175 Articles
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
The Ugly Truth about Jobs
(10 comments)
Many Americans have been sold on the right-wing and neoconservative message that any government effort to address the nation's domestic needs is dreaded “socialism” and that the government's primary -- if not only -- role must be to lavish money on the military to “keep us safe.”
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Why Lieberman Blocks a Public Option
(1 comments)
Much like the Republicans who hope that defeat of health reform will lead to their political revival in 2010 and 2012, Lieberman may foresee neocons returning to power as well or at least a hobbled Obama unable to compel Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt expansion of West Bank settlements or to take other steps that might lead to a Palestinian state.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Blaming the 'Dithering' Obama
(1 comments)
Obama has been in office less than 10 months and had to confront a multitude of Bush disasters. Those included the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, a yawning budget deficit, tattered international relations and two open-ended wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There does appear to be some merit to the “dithering” accusation. Or put differently, Obama has shown a tendency to let himself be diddled.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
A Special Report -- The Crazy October Surprise Debunking
(2 comments)
An irony of the falsified October Surprise history was that Hamilton's wished-for bipartisanship never materialized. The Republicans pocketed the Democratic readiness to cover up for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush–and then launched a partisan war against Bill Clinton.
Now 30 years after Iranian radicals seized the American hostages, the real story of how the Republicans manipulated the process remains mostly unknown.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
How Two Elections Changed America
(1 comments)
Two clandestine operations during hard-fought presidential elections. One unfolded in the weeks before Election 1968 and the other over a year before Election 1980. These operations altered the nation's course and went a long way toward defining the current personalities of America's national parties, the anything-goes Republicans versus the ever-accommodating Democrats.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Cheney and the Plame-Gate Cover-up
“The Vice President advised that there was no discussion of ‘pushing back' on Wilson's credibility by raising the nepotism issue, and there was no discussion of using Valerie Wilson's employment with the CIA in countering Joe Wilson's criticisms and claims about Iraqi efforts to procure yellowcake uranium from Niger,” said the FBI summary of Cheney's interview.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Al-Qaeda Outwitted Bush, Neocons
(5 comments)
One of the most remarkable aspects of life in Washington today is how the neocons remain exceptionally influential. They keep their well-paid jobs at prestigious think tanks, write books for major publishing houses, and control key opinion columns in the Washington Post and, to a lesser degree, the New York Times.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
On Public Option, MSM Gets It Wrong
(2 comments)
The mainstream media's opposition to the public option – as reflected in the reporting from CNN and other major networks as well as the Washington Post's columns – is another reminder why honest Americans must do whatever they can to build a truly independent media that will resist pressure from the Right and other powerful vested interests.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
US Health Insurers Up the Ante
(1 comments)
Right now, the Democrats are running a huge political risk by raising expectations of voters and then not delivering anything that helps much until after the next two election cycles. Starting the public option before the 2010 election or at least before the 2012 campaign might go a long way toward persuading voters that the Democrats have done something for the little guy.
Friday, October 16, 2009
The Politics of the Public Option
(1 comments)
If the Democrats bend to the demands of the industry and the Republicans, Obama and congressional Democrats could find themselves in several years explaining how they enacted “reforms” that bully moderate-income Americans into buying over-priced health insurance, fatten the industry's profits and fail to achieve any meaningful cost controls.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Insurers Make Case for Public Option
(4 comments)
Rather than using fines to muscle more citizens into the arms of private insurers, the Democrats might finally rebel against the lobbyists and make sure that a strong public health-insurance option is available as an alternative to private policies. Just the outcome that the industry feared most.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Health Insurers Threaten Rate Hikes
(6 comments)
Though looking forward to millions of new customers who would be compelled by the U.S. government to buy health insurance, the insurance industry is threatening to raise premiums across the board if more of its demands are not met.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Can US Make Sound Decisions?
While much attention has been focused on recent fabrications from Fox News personalities and other right-wing media voices, the Washington Post, CNBC and similar outlets of elite opinion may represent a greater threat to an informed national debate and to responsible decision-making.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Obama's Mideast Peace Dilemma
(1 comments)
While it is unclear how President Obama feels about the Iranian initiative, he did mute his criticism of the Iranian post-election crackdown, at least initially.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Democrats Ponder Health-Care Suicide
(19 comments)
If Democrats enact something like the health-care bill emerging from the Senate Finance Committee, they may call it a legislative victory and it may keep the campaign donations flowing from the insurance industry, but the Democrats would surely infuriate millions of American voters.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Neocon Judge's History of Cover-ups
(3 comments)
On Sept. 11, the eighth anniversary of the terror attacks on New York and Washington, Silberman issued a 2-to-1 opinion dismissing a lawsuit against the private security firm, CACI International, brought by Iraqi victims of torture and other abuse at Abu Ghraib prison.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Colin Powell and Lessons of My Lai
(1 comments)
"We burned down the thatched huts, starting the blaze with Ronson and Zippo lighters," Powell recalled. "Why were we torching houses and destroying crops? Ho Chi Minh had said the people were like the sea in which his guerrillas swam. ... We tried to solve the problem by making the whole sea uninhabitable. In the hard logic of war, what difference did it make if you shot your enemy or starved him to death?"
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Why the Right's Propaganda Works
(5 comments)
As much as the Left criticizes Obama and the Democrats for bungling health-care reform and showing a lack of courage on a range of other issues "" all valid points "" the larger problem can be traced back to the Left's historic miscalculation on media.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
WTimes' Hypocritical Obama-Nazi Slur
Anti-Obama protestors were showing up at rallies with Obama pictured with a Hitler mustache. Talk show host Rush Limbaugh likened Obama's logo for health care reform to a Nazi symbol. A swastika was painted on the office sign of a Democratic member of Congress.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Olbermann-O'Reilly 'Truce' Frays
Stung by criticism of caving in to corporate pressure, Olbermann gave a runner-up “Worst Persons in the World” award to “Bill-O the Clown” and the top prize to Murdoch for having “muzzled Bill-O, kept him from speaking his mind.”
Monday, July 27, 2009
Obama, the Great Wealth Creator?
(1 comments)
If one wanted to label Obama a "great wealth destroyer" for the stock market slide early in his presidency, it would only seem fair to call him now a "great wealth creator," because the Dow passed the 9,000 mark last week, representing almost a 40 percent rise from the March lows.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
To Save the Republic, Tax the Rich?
(9 comments)
We thought technological progress was going to mean more free time for the human race "" to play with the kids, to read a book, to travel or to just take it easy.
