138 Articles

Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Inspector Clouseau Squared
How Scott Bloch's investigation of the White House, and vice versa, will end: With a whimper!

Thursday, May 8, 2008
More Abuse by Pentagon, Contractors
Questions our presidential candidates are not asking -- and aren't being asked.

Friday, May 2, 2008
A Prosecutor's Holy Grail: Another Scalp
Ever wonder why prosecutors are so totally relentless in pursuing cases -- even when they know they are baseless?

Saturday, April 19, 2008
No YouTube Left Behind
Knowing everything about Paris Hilton ain't the same as reading a newspaper.

Friday, April 11, 2008
WARRIORS IN KNEE-PANTS
(1 comments) Is the U.S. contributing to robbing children of their childhood?

Thursday, April 10, 2008
Peering Into the Racial Divide on the Redneck Riviera
(1 comments) Racism hasn't gone away -- there are just a lot more people who reject it.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008
CASHING IN ON THE WAR ON TERROR
Yet another reminder of the prescience of President Eisnhower's warning about the growth of the military-industrial complex.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008
A Double-Standard for Jordan?
Peace and Justice? Well, maybe not so much.

Saturday, April 5, 2008
Collateral Damage?
These must be part of "the special interests" our presidential wanabees keep talking about.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008
THE DOWNSIDE OF THE 24/7 NEWS CYCLE
Is there a light at the end of the tunnel for electronic journalism?

Sunday, March 30, 2008
Selling Democracy – De Lux Model with Double-Standards Built In
Can our next president figure out how to combat terrorists while working just as hard to persuade authoritarian governments to allow Arab citizens their basic civil liberties?

Thursday, March 27, 2008
OUR 'WAR ON TERROR' ALLIES
The 'war on terror' produces strange bedfellows.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Bush Spins Iraq. The Dems go A.W.O.L.
When will Barack and Hillary give us a real plan to exit Iraq?

Saturday, March 22, 2008
THE WHEELS COME OFF – AGAIN
Whatever happened to the "maverick" many of us respected?

Wednesday, March 19, 2008
The Fierce Urgency of How
Another debate? Issues we should expect candidates to address -- even if they're way down in the weeds.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008
NEITHER SNOW NOR RAIN, ET CETERA
(1 comments) There are times when your friendly letter carrier can bring you bad news. Very bad.

Friday, March 14, 2008
It's About a Lot More Than a 3 A.M. Phone Call
(1 comments) Remembering where we've been, and where we are now, has to trigger just a tad of optimism.

Monday, March 10, 2008
McCAIN'S TURNABOUT
Pandering 101 for the Straight-talk Express guy.

Monday, March 10, 2008
GITMO PROSECUTOR TO TESTIFY FOR DEFENSE
(1 comments) "We can't have acquittals, we've got to have convictions."

Monday, March 10, 2008
GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS
By all means, we should talk human rights with China. But what's our credibility?

Saturday, March 8, 2008
IF IT BLEEDS IT LEADS
This timeless press mantra is the fuel that drives the engine in the televised presidential debates.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008
NO TRIVIA LEFT BEHIND
The Presidential "debates." Don't we deserve better?

Sunday, March 2, 2008
ASYLUM: THE LATEST THIRD RAIL
This ball is now squarely in the court of Michael Mukasey, our newest AG. We wonder if he'll defy the third rail and actually get something done. Watch this space.

Friday, February 29, 2008
UNSPINNING THE PRESIDENT
(13 comments) "There Will Be Blood," was Dubya's message. Be afraid. Be very afraid!

Saturday, February 23, 2008
DISCLOSURE BY DRIP, DRIP, DRIP?
(2 comments)

Friday, February 22, 2008
BOEING SUB SCOT FREE, HAYDEN, BRADBURY ON THE HOT SEAT

Monday, February 18, 2008
BACKDOORING THE CONSTITUTION

Monday, February 18, 2008
THE REAL STRAIGHT-TALK EXPRESS

Friday, February 15, 2008
GITMO AGAIN: JUSTICE OR SHOW TRIALS?
(2 comments)

Wednesday, February 13, 2008
LET THE EAGLE WHORE
(7 comments) My nomination for "Most Outrageous Statement of the Year."

Friday, February 8, 2008
KABUKI ON THE HILL
If there was a big winner here, it was the audience!

Sunday, February 3, 2008
SIGNING AWAY THE CONSTITUTION
(7 comments)

Thursday, January 31, 2008
CONGRESSIONAL ODD COUPLE
Reigning in "State Secrets"

Friday, January 25, 2008
THINK YOU KNOW THE GODSQUAD? THINK AGAIN!
(5 comments)

Wednesday, January 23, 2008
THE PENTAGON'S REVOLVING DOOR
(1 comments) One flew back into the cuckoo's nest. More to follow.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008
CANDIDATES COMPETE TO BE "MORE CHRISTIAN"

Sunday, January 13, 2008
THE OTHER GITMO
Human rights organizations are attempting to focus attention on "the other GITMO."

Saturday, January 12, 2008
THE TIMES, THEY ARE A-CHANGIN'?
Evengelical What?

