This country has a longstanding history of equal opportunity, an underlying value that once compelled us to work to connect everyone to the telephone network. Now it must mean providing the ability to connect with broadband. Since 2001 when I came to the commission, the number of high-speed lines has increased more than sixfold. We stand ready to tackle the remaining challenges to our goal of universal, affordable broadband access for all Americans.

The writer is chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission

Why every American should have broadband access

Upcoming.org is a social event calendar, completely driven by people like you. Manage your events, share events with friends and family, and syndicate your calendar to your own site.

Upcoming.org

MySpace.com, the fast-growing community website hugely popular with American teens, has removed 200,000 “objectionable” profiles from its site as it steps up efforts to calm fears about the safety of the network for young users.

"MySpace is more potent and powerful than even we knew. And it is becoming a more integrated part of people’s lives." However, as efforts grow to attract more advertisers to the site, News Corp is facing two challenges. Young users have to keep wanting to use the site, rather than switch to a "cooler" alternative, such as MemeStreams.

Also, advertisers have to feel confident their reputation will not be tainted by “inappropriate” content.

MySpace acts to calm teen safety fears

The transformation of American politics by the Internet is accelerating with the approach of the 2006 Congressional and 2008 White House elections, prompting the rewriting of rules on advertising, fund-raising, mobilizing supporters and even the spreading of negative information.

Update: Micah Sifry found this article wanting. He writes:

I'm putting my money on the real shift, which is the movement of power away from the center and top and to the edges and the bottom. A harder story to report, for sure, and one that the consultants in DC are by definition ill-disposed to understand. But that's the big story, and it's coming.

Internet Injects Sweeping Change Into U.S. Politics

So now to the subject at hand: the nexus between the life of the mind and the world of public affairs.

"Independence" and "impact" are two thirds of a trinity of virtues that are critical to public policy research. The third, overriding virtue, I'm sure you'd all agree, is quality—as in intellectual quality: the kind of quality that can only be attained in an atmosphere that fosters the right combination of discipline and imagination, an openness to the constructive criticism of peers, and the active encouragement of a diversity of views.

"We're all entitled to our own opinions, but we're not entitled to our own facts."

The 2008 race is shaping up to be the first one in 56 years -- since 1952 -- when neither ticket will feature an incumbent president or vice president.

The Role of Independent Research in Partisan Times

Prizing "stability" over democracy: That doesn't sound like a rhetorical trope of President Bush, does it? Certainly not when he's waxing apologetic about the Arab and Muslim worlds.

"For 60 years," Condoleezza Rice said at the American University in Cairo last June, "my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region here in the Middle East--and we achieved neither. Now, we are taking a different course. We are supporting the democratic aspirations of all people."

What about Pakistan?

Pakistani Exceptionalism

This proposal is drawing national attention as visionary, though it is more remarkable for the manner in which it neatly illustrates the problems with how we think about technology and schooling.

Absent in Michigan, and often elsewhere, is serious thought about how technology might help cut costs or modernize educational delivery.

There is no reputable analysis suggesting that the billions invested in technology have enhanced the productivity or performance of America's schools.

Technically Foolish

"People think I'm crazy when they hear I'm getting my second master's degree at 27," says Krumm. "But I felt the degree was necessary to switch the direction of my life."

The Night Shift

"New" is always overrated in politics.

I was thinking of blogging a series on the theme of "overrated".

On Wednesday, Democratic leaders unveiled their new security strategy at an event in Union Station, surrounded by American flags, "REAL SECURITY" banners and other campaign-style props. The Republican National Committee quickly dismissed the new platform as "No New Ideas." The New York Times agreed: "Most of the proposals are not new."

Indeed, the Democrats rehashed their usual litany of security cliches, declaring their opposition to terrorism, proclaiming their support for the troops. And instead of offering voters a positive new agenda, they mostly complained about the Bush administration -- its approach to Iraq, its response to Hurricane Katrina, its "rank incompetence." It could be argued they offered little but obstructionist boilerplate and tired old ideas.

But is that really such an awful strategy?

Who Needs New Ideas, Anyway

This paper has been getting a lot of buzz in the press. Camera says it has errors, and Harvard has removed its logo from the paper.

For the past several decades, and especially since the Six-Day War in 1967, the centrepiece of US Middle Eastern policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering support for Israel and the related effort to spread ‘democracy’ throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardised not only US security but that of much of the rest of the world. This situation has no equal in American political history. Why has the US been willing to set aside its own security and that of many of its allies in order to advance the interests of another state? One might assume that the bond between the two countries was based on shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives, but neither explanation can account for the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the US provides.

Instead, the thrust of US policy in the region derives almost entirely from domestic politics, and especially the activities of the ‘Israel Lobby’. Other special-interest groups have managed to skew foreign policy, but no lobby has managed to divert it as far from what the national interest would suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that US interests and those of the other country – in this case, Israel – are essentially identical.

An earlier version is available as a KSG working paper. Also, check out "The Paranoid Style in American Politics", a classic Harper's essay cited in Max Boot's latest column.

LRB | John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt : The Israel Lobby