This is journalism?

NO. The writer is living in fantasyland. Erdogan is a commited Islamist determined to return Turkey to Islam pre-Ataturk. He is famously quoted as saying "Democracy is like a trolley car; you take it to your destination and then you get off." Well, he thinks he's arrive after his reelection triumph and installing his collaborator as president so he can rubber stamp whatever the Islamist legisature does. First the headscarf, then watch who gets the positions of power. Already the escalation in anti-American and anti-Israel rhetoric is building in the Erdogan-supporting media. Iran is viewed as a friend. Yes, Erdogan has managed the economy well, which makes him a huge threat because that success will blind many to what he is ... More »

I thought NewsTrust reviewed news. Laughable you have a piece by G Grenwald as news. How far to the frothing left can you get? It's disappointing that you are drifting -- swimming -- so far away from objectivity. As for the anti-Giuliani and anti-Israel diatribe, it's typical of Greenwald. The main thrust of the Giuliani policy is aimed at defeating the 1400-year (ok, 1350) jihad against the West, of which Israel is at the leading edge because it is western and happens to be the closest target. I could go on, but that NewsTrust would put this forward as "news" is shameful.

How hard do you look to find such trash to call "news"? This guy had a point of view before he went "back" to Iraq and is hell bent to express it. Most of what he complains of is what the Iraqis fail to do, but he blames the Americans for that. The Iraqis were liberated and can't control themselves even with the help of the Americans -- and it's all the Americans fault according to this writer. Please.

The Federal Reserve Board is dealing with a complicated situation and so far is handling it skillfully. The dollar decline is necessary to right world current account imbalances. It's actually working quite well. The U.S. current accout deficit has fallen 20% in the past year or so and is headed towards a reasonable level of about 3% deficit; it's now just above 5, down from almost 7, which many called unsustainable. Inflation in the U.S. has been subdued and as the adjustment takes place it will probably rise a litte. The Saudis can't afford to walk away from the dollar; their defense depends upon the U.S. They will muddle through just fine. They may loosen the peg a little, but their relationship to the dollar will remain ... More »

The incompetent government of Olmert's can't unfortunately be given any credibility on anything. The IDF did the work and the government didn't know what to do. With Israel's capability questioned after Olmert's failed leadership of the defense of Israel against the attack last year by Hezbollah, it is important to let the world know that Israel knows what's going on and has the capability to strike. You have to make the enemy think twice and think again. What Israel did has accomplished that. Netanyahu telling the world that's the way it is makes sense.

How can youi possibly carry such stuff and call it news. "Democracy Now" is as close to a communist front as we have operating in America. It's anti-American and it doesn't know what objectivity is. I had high hopes for NewsTrust, but you have failed my expectations when you publish such trash as news.

It's a first hand report of what it's like for poor Africans who can't enter Europe. The writer is sympathetic, but does not cross the line into supporting what they were trying to do, force their way into a foreign land. Imagine the European enclave is your house and a mob wants to enter to live in it, eat your food and sleep in your beds. You would call the police. If they stayed outside just beyond your gate you would be nervous and afraid and want the police to protect you. That African nations have done such a poor job of creating fruitful economies is terrible, but it is their fault. Collectively, they have received and wasted or stolen billions. Europe can only absorb so many and should take in those who will make a ... More »

Think of this. Originally, the Arab Muslim janjaweed nomads who needed more land for grazing their horses, camels and cattle, attacked the poor farming Muslim blacks (in Arabic, blacks or Negroes = slaves) to take over their lands for grazing. They were aided by the Arab Muslim government. Now that they have succeeded in raping and killing and driving the blacks out of Darfur into refugee camps in Chad, they are in control. It turns out two tribes collaborated in the killing and extermination. Guess what? They are now fighting and killing each other over who gets the spoils. At a recent funeral for a leader of one tribe, the other tribe showed up and killed 60. Is it the Arab psyche, the Islamic psyche the drives the ... More »

Challenging the erudite and all-knowing is courageous. The writer makes his points gently so as not to offend the all-knowing. Why are they so insistent in denying the unknowable -- from whence the world came? Fear? Anxious that man be pre-eminent or fear that he is nothing? When in fact a human is said -- believed -- to be important because made in God's image. Man as worm or exalted graduate to the presence of the God of Love?

