When I read a couple of articles in the International Herald Tribune and Politico about the Obama’s fund raising e-mails, I felt relieved. During the whole long year of the campaign I have felt first surprised by the assault on the possible voters to donate and then angry that in an economic situation such as we are in the US so much money was solicited, given and used or misused. Read the rest of this entry »

On December 1, 2008, Hillary Clinton was nominated to be Secretary of State in the Obama administration. If she gets confirmed her seat in the US Senate as a junior senator for New York will have to be filled by someone nominated by the New York governor, David Paterson. Read the rest of this entry »

President-elect Obama has a full plate. That nobody can doubt. In a few weeks the inauguration will take place and all the good and bad news will be his responsibility. Personally, I hope he follows what he promised during the campaign about making health insurance one of the priorities of his administration. I am even hoping he goes a little further than his promises and helps create universal health care. Read the rest of this entry »

After the euphoria comes generally a reality check. And that is what the democrats in the US are going through after the scandals, maneuvering and corruption that is going on in three states which are trying to replace the three senators ‘lost’ to the new administration of president-elect Barack Obama. Read the rest of this entry »

It seems that the Iraqi government is finally taking decisions and that should be welcomed. A couple of days ago, Ali al-Dabbagh, spokesman for the Office of the Prime Minister of Iraq and former member of the Iraqi Parliament, announced in Washington at the Institute of Peace, an independent, nonpartisan, national institution established and funded by the United States Congress, a proposal for the creation of a regional economic and security union for the Middle East explicitly modeled on the European Union. Read the rest of this entry »

Arguing that the war is in violation of international law, an U.S. soldier who deserted after serving in Iraq has applied for asylum in Germany. André Shepherd is the first American GI who has done so even though there are apparently dozens of American deserters in Germany. Read the rest of this entry »

Not so many years ago while I was living in Europe, I had to go to get some papers signed at the Spanish consulate in Zurich, Switzerland. When I was ready to leave, being a nice sunny day I decided to walk to the train station cutting across one of the parks just across from the consulate. Read the rest of this entry »