Featured Articles — July 4, 2009

July 4, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Featured Articles 

Interesting Takes From Home And Abroad:

Palin Now The Frontrunner By John Batchelor, Daily Beast
The early excuse for the Republican circular firing squad of the holiday weekend is that Weekly Standard editor and party brainiac Bill Kristol claims that pugnacious McCain campaign enforcer Steve Schmidt has been caught gossiping to Vanity Fair’s Todd Purdum about Sarah Palin’s rambling and incoherent vice-presidential campaign last September and October.

Palin resignation splits GOP By Ben Smith, Politico
Sarah Palin’s jaw-dropping announcement that she is quitting her job as Alaska governor before finishing even her first term has divided Republican ranks and the wider political community in a very familiar fashion.

Cutting bait By Mark Steyn, National Review
With respect to many of the Palinologists below, I think they’re getting way too hepatomantic over the entrails. As a political move for anything other than the 2010 Senate race, today’s announcement is a disaster.

The 2012 Campaign Begins By Jonathan Alter, Newsweek
I could be wrong. Maybe there’s a huge scandal about to swamp Sarah Palin. Maybe she’ll take a gig as a Fox News pundit.

Missing the “freedom agenda” on the Fourth of July By Kori Schake, Foreign Policy
This weekend we celebrate our country’s independence and the courage of those brave men who met in congress in Philadelphia to chart a path to greater liberty. Despite the considerable effort Jefferson goes to in the Declaration to enumerate the crown’s depredations, and the very real grievances Americans had against the British government, we stand now far enough from the colonial experience to acknowledge we rebelled against perhaps the most humane and legally responsible government of its time.

I Must Go Home to Iran Again By Marjane Satrapi, The New York Times
Six years ago, I went to listen to a man, whom I will not name, in a café in Paris. He said it had been 24 years since he had been back to Iran, that he had to leave right after the revolution of 1979 for political reasons.

Honduras Braces for a Protracted Fight By Tim Padgett, Time
Prospects for an early resolution to the showdown over the ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya appear grim as a deadline for his reinstatement passes with the defiant coup leaders announcing that they’ll instead pull Honduras out of the Organization of Americans States. The OAS had given the coup leaders until Saturday to restore Zelaya to office, but they look more unlikely than ever now to comply.

Bibi’s Choice By Peter Berkowitz, The Weekly Standard
Don’t be misled by how little was said about Iran in the major speeches recently delivered by President Barack Obama at Cairo University and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Bar-Ilan University. And don’t suppose, either, that the popular upheaval precipitated by Iran’s rigged presidential election, assuming it falls short of ending the mullahs’ 30-year tyranny, will fundamentally alter regional politics. The central question for Middle East politics is still what to do about Iran’s illegal pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Russia tightens its grip on Georgia’s breakaway regions. By Svante E. Cornell, Foreign Policy
As the summer heat spreads through the Caucasus, it is once again accompanied by fears of war. Memories are still fresh from last summer, when after months of meticulous planning, Russian tanks rolled through the separatist territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and far into Georgian land. After the official withdrawal date a few weeks later, Russian troops remained in force (and in violation of an EU-mediated cease-fire) in the two separatist territories. Russia recognized them as independent states and stationed permanent military bases there, within striking distance of Georgia’s major cities.

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