way: Ron Paul, get on the program behind Mitt and stop talking down wars. Sarah Palin, stop referring to the GOP establishment as Stalinesque. Tea Party members: shut up and get behind the former liberal governor of Massachusetts. Conservative movement, cool it. So what if our nominee was the godfather of ObamaCare?

What Romney Must Do to Win in November

Satisfy the base, reach to the center—that dance will be hard

Super PACs helping Republican candidates close in on Obama

Dan Eggen and T.W. Farnam / WashPost

Fresh disclosures reveal key advantage to GOP: Cluster of groups that can raise unlimited money.

Website allowed terrorists to come together to plot carnage

The terrorists who were plotting to blow up the London Stock Exchange and the US Embassy had made contact with each other through websites which included instant messaging site Paltalk.

The Florida primary was ugly, unfair and probably fatal for Newt Gingrich

"Here’s the takeaway statistic from yesterday’s Florida primary: Mitt Romney spend $15 million on ads, of which only one was positive. And it was in Spanish."

Fox News Marks a Decade at No. 1 in Cable News

The network, which at first had to pay cable systems for distribution, unlocked a formula that reached out to viewers who believed the established television news media tilted left, and offered a different view.

Gingrich vs. Romney: Whose website got the most hits?

Up until mid-January, Gingrich was clearly leading in online hits from Floridians. It wasn't until the week of Jan. 15 that Romney started to take the lead.

Why American 'democracy promotion' rings hollow in the Middle East

Egypt's crackdown on Republican and Democratic organisations is hardly surprising: they're widely seen as stooges of US empire

"The IRI is an international arm of the US Republican party, so anyone with the stomach to watch the Republican presidential debates might doubt whether this would be a "democracy-promotion" organization. But a look at some of their recent adventures is enough to set the record straight: in 2004, the IRI played a major role in overthrowing the democratically elected government of Haiti. In 2002, the head of the IRI publicly celebrated the short-lived military coup that overthrew the democratically elected government of Venezuela. The IRI was also working with organizations and individuals that were involved in the coup. In 2005, the IRI was involved in an effort to promote changes in Brazil's electoral laws that would weaken the governing Workers party of then President Lula da Silva."

Imperial errors cost US the Middle East

Designed to demonstrate the United States' post-Cold War military dominance and create a foothold in the Middle East, nine years later the 2003 Iraq invasion achieved the opposite. The US's biggest error was not drawing from colonial Britain's playbook. Rather than "regime change", free elections and withdrawal, Washington should have rebadged the existing regime and refused to leave.