It does describe somewhat the rebellion going on in Balochistan. First, it's a rebellion against the central government because the locals want a bigger share of the rich resources being taken out of the region. Secon, Baluchis are in Iran as well as in Pakistan and are being oppressed there, so there is rebellion there. It all adds up to rebellion across the board. The Balluchis plus the Sunnis could take down the Iranian theocracy.

Libya behaved abominably. The EU ditherered on what was clearly an outrage. No sanctions were threatened, no condemnations were leveled. Western experts all said the charges were absurb, but the EU and the U.S. argued not for justice but for clemency. This episode shows the total disregard of individual lives that characterizes Muslim societies. That the western press reports these happenings without providing proper context of the extortion involved is disgraceful.

Both parties are guilty on earmarks but the only real effort being made to end them is headed by Republicans Tom Coburn and Jim Demint. They are both abused and their proposals to end earmarks are routinely defeated in the Senate. Earmarks by themselves are small potatoes, but they feed a culture of wild overspending. Coburn and Demint need allies on both sides of the aisle.

This is drivel.

This vote puts Turkey in danger. It threatens Turkey's role in NATO. Intolerance of non-Muslims is growing under Erdogan; murder of non-Muslims are no big deal to the ruling party. Erdogan is forging a new Islamist movement -- using the economic tools of the West to advance his Islamist goals. His ultimate aim is an Islamic society and the significant advances he made in his first five years will be surpassed in the next five years. He is smart, he is a clever adversary. He will use takiyaa to lull the West. Fortunately, the public in Europe is not so clever and just knows that 90 million Turks will not enhance their society.

My heavens, after all these years it's still Dick Cheney who is the puppeteer. Get a life.

This is an account of a personal experience, so it can't fairly be judged on the "objective" scale. However, it's about the best report by a western female on her experiences in Saudi Arabia. It starkly presents the near-impossibility of reconciling the Saudi way (even the Arab way as reflected in the men who hoot and holler in Cairo) with western concepts of equality of women. The writer dramatically illustrates the ingrained attitudes of both Saudi men and women that go back centuries and for most don't seem to be changed by the experience of western education. Depressing, yet this could be modern Islam if the Saudis have their way: They are spreading their ideology throughout the Muslim world with their oil money. Indonesia ... More »

Takes the mainstream media to task by burying or airbrushing these alarming findings about the support of a signficant percentage of younger American Muslims for suicide bombings.

Krauthammer accurately pinpoints the reason why a vast majority of Americans do not support the immigration bill in its present form and produces the right solution.

This opinion piece is reporting on the shockingly perverse reporting of the Pew poll of American Muslims by mainstream media. The immensely alarming findings of the poll about the attitudes of young American Muslims are buried, ignored or brushed aside as of no consequence. The reporting represents a massive betrayal byf the media of its duty to report important facts accurately.

On fairness, you need a rating of "0", which this article rates. It is prejudiced against Israel to an incredible extent. How can an article like this be written without noting suicide murders of civilians by Palestinians and the Palestinian determination to eliminate Israel and exterminate all the Jews ("drive them into the sea" is the favorite phrase). When one side is determined to exterminate you, there is nothing to negotatiate about. Boundaries, sure. Life or death, no. This is a shameful piece by what really does not deserve to be a respected publication. If I went through it line by line to show the bias and the inacurracies, this would be very long comment. The key question to observers is is this article fair and ... More »

Talk about a non-story. Apparently, the one official who took political views into account on hiring sought and got immunity. The entire investigation is about firing political appointees. On that, there's nothing. Political appointees routinely get hired and fired by whoever the administration is. There is nothing new or different about that. For the NY Times, the Globe and the Democratic Congress to be making something out of that is absurd. A personal recollection, when Jimmy Carter came in, he fired all the political appointees he could and appointed his own team. That's the way it is and there was nothing wrong with it then and there's nothing wrong with it now.