Instead, technology has contributed to making our lives more slavish and more brutish, especially when job loss is combined with lost health benefits and endless pressure from bill collectors.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Cronkite's Unintended Legacy
After the broadcast, President Lyndon Johnson is reported to have said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost the country." Johnson began serious negotiations aimed at ending the war before he left office, an endeavor that the Nixon campaign surreptitiously sabotaged.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Bush's Hit Teams
The Sandoval case also revealed a classified program in which the Pentagon's Asymmetric Warfare Group encouraged U.S. military snipers in Iraq to drop "bait" "" such as electrical cords and ammunition "" and then shoot Iraqis who picked up the items, according to evidence in the Sandoval case. [Washington Post, Sept. 24, 2007]
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Ancient Israeli Myths Deter Peace
(16 comments)
"This is what archaeologists have learned from their excavations in the Land of Israel: the Isrealites were never in Egypt, did not wander in the desert, did not conquer the land in a military campaign and did not pass it on to the 12 tribes of Israel," summed up Professor Ze'ev Herzog, director of the Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Obama's Iran Peace Talk Dilemma
(2 comments)
While it was unclear how President Barack Obama felt about the Iranian initiative, he did mute his criticism of the Iranian post-election crackdown at least initially. In his July 6-7 trip to Russia for meetings with President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Obama also made clear that Iran and Middle East peace were top issues to be discussed.
Friday, July 3, 2009
FBI Ignored Bush-Hussein Ties
(2 comments)
The Bush team never ceased playing games with information, the CIA released the so-called Duelfer report in 2004, acknowledging that the administration's pre-invasion assertions about Hussein hiding WMD stockpiles were "almost all wrong."
Thursday, July 2, 2009
FBI Ignored Bush-Hussein Ties
(4 comments)
While President George W. Bush and many of his supporters were thrilled with the execution "" what the New York Times called Bush's "triumphal bookend" to the Iraq invasion "" the hanging was not just rough justice meted out to a harsh dictator. It also snuffed out a dangerous witness who could have implicated senior Republicans, including Bush's father.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Obama, They Want You to Fail
(1 comments)
For almost as long as I've been in Washington (I arrived for the Associated Press in 1977) it has worked the other way. Even when the Republicans appear to be on the defensive and outnumbered, they band together and vote as a bloc, while Democrats bend over backwards to be "bipartisan."
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Who to Trust on a Truth Commission?
(8 comments)
While woeful in terms of penetrating official lies in pursuit of truth, Hamilton parlayed his performance as a congressional investigator into the esteemed status of a Washington's Wise Man. He was a natural choice for the 9/11 Commission and the Iraq Study Group, someone who would do all he could to avoid ruffling the feathers of prickly Republicans.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Iran Divided & the 'October Surprise'
(4 comments)
Extensive evidence now exists that Begin's preference for a Reagan victory led Israelis to join in a covert operation with Republicans to contact Iranian leaders behind Carter's back and delay release of the 52 American hostages until after Reagan defeated Carter in November 1980.
Khomeini's blessing allowed Rafsanjani, Karoubi and later Mousavi to proceed with secret contacts that involved emissaries from the Reagan camp
Monday, June 22, 2009
Serving the Medical-Industrial Complex
(5 comments)
For a nation facing multiple fiscal crises--all complicated by the costs of health care--one might think that the most sure thing in the health care debate would be to allow a cost-saving public option, which as President Barack Obama says would help keep private health insurers "honest" regarding their promises to trim waste and control premiums.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Taking Sides in Iran
Despite the vehemence of Mousavi's supporters regarding what they say is his rightful victory, they have reason to doubt their certainty. Some of the complaints about the Iranian election have become legend, but crack under objective scrutiny.
The complaint, for instance, about the hasty claim of an Ahmadinejad victory ignores the fact that Mousavi was out with a declaration of his own victory shortly after the polls closed.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
What If Ahmadinejad Really Won?
(2 comments)
But a strong case can be made that the large turnout, which was estimated at about 85 percent, was the key to a genuine landslide for Ahmadinejad, who is viewed as a friend of more traditional Iranians from the working classes and among the rural peasants.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Excusing Outrages of the Right
(2 comments)
Official Washington often acts like some primitive community living in the shadow of a rumbling volcano, eager to demonstrate obeisance to the volcano gods and fearful that any show of defiance might start a full-scale eruption.
It seems that the only time mainstream U.S. journalists beat their breasts is when they detect a challenge to the still-prevailing free-market theology.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Tying Obama to Bush's Budget Mess
So, it is useful to read Wednesday's New York Times analysis of the CBO budget projections, which revealed that Obama's stimulus plan and other domestic programs account for "only a sliver" of the deficits, about 10 percent of the projected $1.2 trillion deficit for 2009.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Two Key Health-Care Numbers
President Barack Obama says he strongly supports inclusion of a public option in any reform legislation as necessary to keep the private industry "honest." His reference to the public option during a speech on Thursday in Green Bay, Wisconsin, was greeted with some of the strongest applause as was his reference to prohibiting insurers from denying someone coverage because of a "preexisting condition."
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Two Key Health-Care Numbers
President Barack Obama says he strongly supports inclusion of a public option in any reform legislation as necessary to keep the private industry "honest." His reference to the public option during a speech on Thursday in Green Bay, Wisconsin, was greeted with some of the strongest applause as was his reference to prohibiting insurers from denying someone coverage because of a "preexisting condition."
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Obama's Era of Openness Is Closed
(10 comments)
Obama's cover-up of the Bush administration's crimes also enables the Republicans to gloss over the abuses of the past eight years and makes a GOP comeback more likely in the not-too-distant future. It's also a sure bet that the Republicans will do Obama no reciprocal favors, anymore than they did for Bill Clinton, who similarly concealed Reagan-Bush-I abuses.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Ronald Reagan: Worst President Ever?
(9 comments)
There's been talk that George W. Bush was so inept that he should trademark the phrase "Worst President Ever,"- though some historians would bestow that title on pre-Civil War President James Buchanan. Still, a case could be made for putting Ronald Reagan in the competition. [U]nprecedented greed was unleashed on Wall Street, fraying old-fashioned bonds between company owners and employees.
Friday, June 5, 2009
119 Million Americans Must Be Wrong
(5 comments)
As the health insurance industry and its defenders in Congress lay out their case against permitting a public option in a reform bill, perhaps their most curious argument is that some 119 million Americans are ready to dump their private plans and jump to something more like Medicare and that's why the choice can't be permitted.
