With YouTube now participating in presidential primaries and digital media poised to overtake traditional sources of news and information, it isn’t surprising that virtual political action now poses a serious threat to democratic nationalism. As human rights align across borders and the distance between the world’s poor and basic information technology shrinks, digital advocacy like this “Change the Policy” video is bound to increase — and with dramatic political effect — in what might become the first truly global evolution of human values. Stay tuned…

Sober words from one of this primary’s lesser known Democratic candidates, on the benefits of bipartisan, international negotiation with Iran and the power of assertive compromise. As Atticus Finch might suggest, reconciling “The Axis” and “The Great Satan” may take little more than stepping inside the other guy’s skin and “walk[ing] around for a little”, and as Governor Richardson himself asserts, the taboo of Persian engagement must be overcome before any meaningful progress will ever take place…

A Nationalist Manifesto
There are too many elephants in the room. During our teens it was understandable, but this country is almost 140 years old. It’s time to stop ignoring the obvious. The 21st century might be filled with promise, but not if we don’t change course.

With ink still drying on the UN Security Council’s draft resolution, Nusrullah has finally agreed to a cessation of hostilities, but insists that the fight will continue as long as Israeli troops are still on the ground. This, at a time when Israel itself has just voted to triple the size of its current military operation and continues to airlift troops into Southern Lebanon. Only time will tell if this latest in a long series of diplomatic efforts will succeed where the others have so catastrophically failed…

Below is a transcript of the Charlie Rose interview with Rami Khoury, Editor-at-Large of The Daily Star, a leading English-language newspaper in Beirut. In the Middle East it’s been difficult to find a convincing argument against continued Israeli engagment in a non-Arab tongue, but this exchange, filmed on July 19th, cuts as close to the heart of the conflict as I’ve seen from a Palestinian commentator.

Described as the first direct communication from an Iranian leader to an American president since 1979, Ahmadinajad’s recent letter to President Bush touched on a broad array of socio-political matters that strike at the very heart of the current standoff between Tehran and Washington. Below is an exerpt of that letter — originally translated from Farsi…
Mr George Bush, President of the United States of America
For sometime now I have been thinking, how one can justify the undeniable contradictions that exist in the international arena — which are being constantly debated, specially in political forums and amongst university students. Many questions remain unanswered. These have prompted me to discuss some of the contradictions and questions, in the …

A trans-Pacific dialogue on the current state of Palestine, in reverse chronological order…
On 4/19/06 11:20 AM, editor@rationalpost.com wrote:
In my mind, it’s a poverty problem (and a blame problem). As much as it pains me to say it, neither Arabs and Jews, nor Russians and Chechens, nor Greeks and Macedonians, nor Iraqis and Kurds, nor Hutus and Tutsis (etc.) will ever resolve their conflicting land and resource claims without war (or extremely enlightened diplomacy). That much I’m sure about. The only relevant questions are who (soldiers, senators or civilians?), how (guns, bombs or arbitration?), where (fields, streets or courthouses?), and how long (minutes, months or millennia?). It’s an unfortunate but natural consequence of …