The issue: Mayor’s race tells us much about Russian politics Such is the state of corrupt politics in Vladimir Putin’s Russia that the Kremlin had to release the leading opposition candidate from jail, one day after he was to start a five-year sentence for embezzlement, to have even a credible semblance of a race for […]

The issue: We must cut through the red tape in our special immigrant visa program An Afghan interpreter for U.S. forces fears the vengeful Taliban will take his life and those of his family because the State Department cannot get its act together to make good an offer of sanctuary. Unfortunately, this story is getting […]

The issue: Judge stops just short of calling these intelligence gatherers liars U.S. District Judge John Bates, who in 2011 presided over the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, bent over backward to avoid directly calling the National Security Agency a bunch of liars. In a newly declassified October 2011 opinion, Bates wrote that “the volume […]

The issue: As in Libya, the United States should ‘lead from the rear’ Here is how Secretary of State John Kerry summarized the state of affairs in Syria now that it is almost a certainty that President Bashar Assad launched a large-scale chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds of Syrian civilians. “WHAT WE SAW in […]

The issue: Obama has built on Bush’s legacy of snooping It’s not unduly cynical to say that President Barack Obama hopes much of the fuss over revelations about the National Security Agency’s massive domestic surveillance program will have blown over by the time Congress returns in September. THE PUBLIC’S attention span is short — not […]

The issue: It can’t aim anymore, but it can still see Though NASA last week scrapped efforts to restore the crippled Kepler spacecraft to full working order, the space telescope project — one of the most successful scientific missions ever — almost certainly will continue to yield discoveries. THE SPACECRAFT in 2009 undertook “a search for […]

The issue: Until the generals get in a jam, there’s little we can do The Obama administration should shelve the idea of suspending all or part of the $1.55 billion in aid requested for Egypt in fiscal 2014. INCREASINGLY frustrated in its efforts to have Egypt’s military halt its violent crackdown on demonstrators, the White House […]

The issue: Political tension is more likely to increase than decrease with addictions In addition to its manifold other problems, North Korea has a growing drug problem, with an estimated 40 to 50 percent of the population in the country’s far north “seriously addicted” to crystal meth. THE FIGURES, QUOTED in The Wall Street Journal, […]

The issue: Huge gathering, and King’s powerful words, brought civil rights movement into the mainstream of American politics Of all the many marches on Washington, going back to at least the 1890s, the 1963 civil rights march had perhaps the most lasting impact — influence that lasts to this day. THE AUG. 28 MARCH was […]

The issue: This is all good news for continued U.S. recovery We had a shot of good economic news last week: The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits declined by 15,000 to 320,000, the lowest since October 2007. There was something special about the context. CONSCIENTIOUS READERS who dig deeply enough into stories documenting […]

The issue: The bad news is this enlightened policy is only as good as the next attorney general By challenging mandatory minimum sentencing policies, Attorney General Eric Holder has taken a major step toward righting a long-standing wrong. ENACTED A GENERATION ago, the policies take sentencing for even low-level drug crimes out of judges’ hands. […]

The issue: An effort to broker a settlement at least would show that U.S. concern for Egypt’s future transcends cold-blooded geopolitical considerations In Egypt, the United States once again faces a dilemma, partly of its own making, with few, if any, good options for resolving it. President Barack Obama interrupted his Martha’s Vineyard vacation to […]

The issue: Stores focus on future buyers of America August brings the usual heavily promoted back-to-school sales on clothes, electronic gear and, yes, even books. Some states will offer tax holidays. But those sales look to be less of a commercial bonanza than in years past. U.S. households are expected to pare back-to-school spending by […]

The issue: Only a fiscal masochist will enjoy the chaos this fall in our nation’s capital  Unless you experienced the sequester’s collateral damage — unpaid furloughs, canceled government contracts, the disappearance of a promised government job — the fiscal year so far has been pretty good. (It ends Sept. 30.) THE DEFICIT for the first […]