Monday, June 1, 2009
America's Political/Media Kabuki
(2 comments)
As the right-wing media grew and the Republicans became more powerful, many Democrats and most mainstream journalists learned that to survive they had to accept their assigned roles. Democrats became practiced at apologizing, equivocating and seeking accommodation; mainstream journalists mastered the skill of bending over backwards to appease the Right
Saturday, May 30, 2009
'Scaredy-Cat Nation' Risks US Security
(1 comments)
After the Pentagon report was officially released on May 26, analysts Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann reviewed the data and concluded that the Pentagon's "numbers are very likely inflated" because the Pentagon included ex-prisoners who were "suspected" of having engaged in militant activity and others whose acts weren't aimed at the United States or its allies.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Obama Caves to 'Scaredy-Cat Nation'
(1 comments)
Given the absence of a compelling rationale, it appears more likely that Obama is bowing to the power of fear, political fear that he might be blamed by fearful Americans if a jury acquitted some allegedly dangerous terrorist because the evidence was insufficient or because the case was tainted by torture or other government misconduct.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Colin Powell Skates Free on Torture
(4 comments)
There is no one, it seems, that the U.S. mainstream news media loves more than Colin Powell, a "moderate" Republican who gives a careerist journalist the chance to do some smart positioning in the "center." But the truth about this retired four-star general is that he is the ultimate careerist.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Giving Some Love to the Inquisition
(2 comments)
This dynamic is one that has prevailed in Washington for more than a quarter century. Republicans and the right-wing news media put up a fierce defense of Republican crimes, while the Democrats and the mainstream press seek to avoid a confrontation with angry Republicans and right-wingers.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Knowing 'What's Good for the Country'
(3 comments)
In my three decades-plus in Washington journalism, I have witnessed the creeping opportunism behind this claim of doing "what's good for the country," which usually translates into keeping unpleasant truths from the American people and spares politicians and journalists from the difficult task of having to speak ill of some U.S. government actions.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
WPost Columnist Winks at Torture
These days, the Washington Post has the look of one of those Southern newspapers in the 1960s standing firm for segregation as the wave of civil rights swept across the region. Except for the Post, the blind commitment is to neoconservatism.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
The Need to Hold the GOP Accountable
(11 comments)
Congressional Republicans voted almost unanimously against every major piece of legislation that Obama proposed to address short- and long-term national problems. It was, as some observed, like watching the arsonist who set the fire throwing rocks at the firefighters who tried to put out the blaze.
Which brings us to the central role of George W. Bush's younger brother Jeb at a Saturday event in Arlington, Virginia....
Monday, May 4, 2009
'One More Bubble!'
When I took an editing job at Bloomberg News in March 2000, my arrival coincided with the bursting of the Internet bubble. As once-hot IPOs tanked and the Nasdaq crashed. I would joke to other editors that what the U.S. economy needed was "to build a better bubble." Then, to my amazement that was pretty much what happened, except that the bubble moved from the peripheral world of dot.com to a cornerstone of the economy
Friday, May 1, 2009
Who Betrayed 'Objective' Journalism?
(3 comments)
Though the world has now seen the extraordinary cost in blood and treasure because of the failure of the U.S. news media to act professionally in the run-up to the Iraq War, there is little indication that the national press corps has learned lasting lessons from that catastrophe.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Democrats' 'Battered Wife Syndrome'
(4 comments)
In recent years, the Washington political dynamic has often resembled an abusive marriage, in which the bullying husband (the Republicans) slaps the wife and kids around, and the battered wife (the Democrats) makes excuses and hides the ugly bruises from outsiders to keep the family together. So, when the Republicans are in a position of power, they throw their weight around, break the rules, and taunt: "Whaddya gonna do "bou
Friday, April 24, 2009
How Bush's Torture Helped al-Qaeda
(2 comments)
Captured al-Qaeda operatives, facing the threat or reality of torture, appear to have fed the Bush administration's obsession about Iraq, buying Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders time to rebuild their organization inside nuclear-armed Pakistan Even now, as al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies expand their power ever closer to Pakistan's capital of Islamabad, ex-Bush administration officials continue to insist they protect
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Connecting CIA Torture to Abu Ghraib
The link between the Abu Ghraib abuses and the U.S. death toll was described by a lead U.S. interrogator in Iraq, who used the pseudonym "Matthew Alexander" for a Washington Post Outlook article on Nov. 30, 2008.
"Alexander," a U.S. Air Force special operations officer, said it was his team's abandonment of those harsh tactics that contributed to the tracking down and killing of the murderous al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Zarqawi
Friday, April 17, 2009
How Bush's Tortured Legal Logic Won
(1 comments)
Almost as disturbing as reading the Bush administration's approved menu of brutal interrogation techniques is recognizing how President George W. Bush successfully shopped for government attorneys willing to render American laws meaningless by turning words inside out.
Monday, April 13, 2009
US News Media Fails America, Again
(1 comments)
The commentariat class also has continued to frame the Republican hatred of Obama as Obama's fault, describing his "failure" to achieve a more bipartisan Washington or in its latest formulation calling Obama "the most polarizing President ever."
Monday, April 6, 2009
Another Bush Intelligence Failure
(5 comments)
Despite these two intelligence disasters, the bipartisan 9/11 Commission operated within its own narrow concept of what was politically acceptable, meaning that it couldn't very easily decry the politicization that Ronald Reagan molded and Bill Clinton hardened.
