Global Paradigms

My The last days of the Bush Administration: Protecting the legacy has been posted on the Right Web.

Imressions from my recent there as published in the Sinagpore Business Times: Business Times - 24 Apr 2007 Playing it deep purple in Peoria Its political culture explains why President Bush and the Republican Party have paid special attention to the area By LEON HADAR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT DESPITE the fact that I've never visited the place, Peoria has been on my mind quite often, especially when I'm trying to break through my writer's block as I search for an appropriate metaphor for a political stand or a policy that supposedly appeals to mainstream America. Indeed, this so-called All-American City has been celebrated by writers as the representation of the 'average' American locale because of its demographics and alleged mainstream Midwestern politics and culture. 'Will it play in Peoria?' a saying coined on the vaudeville circuit where it was said that if an act would succeed in Peoria, it would play anywhere, has become so much a part of the America...

Asia Times Online has just published my The Revenge of the Political Man. As a added bonus, I'm also posting my Another Victim of the anti-Neocon Revolution which is about one of these Political Men.

I'm just about to conclude my trip to the Midwest which was sponsored by the Cato Institute and the World Affairs Councils of Peoria and Quad-Cities (I'm actually posting this at the Peoria airport.) I met with and spoke before groups of local leaders and students about the need to reach a diplomatic accomodation with Iran and related issues, like Iraq and U.S. policy in the Middle East. The response from my guests was very positive. The voters here tend to be more conservative, traditional and pro-military than in the two coasts. Nevertheless, my impression is that many of those who had supported the decision to go to war in Iraq, including many Republicans here have turned against Bush and the war. Obama who is from the area is certainly very popular.

...I wanted to let you know that I'll be apearing in an event sponsored by the Peoria Area World Affairs Council on U.S.-Iran relationship in Barrack's Cater Inn on Pioneer Parkway on April 19. Reception: 5:30, dinner at 6:00 and presentation at 7:00. Also my colleague from the Cato Institute, Chris Preble and I will address an event sponsored by Augustana College in collaboration with the World Affairs Council of the Quad-Cities on the same topic on April 17, at the Olin Auditorium at 7:00. All of this will happen if the weather will permit us to leave DC on Tuesday!

I went to see The Hoax, in which Richard Gere plus a fake nose, plays the role of Clifford Irving, the conman who had won a million-dollar advance from McGraw-Hill in 1971 for writing an "authorized" biography of the reclusive super zillionaire Howard Hughes. Irving never met Hughes, but he was able to convince a bunch of sophisticated business executives,the New York publishing community and the American media and public that Hughes was his pen pal and great buddy. I know, I know. It's difficult to imagine that in this open society, with free media, checks and balances, etc. that someone can get away with this kind of lies and deceptions, like getting most Americans and their representatives in Congress, as well as the media, that Saddam had ties to Osama, WMDs and he was about to nuke Cleveland. Irving, whose hoax cheated McGraw-Hill out of a million bucks but didn't lead to the killings of thousands and to the waste of resources, ended up serving two years for fr...

My recent commentaries from the Singapore Business Times: Business Times - 10 Apr 2007 Globalisation's threat to 'jobs of the future' Free trade could become a major victim of the growing white-collar revolt By LEON HADAR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT IN ONE of those cheap made-for-television dramas I was watching a few days ago, the viewers followed the tragic tale of a single middle-class woman who loses her job, applies for bankruptcy and together with her two young daughters is evicted from her home in the suburbs of Philadelphia. She is forced to join the ranks of the homeless in the city. She and her daughters end up spending their nights in public parks and begging for money until one day the woman is killed by another homeless person. Anyone who is familiar with the profiles of the homeless population in America's cities knows that the chances of encountering members of a middle-class family among the homeless are close to zero. There is still a solid safety net in t...

Enjoy my The 'X' dreams of Washington's wonks which was published in Asia Times Online.