Columns

"If Harper ever had a chance to lead his party to a majority it was in 2006 when the Liberals were at their most vulnerable; however, most Canadians, especially in Ontario, don’t trust Harper, and as a result. the electorate wanted to vote the Liberals out without voting the Harperites in....Like the 2006 Liberals, Harper has nowhere to go but down. That’s all the good news voters need to know."

"...while elections and expanding political participation are important, it is also imperative that governments respect basic human rights and freedoms. They should: provide citizens with the right, individually and collectively, to redress grievances; protect them from abuse at the hands of the state; and create an independent judiciary that guarantees due process, rule of law and protects the rights individuals in their homes and persons. If new democracies do this, they will be starting ahead of where we started our enterprise. The rest will take time and hard work - though, one can only hope, not the centuries it took us."

"Whether coming from anti-mosque mobs in Murfreesboro, proposed anti-Sharia legislation, or hurtful comments by candidates for higher office, this growing tide of intolerance is dangerous. Republicans, who, without adult supervision, are busy courting extremism, are stirring up a potentially lethal brew. Senator Durbin was right to ring the alarm bell. But what is at stake here is much more than a test of our nation's commitment to our Bill of Rights. How all this is resolved could end up defining the very soul and future of America. It will also shape how we will relate not only to our Muslim citizenry but to a significant part of the world."

The lessons of history are lost because we are careful to compartmentalize them to the time they happened and treat them as museum pieces. Our governing myths of progress and the perfectibility of man instill in us the conceit that whatever happened “back then” could not have any meaning today because we know so much more and the world is so much different.

"When John McCain (R-AZ) complains that Obama "waited too long [regretting] that we didn't act much more quickly", and when Lindsey Graham (R-SC) bristles that "we're taking a backseat rather than a leadership role", both are ignoring post-Iraq realities in the Middle East. And those GOP hawks who have now upped the ante, arguing that unless “we take Qadhafi out” the mission is a failure, are likewise treading on dangerous ground. They may long for the day when America fashioned itself the “cowboy sheriff” or “the white knight on a charger", but what they forget is that during the last decade George W. Bush shot the horse and tarnished the knight's reputation."

"An honest, open, and good faith dialogue on all key issues is the only way forward. As that occurs, the GCC can design a more comprehensive economic package for Bahrain - as an incentive to move the reform process forward, as a sign of GCC solidarity with the Bahraini people and government, and as a way of demonstrating that Arab problems can be solved by Arabs"

"In the end, the King hearings were a bust - a shameful and wasted exercise. They created fear and hurt among Muslims, provided no useful information for law enforcement, and deepened the partisan divide. They weren't even a good example of "McCarthyism". Instead they were ideological folly - a suborning of an important Committee's resources to serve the Chairman's obsession with America's Muslims, calling into question his ability to provide effective leadership on matters of homeland security."

"The danger here is that to the degree that this issue has become a partisan and, in some cases, a proven vote getter for the GOP, it will not go away any time soon. The longer we are plagued by this bigotry, and the displays of intolerance it breeds (the anti-mosque building demonstrations or the anti-Sharia law efforts now spreading across the country) the longer young Muslims will feel that the "promise of America" does not include them - and they will feel like aliens in their own country."