Instead, the commission recommended putting a new bureaucratic box on top of the old flow chart.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
WPost Sees Neocon Hope in Obama
(1 comments)
When reading Washington Post editorials, one often is reminded of the famous question from "Shawshank Redemption": "How can you be so obtuse? By narrowing the scope of the conflict, Obama also has implicitly rejected Bush's corollary, that the GWOT requires a suspension of American liberties. Neither of these shifts is insignificant--and to ignore them is obtuse.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
To Bush's GWOT, RIP
(2 comments)
How Bush framed the terrorism issue also bred resentment and confusion inside the United States. In answering "why do they hate us?" Bush offered the sophomoric notion that Islamic extremists "hated our freedoms"- and wanted to destroy the American Way of Life.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
WPost Elitists Feel for Wall St. Brethren
(1 comments)
One interesting trait of elitists is that they show remarkable class solidarity, often more so than people of lesser means. Which may help explain why the Washington Post's editorial writers penned three editorials last week decrying the populist outrage over the AIG bonuses.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Good News, Bad News
(3 comments)
Remarkably, four more years later, even as right-wing and mainstream news outlets are ganging up on President Barack Obama "" much like they did on President Bill Clinton "" the progressive funders continue to grossly underfund media outlets.The truth is that there is no answer other than doing the hard work and investing some serious money.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
WPost Is a Neocon Propaganda Sheet
(4 comments)
For Americans who hear the name Washington Post and still think of "All the President's Men" brave journalists and editors facing down a corrupt President today's version of the newspaper would be a sad disappointment, a betrayal of a noble past.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Betraying 'President's Men' Legacy, WaPo Becomes Neocon Propaganda Sheet
(13 comments)
For Americans who hear the name Washington Post and still think of "All the President's Men" brave journalists and editors facing down a corrupt President today's version of the newspaper would be a sad disappointment, a betrayal of a noble past.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
The Neocons Strike Back
(15 comments)
In effect, the neocons showed that their influence over the national news media, especially the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, combined with solid Republican support and some key Democratic backing, still lets them blackball potential government appointees who favor a more evenhanded approach toward the Middle East.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Obama's DNI Urged to Back Freema
(2 comments)
Editor's Note: Former U.S. Ambassador Chas Freeman has been tapped to head the National Intelligence Council, which oversees the production of National Intelligence Estimates on threats facing the United States.
In a letter to Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair "" dated March 8, the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity wrote a letter to Blair to resist the pressure.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Neocons Wage War on a 'Realist'
But that is not the world in which the United States finds itself. In today's Washington, the city's preeminent newspaper publishes a neoconservative attack on President Barack Obama's choice to oversee intelligence analyses because the person is a "realist."
Thursday, March 5, 2009
War Crimes and Double Standards
(4 comments)
Dealing with MSM columnists and the current Truth Commission controversy, conclusion:
It's also not true that any investigation is always better than no investigation. I have witnessed cover-up investigations that not only failed to get anywhere near the truth but tried to discredit and destroy whistleblowers who came forward with important evidence.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
How Close the Bush Bullet
These theories held that at a time of war--even one as vaguely defined as the "war on terror"--Bush's powers as Commander in Chief were "plenary," or total. And since the conflict against terrorism had no boundaries in time or space, his unfettered powers would exist everywhere and essentially forever. According to his administration's secret legal memos released Monday, Bush could waive all meaningful constitutional rights
Monday, March 2, 2009
The American Media Misdiagnosis
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Can You Trust the Republicans?
(6 comments)
In 1981, as an Associated Press reporter, I was one of a handful of journalists who helped expose Lefever's fondness for white European colonizers of black Africa. In his writings, he had stressed the beneficence of the white conquerors and lamented the barbarism of the black natives. Finally He was replaced by a bright, young neoconservative named Elliott Abrams.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Obama's War with the Right (& Media)
"For the better part of three decades, a disproportionate share of the nation's wealth has been accumulated by the very wealthy," the 142-page budget message states. "Technological advances and growing global competition, while transforming whole industries--and birthing new ones--has accentuated the trend toward rising inequality."
Thursday, February 26, 2009
The GOP's Anti-Obama Propaganda
(12 comments)
Today's Republicans are thumbing through Newt Gingrich's worn playbook of 1993 looking for tips on how to blunt President Barack Obama's political momentum and flip it to their advantage. In doing so, they also appear to have dug in to what might be called the secret appendix.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
The GOP's Anti-Obama Propaganda
(10 comments)
In both Bush One and Two, the Democrats inherited recessions and huge budget deficits from Republican presidents named Bush. In both cases, congressional Republicans rallied against the economic package of the new President hoping to strangle the young Democratic administrations in their cradles. Now, 16 years since the start of Clinton's presidency, the Republicans and their right-wing allies are again on the outside of DC
Friday, February 20, 2009
Obama's 'Seven Days in May' Moment
(6 comments)
The current Republican strategy appears to be to hobble the Obama administration out of the gate, have it stumble forward through a deteriorating economy and collapse before the 2010 and 2012 elections, enabling the GOP to retake control of the government. This may not become his "Seven Days in May"- moment, but he can be sure that his adversaries want him-- like Jimmy Carter--to be a one-term President.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The US Media & Democracy in Crisis
For those of us who have criticized the U.S. mainstream media for failing to resist right-wing pressure over the past three decades, there is a sad sense of vindication watching the downward spiral of so many once-venerable newspapers. But this trend carries with it a new threat to American democracy.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
'Bitter' Gore; 'Principled' McCain
(4 comments)
A case study in how this current media double standard is playing out can be seen in the divergent treatment in the major news media's reaction to Al Gore's criticism of President Bush's policies in 2002 compared to John McCain's high-profile attacks on President Obama today.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Obama & the Media Dilemma
(1 comments)
...when George W. Bush and the Republicans were at the height of their power, media professionals justified booking lots of pro-Bush operatives since they were the insiders. Now, with the Republicans out of power, a premium is placed on having as many voices as possible from the GOP opposition.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
The GOP's Jihad on Obama
(4 comments)
Only a few weeks into Barack Obama's presidency, a threatening political and media dynamic has rushed to the fore cutting short a very brief honeymoon.
Monday, February 9, 2009
The GOP's Filibuster Hypocrisy
(7 comments)
Though seemingly forgotten by most TV talking heads, it was only three years ago, when the Republicans had control of both the White House and Congress "" and "filibuster"- was a dirty word. In this obstructionism, the Republicans appear to have a powerful ally in the Washington press corps that - with few exceptions - treats the GOP's promiscuous use of filibusters as some responsible application of a time-honored tradition.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
First, Jail All Bush's Lawyers
(8 comments)
If the lawyers colluded with policymakers in creating legal excuses for criminal acts, the Bush-Cheney defense collapses. Rather than diligent lawyers providing professional advice, the picture is of consiglieres counseling crime bosses how to skirt the law.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
George W. Bush's Sci-Fi Disaster
(2 comments)
Now, eight years later, a fuller measure can be taken of what Bush's power grab meant for the United States "" the federal debt ballooning, the economy in freefall, unemployment skyrocketing (along with bankruptcies and foreclosures), environmental degradation, two open-ended wars, and the nation's image around the world soiled by torture and other official crimes.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Obama Frees Bush Historical Records
(2 comments)
ronically, President Obama has renewed the timeliness of this Gates credibility question in two ways: first, by keeping him on as Defense Secretary and now, by revoking the Bush Family's power to delay and obstruct.
