Illustration by Phyllis Ma In late April 2004, the news that American soldiers had abused detainees at Abu Ghraib prison arrived to the public in a string of shocking photos. The images that exposed the torture of prisoners were brutal and strange—and they were memorable, resistant to amnesia. On May 24, President Bush made a somber address about the news. He called the abuse “disgraceful conduct by a few American troops, who dishonored our co...
...ay, the economic interests driving news are everywhere evident: See Michael Powell’s chairmanship of the FCC (which Rendall describes as “Dracula in charge of the blood bank”). See CBS Chairman Sumner Redstone’s suggestion in 2004 that he would have voted for Kerry in the national election if not for financial interests. See General Electric’s ownership of NBC. Of course, the pundit culture does not just happen; it only becomes possible under cer...
...edentials have come under intense scrutiny. The scrutiny also stems, though, from a seemingly self-conscious effort by Obama not to run as the “black candidate,” as Jesse Jackson did in 1984 and 1988 and as Al Sharpton did in 2004. Sharpton too has questioned Obama’s commitment to traditionally black causes. Granted, Obama eschews identifying exclusively as black, instead emphasizing his multi-racial and multi-cultural identity because by blood h...
...CIA has stumbled, the Department of Defense—with the tacit backing of the President—has rapidly made inroads into areas of intelligence that have historically been CIA territory. This, combined with the new provisions of the 2004 Intelligence Reform Act, has caused a fundamental restructuring of the intelligence landscape, whose outcome remains to be seen. The CIA has always been a troubled agency, but its most recent difficulty began with the f...
...Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), which were instrumental in developing campaign efforts abroad. According to journalist Gerald Sussman, the NDI and the IRI contributed millions to Yushchenko’s campaign in 2004. The struggle between Russia and the US in their attempts to influence the Ukrainian elections reveals the tensions of “camperialism” – the art of softly spreading imperialist influence through political campaigning. He...
This month, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev sent a bill to the Duma calling for the reinstatement of direct gubernatorial elections by the people of Russia’s provinces. The governors of Russia’s provinces currently are appointed by the Kremlin, which, through its dominating majorities in the Duma, did away with direct elections in 2004. The Kremlin can also fire governors essentially at will, resulting in governors who are more interested in s...
...cross the country, eroding the Kremlin’s power outside of Moscow. Even if enough candidates do come forward, however, and even if they are popularly supported, regional governors – who have been appointed by the Kremlin since 2004 – remain an obstacle. Before 2004, these governors were elected; the switch to appointments, like many other changes made by the Putin administration, served to further strengthen the power of the president. Although th...
...07 May 2007 March 2007 December 2006 October 2006 May 2006 March 2006 December 2005 October 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 December 2004 May 2004 Spring 2002 Winter 2002 No digital form still exists. Autumn 2001 Regrettably, the first issue (Volume I, Issue 1) of the Columbia Political Review is lost. It is said t...
...s of U.S. dollars flow across the border into criminal pockets. Experts and politicians claim that 90 percent of the cartel weapons are purchased within the United States. With no efforts to reinstate the assault rifle ban in 2004 in sight, high-powered U.S. weapons will continue to flood the Mexican countryside. Photo Art by Ravi Bhalla American-related developments that have little direct effect on Americans tend to go unnoticed. But as viole...
...y automatic weapons are legal, they are very expensive and difficult to obtain. So, the question remains, what are assault weapons and why do they scare Dianne Feinstein so much? The 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, which expired in 2004, defined an assault weapon as any semi-automatic rifle or pistol with the capability of accepting detachable magazine (it also outright banned magazines with more than 10 rounds) and had two or more prohibited features....
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