This may come to be known as the Samuel Alito election. The U.S. presidential contest is predominately about Barack Obama’s stewardship of the economy and the political-cultural divide in the Republican Party. It’s also about the huge sums of money sloshing around, after Justice Alito replaced Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court and provided the swing vote in the 2010 Citizens United case. Supporters claimed that allowing unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations and unions wou

It is alarming that a wave of strikes is hitting broadcasting networks where reporters and program directors are protesting against their managements, which they claim have colluded with government authorities to suppress fair reporting. Reporters at Yonhap News, the only national news agency, also joined in the strikes in which the media employees demand the departure of their presidents.At MBC, some 700 reporters and producers are on strike since Jan. 30. They say that the independence of the

In pursuit of a stronger and more assertive position in the global community, Russians gave Vladimir Putin virtually his fourth straight mandate ― including four years of regency ― in Sunday’s presidential election. Putin can extend his rule till 2024, but all will depend on how fast the opposition will be nourished by public desire for reform and democracy.Opposition rallies denouncing what they claimed was election rigging across the country ― one example: nearly 100 percent Putin votes with a

This may come to be known as the Samuel Alito election. The U.S. presidential contest is predominately about Barack Obama’s stewardship of the economy and the political-cultural divide in the Republican Party. It’s also about the huge sums of money sloshing around, after Justice Alito replaced Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court and provided the swing vote in the 2010 Citizens United case. Supporters claimed that allowing unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations and unions wou

The World Bank has warned China that its economic growth model, which depends heavily on exports and state-owned enterprises (SOEs), is unsustainable. Though criticized for some past judgments, this advice from the World Bank is sound. It comes in a report, co-authored with the Development Research Center of China‘s State Council, which recommended that Beijing reduce the dominant role of SOEs in order to promote the free market.Having amazed the world with the dramatic results of the economic r

What is a government program? And are you on one right now? Those are the questions Cornell University political scientist Suzanne Mettler has been posing. For her book “The Submerged State,” she asked a scientifically selected sample of 1,400 Americans whether they had ever used a government social program. Only 43 percent copped to having done so. Then she read off 21 social programs, such as Medicare and the home-mortgage interest deduction, and asked the same question again: Have you ever us

After a year of political unrest and thousands of civilian casualties at the hands of government forces, the common assumption is that the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad has lost all legitimacy in the eyes of the Syrian people. But the reality is far more complex, with key factions continuing to see their fates as intrinsically linked to the Assad regime’s survival.The core of Assad’s support still lies within the minority Alawite sect, of which he is a member. Many Alawites, who make u

For Mexican-Americans and others trying to get ahead, education had been the stairway to the middle class. Education meant security and basics such as health insurance. This heaven meant better jobs and a small house for old age.But now this stairway has fallen into disrepair. One rung after another has been destroyed.The first rung was financial assistance. Many Latino students and poor blacks and whites could afford college only through grants and subsidies. But over the last two decades, coll

When Lee Yong-deuk, leader of the more moderate of Korea’s two national labor unions, joined the main opposition Democratic United Party as an appointed member of its executive council last year, he must have had specific goals to attain other than simple policy coordination. Observers guessed he must have been aiming at securing “several” National Assembly seats for his colleagues at the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, if not for himself, in the forthcoming general elections. Last week, Lee

It does not take much expertise in North Korean affairs to know what is behind the anti-South Korean hysteria Pyongyang is exhibiting these days. First of all, a hate-the-South campaign is the best stimulant to generate people’s loyalty to the new leader, who suddenly took over power upon the death of his father three months ago.Kim Jong-un, the “supreme dignity” of the North, was in Panmunjeom last Saturday. He exhorted People’s Army personnel at the truce village to be on “the highest state of

By many accounts, U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu don’t much like or trust each other. It’s important that they use their meeting on Monday (March 5) to end at least the mistrust. For many months now U.S. diplomacy has been directed as much at stopping an Israeli preemptive military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, as at Iran itself. It’s partly thanks to the tension created by Israel’s threats to act that the Obama administration was finally a