In his first full day in office, Obama revived hope that historical records might become available in a reasonable length of time.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Bush's Only Gift to America
(8 comments)
George W. Bush's gift to the American Republic may be that he has discredited a host of right-wing theories and practices--"trickle-down economics"; "self-regulating markets"; "tough-guy" foreign policy; the "imperial presidency"; and the notion that "government is the problem." If Obama and the Democrats fail to drive these lessons home, they are courting a huge risk that the same beharior could reemerge.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Bush's Only Gift to America
What recent history has shown is that failure to address serious government misconduct only invites a repeat of those abuses or worse. It can be unpleasant to exact accountability--it is often easier to look the other way--but it has been a hard-learned lesson for America that leniency in such circumstances can have devastating consequences.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Israel's Looming Catastrophe
(4 comments)
For the past three decades, Israel has charted a course that invites its own destruction by relying on two risky propositions: first, that it could extend its security perimeter beyond the reach of a devastating missile attack, and second, that it could permanently control the political debate inside its crucial ally, the United States.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Cheney's Shocking Admissions on How Close He Came to Nearly Destroying the Country
(8 comments)
Though Cheney cited constitutional precedents from the Civil War&WWII to justify his position,what has made the "war on terror" such an insidious basis for asserting the broadest presidential powers is that it is amorphous both in time &space.Unlike conventional wars that have beginnings and ends-as well as battlefronts-this "war" is theoretically everywhere and never-ending,with constitutional limits eliminated forever.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Obama and US-Russia Tensions
(4 comments)
Author's Note: The following article was written by two analysts from an international organization. However, given the political sensitivity of NATO expansion and anti-missile deployments, we are publishing the article anonymously at their request
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
The Significance of Nixon's 'Treason'
(2 comments)
You might have thought that when audiotapes were released of President Lyndon Johnson accusing Richard Nixon's 1968 campaign of "treason" for sabotaging Vietnam peace talks - as 500,000 U.S. troops sat in a war zone - the major U.S. news media would be all over it, providing insight and context. If you thought that, of course, you would be wrong.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Predictable Economic Disaster by George W. Bush
(2 comments)
In his trademark goofy way, George W. Bush explained why he supported a bailout of the U.S. financial markets, saying he was "a free-market person, until you're told that if you don't take decisive measures then it's conceivable that our country could go into a depression greater than the Great Depression."
Monday, October 27, 2008
Bush's Looming Defeat in Iraq
Over the past several months as the agreement has taken shape, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government has escalated its demands, and the Bush administration has made concession after concession. Yet even now, many powerful Iraqi politicians -- especially among the Shiites -- are demanding that American troops get out even faster.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Palin's Trouble with the Police
You have to admire the Republican chutzpah. Still confronting a national scandal about packing the Justice Department with "loyal Bushies," they pick a vice presidential candidate who in her two executive jobs in Alaska ousted top law-enforcement officials because they were insufficiently loyal or not malleable enough.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
WaPo Admits Bungling Obama Quote
The Washington Post's ombudsman says the newspaper's original source for a quote that was used to portray Barack Obama as a megalomaniac now disputes the Post's negative interpretation that has spread across cable TV, the Internet and even into a John McCain attack ad.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Democrats Have Legalized Bush's War Crimes
(23 comments)
The Democratic leadership cleared the way for the president and his collaborators to evade punishment for defying the law.
Friday, June 6, 2008
RFK's Death & the Hope of the Young
(4 comments)
The 40th anniversary of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination may be a fitting time to recall how young Americans in an earlier generation ended up alienated from their parents, much as this year's battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has created its own generational divide.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Bush's Endless Hypocrisy on Terror
(2 comments)
Is a government guilty of terrorism if it harbors known terrorists? What should one say about a country that permits open fund-raising on behalf of a terrorist implicated in the mass killing of civilians?
Sunday, May 18, 2008
The Bushes and Hitler's Appeasement
(3 comments)
The irony of George W. Bush going before the Knesset and mocking the late Sen. William Borah for expressing surprise at Adolf Hitler's 1939 invasion of Poland is that Bush's own family played a much bigger role assisting the Nazis.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
McCain and the 'Unitary Executive'
(1 comments)
If John McCain wins the presidency and gets to appoint one or more U.S. Supreme Court justices America's 220-year experiment as a democratic Republic living under the principle that "no man is above the law" may come to an end.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Bill and Hillary's 'Stockholm Syndrome'
(2 comments)
The two most distinctive features of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and Bill Clinton's attempts at a supporting role are a seemingly bottomless pit of self-pity (excavated in part by the right-wing attack machine years ago) and the copycat use of many right-wing tactics to demonize their opponents and critics.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Losing the War for Reality
(8 comments)
To understand America's sharp decline in the early 21st Century, one must look at its lost ability to deal with reality. In a new book, former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman traces this problem back to the work of Robert Gates and others in the 1980s to "politicize" intelligence.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Where Would Obama Take the Nation?
(1 comments)
Among the recent flood of celebrity endorsements, one that has received little attention came in a Washington Post op-ed by President Dwight Eisenhower's granddaughter, Susan Eisenhower, explaining why she's backing Barack Obama.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Hillary Signals Free Pass for Bush
(4 comments)
Hillary Clinton's campaign is signaling that a second Clinton presidency will follow the look-to- the-future, don't- worry- about- accountability approach toward Republican wrongdoing that marked Bill Clinton's years in office.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
The Truth about Colin Powell
(1 comments)
Few modern Americans have enjoyed better press clippings than Colin Powell, which made him the perfect choice to sell the Iraq War. But there was a troubling side of Powell's history that Americans should have known,
Friday, September 7, 2007
Neck Deep, the Real Colin Powell, Selling Himself Again
(1 comments)
Instead of working to end the Iraq War, which he helped launch with a deceptive speech at the U.N., Colin Powell is cashing in again on his name and government service.
The retired general and former Secretary of State is getting star billing at a full-day motivational seminar with a speech on "take-charge leadership.
Monday, August 13, 2007
New Spy Law Broader Than Thought
Before the Democratic-controlled Congress caved in on George W. Bush’s warrantless-wiretapping powers, White House lawyers slipped in two provisions to give the President even more authority – and less accountability – than he claimed on his own. And the U.S. press corps largely missed that part of the story.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Misreading Iraq, Again
Dubya and his neoconservative allies have misread the reality in Iraq again and again over the past four-plus years.
Now, with some signs of cooperation between U.S. commanders and Sunni tribal leaders, Bush and the neocons say they've finally got it right and Congress should back off on withdrawal deadlines.