This is a commentary, not a news report. But the writer is the chief foreign affairs writer for the flagship British business journal the Financial Times and purports not only to give his opinion, but to dismiss facts as irrelevant. Is it ignorance or denial? Reminds me of an old joke: A pollster came to the door and asked whether ignorance or apathy was the biggest problem in the world today? The answer was, "Go away, I don't know and I don't care." I suggest that Europeans very well ought to care and inform themselves about what's happening in their countries. Now, if they don't care about free speech, about religion (after all, that's largely passe), about having a drink now and then and don't mind a public beheading or ... More »

Senator Coburn is correct. Rachel Carson has become a hero for the environmental movement for leading the drive to ban DDT, which ban has tragically resulted in millions of death, mostly of poor people in Africa. The writer quotes someone who makes a valid point, that if she had lived she might have realized her mistake and changed her position. Unfortunately, her followers have used her name and book to halt all use of this effective anti-malarial measure to the detriment of many millions who have died and millions more who have lost a father, a mother, a brother or a sister. So commemorating someone for a book that turned out to cause and perpetuate human tragedy would be a mistake. I am sure Rachel Carson was well-intentioned ... More »

Rachel Carson is responsible for many millions of death from malaria in Africa. Her acolytles today defending the "ecosystem'" clearly do not place human life as a priority. That goes for the author of this slanted article.

To be sure, it's an opinion piece, but it does present the situation as it is. Wishful thinkers on one side and those who have justifiable fear on the other. That the writer comes down on the side of justfiable fear makes sense to me. I am all in favor of wishing away problems. I have tried it for years and for some reason it has never worked.

As an activist Democratic leftist, Nye uses the current Turkish situation to criticize the present American administration and to misrepresent what is happening in Turkey. The islamization project of the AKP began before the war in Iraq and is completely indepdendent of it. Most would argue there is no such thing as a "moderate Islamist," to use Nye's phrase. It's rather sad to see Nye using the Turkish situation -- unfairly and improperly, in my view -- as an opportunity to undermine the American government.

The missing ingredient in the story is "the big picture." This is not a matter of fashion or even of "piety," as the Economist suggests it is. It is a battle of political allegiance fought out with pressure and violence by those seeking to impose radical Islam (Islamism) and totalitarian control on the public. The Economist downplays terrorism and the spread of radical Islam and this cheerful little story, discounting the murders in Pakistan and elsewhere, is part of its campaign.

How representative are these Republicans of the party in Congress? They clearly are all worried about reelection. They all seem to think that abandoning Iraq will have no effect on the Islamic war against the west. The story is written to suggest the inevitable - that unpopularity of a difficult part of the war will cause the U.S. to give up - and the larger war will disappear.

There is nothing new in the story that hasn't been reported by countless other reporters and media outlets. The story seems somewhat of a pastiche of those other stories. As usual, it was not noted that those rioting were Muslim youths, not any old youths. Second, Sarkozy's pledges of priorities should have been highlighted. Strengthening the economy and creating jobs were at the top of his list; his bold pledge to get unemployment under 5% by the end of his term should have been mentioned, in my opinion. Global warming has not been on his priority list for his agenda, which is domestic. On international matters, global warming may be there, but it's a short list. Getting France moving out of its stagnation in all its aspects is ... More »

Claire Berlinski is an excellent, well-informed writer who I know spends part of her life living in Istanbul. I do worry that she is underestimating the intentions of PM Erdogan. I see no evidence he has left his Islamist roots behind. He wants a strong economy so he is incorporating Western tools into a de factor Islamic state. The intolerance against non-Muslims, especially Christians, has escalated during his tenure, encouraged some think, including me, by his embrace of Islam and that aspect isn't mentioned in the article. Ataturk recognized that Islam would not die off but like a cancer would keep regrowing if strong medicine weren't administerd periodically.

Gateway Pundit is an excellent source for news that doesn't get reported generally.

Very perceptive piece in pointing out the marginalization of the extremes.

While it's true that Royal reached to the center to get votes, the article failed to note that she has worked very hard to get the votes of Muslims, who represent the biggest problem France faces today. They are self-isolated, disproportionately on welfare and don't want to assimilate. They want France to become like them, Islamic.