As the presidential campaign comes to a close, an increasing number of prominent Republicans and conservatives are voicing their concerns about Sarah Palin's sheer cluelessness on every possible issue, from economy and energy independence (drill, baby, drill? seriously?) to Iraq and foreign policy. (If Palin's closeness to Russia makes her...

When I was growing up in Iran and attending public schools in Tehran, I was constantly bombarded by state-sponsored anti-American propaganda. It's not that American public schools are free of anti-Iran propaganda; but the anti-American enmity that the Iranian regime tries to plant in children is relentless.

I never thought...

As John McCain's campaign begins to disintegrate within less than thirty days to election day because of his unequivocal support for George Bush's reckless economic policies that have gotten our economy into this ditch, he is beginning to use a series of sleazy advertisements to distract people from the fact...

The Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations have been doing their part in escalating a conflict with Iran on fictitious pretenses by organizing an anti-Iran rally to protest the presence of Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at the United Nations on Monday. And as proud members of the Israel Lobby,...

As we are about to enter the last fifty days of this campaign season, many Americans are falling into the same trap that forces of mainstream politics set every four years. The trap this year has been reincarnated in the form of a flurry of trivial issues relating to lipsticks,...

As the democrats have gathered in Denver to unite and rally all supporters behind Obama, they are causing a lot of excitement about the prospect of America getting passed the tipping point and addressing many of the challenges we have been facing for decades. However, Obama continues to show signs...

NBC will air Brian Williams' new interview with the Iranian President, Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The interview is significant for several reasons. First, whenever the American people are directly exposed to hearing from world leaders instead of being repeatedly spoon-fed with those leaders' caricatures and out-of-context sound bites, it's a good...

A few months back when John McCain went to the Middle East to participate in photo-ops, spend quality time with his favorite hawk, Senator Lieberman, and pretend that his policy prescription to stay in Iraq for a hundred years was rooted in "conditions on the ground," he made a major...

On the night that Barack Obama captured enough delegates to become the Democratic nominee, a lot of commentators and supporters of both him and Hillary Clinton could not help but acknowledge the significance of his candidacy. It was the first time in this country's history when a major party had...

Something extraordinary happened last week. The State Department had originally granted seven Palestinian students in the Gaza Strip Fulbright scholarships to come to the United States for higher education. But last week, the students received e-mails from the State Department, saying that the grants were being "redirected" to other...

Mr. Amitai Etzioni has a piece on The Huffington Post, in which he tries to weaken the main argument used to make the case against military attack on Iran. In the article, he states that "many states -- Iran, among others -- have leaders who are very capable of...

Watching American (and Iranian-Americans who haven't been to Iran since the revolution of 1979) "experts" talk about Iran can be a painful experience. Most of the analyses are not only superficial and stereotypical, they also lack the depth that is required in order to make sound policy.

Of course the...

After the mainstream media's weeks of obsession with Rev. Wright, some of which continued even after Senator Obama denounced him in no unequivocal terms, many bloggers and activists seem to have succeeded in getting the media to again do what it is supposed to do: cover the issues that matter...

Maybe the media is too busy slicing and dicing the comments of Rev. Jeremiah Wright to pay attention to the muscle-headed comments of Hillary Clinton a few days ago. On Good Morning America on Tuesday, in a response to a question about a hypothetical attack by Iran on Israel, Hillary...

On Wednesday, the Gallop Poll reported on a new survey's findings that the battle between Senators Clinton and Obama is leading many democrats to say they would vote for McCain if their favorite candidate isn't nominated. 19% of Obama supporters asked by the survey expressed this intention and that...

The Sun is 400 times larger than the moon. But when the moon aligns itself between us and the sun, it almost blocks all of sun's light and appears as if the two celestial bodies are of the same size. But of course, it appears this way because the...

I'm trying hard to save my relationship with the American democracy these days by trying to remember why we fell in love in the first place. Democratic elections mean a lot to me personally. I spent the first 16 years of my life in Iran, a country that's run by...

The power of technology has been the biggest enemy of authoritarian regimes. Iranians' only means of contact with the outside world throughout the sixteen years that I lived there used to be the state-run TV news and BBC Persian radio, which has a notoriously poor quality because of the Iranian...

During the debate in Ohio last Tuesday, Tim Russert asked Senator Obama whether he would "reject" the endorsement of Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, because of some of the anti-Semitic comments Farrakhan had previous made, including his calling Judaism "gutter religion." In response, Senator Obama made...

Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton participated in a substantive debate in Texas last night. They answered a range of questions from policy to politics, and both candidates did a fine job of answering the questions to the best of their abilities. One of the most contentious issues throughout this...