But the new evidence can be read the opposite. Their view could give another helping hand to al-Qaeda.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Next Generation of 'Family Jewels'?
(1 comments)
In hailing release of the CIA's "family jewels" confessions, the Washington news media says that major intelligence abuses stopped in the mid-1970s because congressional oversight was put in place. But the reality is different and much more alarming. The evidence actually points to worse intelligence crimes committed after the period covered by the "family jewels." What really changed was the cover-ups got more effective.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Time for PBS to Go?
(4 comments)
PBS is broadcasting what amounts to a neoconservative propaganda series entitled "America at a Crossroads," which has included a full hour info-mercial for George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq written and narrated by Richard Perle, one of the war's architects.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Bush/Cheney Dig in to Win
George W. Bush and Dick Cheney believe they can back down the Democrats over legislative timetables for leaving Iraq -- and as a bonus drive a wedge between national Democrats and their anti-war base. But all the political maneuvering in Washington is not likely to change the desperate facts on the ground in Iraq, where the Bush/Cheney military strategies are in dangerous disarray.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Iraq & the Logic of Timetables
It has become a standard part of George W. Bush's litany for why he will veto a congressional plan for setting a timetable for withdrawing U.S. combat forces from Iraq: "Why would you say to the enemy, 'Here's a timetable. Just go ahead and wait us out?'"
Friday, April 6, 2007
Bush/Cheney Still Lie with Abandon
What makes George W. Bush and Dick Cheney such extraordinary threats to the future of American democracy is their readiness to tell half-truths and outright lies consistently without any apparent fear of accountability.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Zeroing in on Cheney-Bush
(3 comments)
The four-count conviction of White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby for perjury and obstruction of justice has left many Americans, including the jury, wondering why Libby's bosses weren't in the dock with him. The evidence, viewed chronologically, leaves little doubt that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and other senior officials had a hand in both the exposure of a covert CIA officer's identity and the cover-up.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Iran Clock Is Ticking
Time may be running out for Congress and the American people to put in place any constraints on President George W. Bush before he plunges ahead with a new war against Iran. Military and intelligence sources say the preparations for a major bombing campaign are moving ahead swiftly, with the deteriorating U.S. situation in Iraq adding to Bush's urgency.
Friday, January 19, 2007
Gonzales Questions Habeas Corpus
(8 comments)
In one of the most chilling public statements ever made by a U.S. Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales questioned whether the U.S. Constitution grants habeas corpus rights of a fair trial to every American.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Scooter Libby's Time-Travel Trial
The trial of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is being billed by the Big Media as a case study of a favorite Washington clich "it's not the crime but the coverup" a smugly delivered line suggesting that Libby committed no real offense beyond trimming a few facts when questioned by overzealous investigators.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
The Logic of a Wider Mideast War
White House press secretary Tony Snow dismisses expectations of war with Iran as an "urban legend" and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Peter Pace says that "from a military standpoint" there's "no need to cross the Iranian border." But there are still strong reasons to suspect the Iraq War may soon spill over to Iran and possibly Syria.
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Operation: Save Bush's Legacy
(2 comments)
If press reports are correct ..." that George W. Bush will approve a troop "surge" in Iraq of 17,000 to 20,000 soldiers ..." the follow-up question must be whether the escalation will do anything but get more Americans and Iraqis killed while only forestalling the defeat of Bush's war policy.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Bush's 'Global War on Radicals'
(3 comments)
Bush is laying the groundwork for a wider war in the Middle East by stretching the parameters of the "global war on terrorism" to add to his enemies list what he calls "radicals and extremists." The change makes the struggle so amorphous that Bush theoretically could strike at anyone he doesn't like whether there's a credible link to international terrorism or not. The word shift also portends an endless war between the United
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
Democrats Cave on Gates Nomination
Despite winning the Nov. 7 elections largely due to public anger over the Iraq War, congressional Democrats crumbled in their first post-election confrontation with President George W. Bush on the future direction of that conflict.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Why Trust Robert Gates on Iraq?
While in charge of the CIA's analytical division in the mid-1980s, Robert M. Gates made wildly erroneous predictions about the dangers posed by leftist-ruled Nicaragua and espoused policy prescriptions considered too extreme even by the Reagan administration, in one case advocating the U.S. bombing of Nicaragua.
Saturday, November 18, 2006
America: What to Do Next?
(2 comments)
The Nov. 7 elections took the wind out of the blowhard sails that had been driving the United States toward the shoals of endless war abroad and authoritarianism at home. But the ship of state still finds itself buffeted in very stormy seas, with a safe harbor far beyond the horizon.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Blackmail & Bobby Gates
Unresolved mysteries about former intelligence officer Robert Gates mean that his secret -- and possibly illegal -- activities in the 1980s could come back to haunt the USA if he is confirmed as Defense Secretary. Though Gates denies all wrongdoing, substantial evidence now exists that Gates engaged in controversial plans to arm the Iranians and the Iraqis, a past that conceivably could open him to pressure and even blackmail.
Monday, November 6, 2006
America's Slide to Totalitarianism
If the last-minute polling trends showing a powerful Republican comeback carry through the Nov. 7 elections, the end of America as we have known it for more than two centuries will be at hand.
Thursday, November 2, 2006
How Neocon Favorites Duped U.S.
(1 comments)
When American voters go to the polls on Nov. 7, one of the foremost questions that should be on their minds is how did the United States get into the Iraq mess, which has claimed the lives of more than 2,800 U.S. soldiers and possibly hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. What went wrong with Washington and what can citizens do about it?
Monday, October 30, 2006
All the President's Lies
Many Americans are cynical about what they hear from politicians and often with good reason but perhaps no U.S. political leader in modern history has engaged in a pattern of lying and distortion more systematically than George W. Bush has.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Original October Surprise (Part 3)
Editor's Note: Part 3 of our series about the "Original October Surprise" of 1980 addresses the troubling question of whether disgruntled CIA officers collaborated with their former boss, George H.W. Bush, to sabotage President Jimmy Carter's Iran-hostage negotiations -- and thus changed the course of U.S. political history. Links to part 1 & 2 are featured also.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
How Democrats Might Blow It
(7 comments)
As Democrats go through their biennial rite of premature victory celebrations, they are inviting defeat again by obsessing on polls about how many congressional seats are "in play" rather than on explaining to the American people what a Republican victory on Nov. 7 would mean to the nation.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Giving Osama What He Really Wants
The Republican National Committee has released a new campaign ad to rally the GOP base and other voters by showing threatening quotes from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden followed by the pitch: "These are the stakes. Vote Nov. 7."
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Who Is 'Any Person' in Tribunal Law?
(1 comments)
The New York Times lead editorial gives false comfort to American citizens by assuring them that they will not be victims of George W. Bush's new draconian system for prosecuting enemies of the U.S. government in military tribunals outside constitutional protections.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Bush & His Dangerous Delusions
In George W. Bush's world, Saddam Hussein defied United Nations demands that he get rid of his weapons of mass destruction and barred U.N. inspectors; al-Qaeda's public statements must be believed even when contradicted by its private comments; and U.S. withdrawal from Iraq is unthinkable because it would let al-Qaeda "extend the caliphate," a mythical state that doesn't really exist.
Monday, October 2, 2006
Why Capitol Pages Fear Retaliation
For generations, American parents have sent their high-school-age children to Washington to serve as Capitol Hill pages and to learn about the real world of politics. In the scandal surrounding Rep. Mark Foley's salacious e-mails, it's clear that one lesson the pages learned was to fear Republican retaliation.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance (The American Empire Project)
(3 comments)
The United States is following the lead of "dirty war" nations, such as Argentina and Chile, in enacting what amounts to an amnesty law protecting U.S. government operatives, apparently up to and including President George W. Bush, who have committed or are responsible for human rights crimes.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
The Bushes & the Truth About Iran
(4 comments)
Having gone through the diplomatic motions with Iran, George W. Bush is shifting toward a military option that carries severe risks for American soldiers in Iraq as well as for long-term U.S. interests around the world. Yet, despite this looming crisis, the Bush Family continues to withhold key historical facts about U.S.-Iranian relations.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Bush Shields Dad on Chile Terrorism
(1 comments)
Chilean investigators say the Bush administration is undercutting their case against former dictator Augusto Pinochet for his alleged role in the terrorist assassination of a political rival on the streets of Washington three decades ago, a crime that then-CIA Director George H.W. Bush appears to have tolerated and then helped cover-up.
Monday, September 18, 2006
Bush's Way or the Highway
Bush's Sept. 15 outburst threatening to stop interrogating terror suspects if Congress doesn't let him revise the Geneva Conventions to permit coercive techniques is part of a pattern of petulance that dates back to even before the 9/11 attacks but has resurfaced as Bush faces new challenges to his authority.
Thursday, September 7, 2006
Election 2006 & World War III
(16 comments)
As Americans go to the polls in two months, they should have one thought fixed in their minds: they will be voting on whether to commit the nation to fighting World War III against large segments of the world's one billion Muslims. Beyond the cost in blood and treasure, this war will mean the end of the United States as a democratic Republic.
Friday, September 1, 2006
Smearing Joe Wilson, Again
(1 comments)
In a world that wasn't upside-down, the editorial page of Washington's biggest newspaper might praise a whistleblower like former Ambassador Joseph Wilson for alerting the American people to a government deception that helped lead the country into a disastrous war that has killed 2,627 U.S. soldiers.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Israeli Leaders Fault Bush on War
(2 comments)
Amid the political and diplomatic fallout from Israel's faltering invasion of Lebanon, some Israeli officials are privately blaming President George W. Bush for egging Prime Minister Ehud Olmert into the ill-conceived military adventure against the Hezbollah militia in south Lebanon.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
A New War Frenzy
(2 comments)
Americans are being whipped into a new war frenzy with simplistic visions of evil villains, much like occurred four years ago before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Friday, July 7, 2006
Was Bob Woodward Slam-Dunked?
(4 comments)
New evidence undercuts Bob Woodward's famous account that CIA director George Tenet misled George W. Bush about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction with the assurance that it was a "slam-dunk" case. U.S. intelligence insiders gave a different version of that meeting to author Ron Suskind -- and leaked documents challenge Woodward's depiction of Bush as a leader who wanted to make sure "no one stretches to make our case."
Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Why Democrats Lose
(5 comments)
At dinner a few weeks ago, a well-placed Republican political operative was oozing confidence about GOP prospects in the November elections, not because the voters were enamored of George W. Bush but because the Democrats and liberals had done so little to improve their ability to reach the public with their message.
Sunday, June 4, 2006
Is O'Reilly a Nazi? Just Asking
(1 comments)
If someone else had done what Fox News star Bill OReilly did the other day malign American troops who fought in the Battle of the Bulge and at Iwo Jima its hard to imagine how ugly the Fox News reaction would be.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Bush's My Lai
(6 comments)
Haditha Massacre likely to follow the course of other Iraq war-crimes cases, such as the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib some low- or mid-level soldiers will be court-martialed and marched off to prison.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Bush's Enron Lies
(1 comments)
The national news media bought into the Bush administrations spin that Bush did nothing to bail out his Enron benefactors,...but the reality is that the Bush-cant-be-bought spin was never true. Condi was butt deep in it.
Monday, May 8, 2006
Rummy Logic & Enduring Lies
Facing hecklers over Iraq War lies, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appealed for renewed faith in George W. Bush's honesty. But Rumsfeld then resumed the Bush administration's long pattern of deceiving the American people with what might be called "Rummy logic." Yet, even as the public catches on, the mainstream news media continues to act the fool.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Bush's Hypocrisy: Cuban Terrorists
Like an aging rock star singing a beloved oldie, George W. Bush can count on cheers whenever he delivers a favorite line from the Bush Doctrine enunciated after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks: Any country that harbors a terrorist is equally guilty as the terrorist.
Friday, April 14, 2006
George W. Bush IS a Liar
The White House is taking umbrage over new press reports that George W. Bush misled the American people on a key justification for invading Iraq. But Bushs latest excuse that he was just an unwitting conveyor of bad information, not a willful purveyor of lies has been stretched thin by overuse.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
America's Matrix, Revisited
Matrix and its sequels offer a useful analogy for anyone trying to make sense of the chasm that has opened between whats real and what Americans perceive is real. Like the science-fiction world of the trilogy, a false reality is being pulled daily over peoples eyes, often through what they see and hear on their TV screens. Facts have lost value. Logic rarely applies.
Monday, April 3, 2006
Condi, War Crimes & the Press
During the three years of carnage in Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has shifted away from her now-discredited warning about a mushroom cloud to assert a strategic rationale for the invasion that puts her squarely in violation of the Nuremberg principle against aggressive war.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Feingold, Kerry & the 'Strategists'
Years before Sen. John Kerry fell under the spell of national Democratic strategists, he believed that a Democrats best hope for winning the White House was to run as an insurgent. To overcome built-in Republican advantages, Kerry felt a Democrat had to show principle and challenge the status quo.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Bush Still Ignores Iraq Reality
As George W. Bush sets out on another speaking tour to justify invading Iraq three years ago, hes still ignoring what should be the chief lesson for any U.S. President: Dont play games with the intelligence, especially on matters of war and peace. You only get good people killed.
Friday, March 10, 2006
Oversight by Capitulation
Despite a dip in his opinion polls, George W. Bushs transformation of the United States into an authoritarian society continues apace with new compromises with Congress actually consolidating his claims to virtually unlimited executive power.
Tuesday, March 7, 2006
Democrats Need Strong Message
Election 2006 -- and voter dissatisfaction with the Republicans -- offer hope for the Democrats to reclaim one or both houses of Congress. But Democratic leaders have shown little understanding of the potential for a powerful national message that targets George W. Bush's trampling of constitutional principles .
Saturday, March 4, 2006
Bush Flummoxes Kafka, Orwell
Even Kafka and Orwell, masters at dissecting the cruel absurdities of totalitarian state power, might be at a loss for words in the face of George W. Bushs latest legal and rhetorical formulations on torture.
Thursday, March 2, 2006
'Torture Boy' Signals More Spying
Correcting misleading testimony to Congress, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has signaled that George W. Bushs warrantless surveillance of Americans went beyond the known eavesdropping on communications to suspected terrorists overseas.
Wednesday, March 1, 2006
Bush's War on History
History will be on the ballot, I wrote two days before Election 2000, though I didnt comprehend how much the nations ability to know its recent past was weighing in the balance.
Monday, February 13, 2006
Why U.S. Intelligence Failed, Redux
Paul Pillar, the CIA's senior intelligence analyst for the Middle East from 2000 to 2005 has added the latest critique of Bush/Cheney/Neocon "cherry-picking" intelligence supporting former Bush officials accounts.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Alito Filibuster: It Only Takes One
With the fate of the U.S. Constitution in the balance, its hard to believe theres no senator prepared to filibuster Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, whose theories on the unitary executive could spell the end of the American democratic Republic.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Robert Parry's Year-End Letter
(1 comments)
The United States is facing a political crisis almost unparalleled in our history, a crisis uniquely dangerous because at its center it is not about a loss of power but about a loss of principle and even morality.
Friday, December 23, 2005
Democracy's Battle Joined, Again
Bush and Cheney are saying that in the War on Terror, they must be a law onto themselves with the flexibility to do whatever they deem necessary. When they say they are operating within the law, what they mean is that their interpretation of the law gives them unlimited powers.
Monday, December 19, 2005
The New Madness of King George
Sunday before Christmas, a fidgety George W. Bush interrupted regular programming on U.S. networks to deliver an address to the nation that painted the Iraq War and the War on Terror in the same black-and-white colors he has always favored.
Monday, December 19, 2005
Spying and the Public's Right to Know
The New York Times doesn't have a good explanation for why it waited until after the 2004 election to print a devastating report against the White House.
Sunday, December 4, 2005
A Twist in the Rove-Plame Mystery
new information about a conversation between Rove's lawyer and a TIME reporter suggest, contrary to Rove's attorney's claim, that the evidence buttresses the case against Rove rather than exonerating him.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Bush in Iraq, Slouching Toward Genocide
Despite pretty words about democracy and freedom, George W. Bushs victory plan in Iraq is starting to look increasingly like an invitation to genocide, the systematic destruction of the Sunni minority...
Friday, November 25, 2005
Dissing Fitzgerald & Prosecutorial Politics
Former independent counsel Joseph diGenova is one of the harshest critics of Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into the leak of a CIA officer's identity. But unlike Fitzgerald, when investigating Bush sr., diGenova bent over backward to avoid finding wrongdoing. This raises interesting questions.
Monday, November 7, 2005
So Iraq Was About the Oil
(1 comments)
The Bush administration has always denied the Iraq invasion was a case of "blood for oil." But recent comments by the former chief of staff to Colin Powell leaves little doubt that oil was an important part of George W. Bush's calculus for invading Iraq -- and for staying there indefinitely.
Monday, October 31, 2005
Is Impeachment the Answer?
(3 comments)
Washington pundits are showering George W. Bush with advice on how to restart his presidency, but many Americans seem more interested in whether it's possible to terminate his presidency, removing him and other top officials from office. It is a question asked of us often.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
'Plame-gate' & Myth of the Renegade Aide
(2 comments)
principal official is almost always lurking somewhere in the background of the original crime, sending signals or pulling strings with the expectation that, if caught, a subordinate will take the fall.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
When Journalists Join the Cover-ups
The back story to the Judith Miller NY Times fiasco is the long-term erosion of skeptical journalism in the face of U.S. govt. pressure for greater "patriotism" from the press. In the case of Miller and the Iraq War, the barrier between reporter and govt. seems to have washed away almost completely.
Thursday, October 6, 2005
How Rotten Are These Guys?
The separation of the Bush political machine from organized crime is often like the thin layer of rock between a seemingly ordinary surface and volcanic activity rumbling below. Sometimes, the lava spews forth and the illusion of normalcy is shattered.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Colin Powell Being Colin Powell
(1 comments)
What we found in our investigation of Powells legend was not the heroic figure of his press clippings, but the story of an ambitious man with a weak moral compass. He either hid in the reeds when others were standing up for what they knew to be right or he contributed to the wrongdoing.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Explaining the Bush Cocoon
(1 comments)
The Bush cocoon started years ago, when journalists forgot that their first duty in a democracy was to give the people the truth as fully and fairly as possible, even if some Americans didnt want to hear it.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Judge Roberts's Slap at Women
John G. Roberts Jr.s disdain for womens rights
Thursday, August 11, 2005
'Braveheart,' Edward I & George W. Bush
In a dark and musty bar in Stirling, Scotland, a working-class fellow named Colin reminded me why wars especially invasions are to be avoided, lest they engender hatreds that can divide people and lands for generations and even centuries.
Sunday, August 7, 2005
Will Ferrell & ACT's Failed Logic
the Democrats are doomed until they grasp how the Republicans have used media to change the rules of Americas political game.
Saturday, August 6, 2005
Will Ferrell & ACT's Failed Logic
(2 comments)
the Democrats are doomed until they grasp how the Republicans have used media to change the rules of Americas political game.