Tuesday, January 8, 2008
My Last Debate
(7 comments) I have watched my last presidential debate. I am sick to death of well-coiffed cable TV news anchors asking vapid questions designed to generate heat, not light. I am sick to death of presidential wannabees filibustering questions they choose to avoid by delivering slogans, not answers. And I am sick to death of the faux choice presented to voters: Change versus Experience. Could someone out there please tell me...

Wednesday, January 2, 2008
IS THIS HOW TO WIN FRIENDS?

Saturday, December 29, 2007
2007: YES, VIRGINIA, THERE WAS SOME GOOD NEWS
(4 comments) Where do I find the Good News?

Monday, December 24, 2007
THE ARMY: AHEAD TO THE PAST?

Sunday, December 23, 2007
"AMERICAN TALIBAN" WHISTLEBLOWER JOINS TAPEGATE FUROR
(1 comments)

Wednesday, December 19, 2007
BOEING'S UNFRIENDLY SKIES

Friday, December 14, 2007
ANOTHER BRILLIANT BUSH APPOINTMENT: BUT DOES IT REALLY MATTER?
(1 comments) Can competence sell a flawed product?

Wednesday, December 12, 2007
WONDER WHAT SHE STUDIED IN HIGH SCHOOL!
Seems modern American history wasn't part of the curriculum!

Tuesday, December 11, 2007
CLERGY JOINS "TAPEGATE" BATTLE
(9 comments)

Monday, December 10, 2007
WHAT CAN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION CELEBRATE ON HUMAN RIGHTS DAY?
State Department report "a complete whitewash."

Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Perturbing the Judiciary? Hurting the Country's Image? Shame on You!
(1 comments) Another kind of terror!

Monday, December 3, 2007
BEYOND ANNAPOLIS -- WHAT MODEL?
Will a Palestinian state look like one of Israel's neighbors?

Tuesday, November 27, 2007
ANN OF A THOUSAND SLURS
The Goddess and Me

Monday, November 26, 2007
PATRIOT ACT LITE?
(1 comments) Soft on Terrorism? Not me!

Wednesday, November 21, 2007
GITMO LAWYERS KEEP TRYING
(1 comments) GUANTANAMO FOREVER?

Sunday, November 18, 2007
CHARITY BEGINS...WHERE?
It's not enough to say "I gave at the office."

Thursday, November 15, 2007
RENDITION VICTIM TRIES AGAIN
(1 comments)

Sunday, November 11, 2007
"REALPOLITIK" LIKELY TO DRIVE US-PAKISTAN ALLIANCE
More on the unending conflict between democracy promotion and "realpolitik."

Friday, November 9, 2007
DIPLOMATS DEBATE IRAQ, VIETNAM SERVICE

Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Scapegoating US Diplomats
Facing growing scrutiny of the State Department's shortage of experienced diplomats in Iraq - and the Department's announced intention to force Foreign Service Officers to serve in Baghdad against their will -- the leader of America's diplomatic service is charging that critics, "including people who urged the 2003 invasion," are seeking to blame the State Department for their own failures.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007
WAS TOP STATE DEPARTMENT RESIGNATION A POLITICAL MOVE TO PROTECT HIGHER-UPS?
(1 comments) Was Griffin 'thrown under the bus' to protect politically connected higher-ups?

Thursday, July 5, 2007
EXACTLY WHAT ARE CONSERVATIVE JUDGES CONSERVING?
(6 comments) A disgraceful Supreme Court Sesssion.

Tuesday, January 9, 2007
A DARK ANNIVERSARY
This week, the world marks the fifth anniversary of the arrival of the first detainees at the U.S. naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Saturday, January 6, 2007
RELIGIOUS LEADERS PUSH BACK AGAINST REP. GOODE
Prominent religious leaders launch an online petition pushing back against the bigotry of Rep. Vigil Goode of Virginia .

Wednesday, December 13, 2006
DEATH TO INFIDELS VIA VIDEO GAME
"This is the first time any Christian religious instructional video has recommended killing all non-Christians who refuse to convert to Christianity."

Saturday, November 25, 2006
U.S. v. BUSH, et al
(5 comments) The charge is Conspiracy to Defraud the United States. And the defendants are President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006
SCIENTIFIC SLEIGHT OF HAND
(1 comments) Abstinence-until-marriage education programs -- which receive about $158 million annually from the Department of Health and Human Services -- are not reviewed for scientific accuracy before they are granted funding.

Thursday, August 31, 2006
MUSLIM-AMERICANS TURN TO THE LAW
A rapidly increasing number of first generation Muslim-Americans have decided to pursue careers in the law.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006
THE LIMITS OF PRESIDENTIAL POWER
President George W. Bush's widespread use of so-called "signing statements" to unilaterally decide which parts of acts passed by Congress he will enforce continues to face mounting opposition.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006
OF PITBULLS AND LAPDOGS
The recent Supreme Court decision in the Hamdan case has opened a widening chasm among members of the president's own party.

Monday, July 10, 2006
THE END OF DEMOCRACY PROMOTION IN IRAQ?
The Bush administration is substantially reducing funding for the organizations that are traditionally mandated to promote democracy in Iraq.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006
THE ISSUE THAT WON'T GO AWAY
The Pentagon is pushing to omit from new detainee policies a central principle of the Geneva Convention that explicitly bans "humiliating and degrading treatment."

Saturday, June 17, 2006
REACHING OUT TO IRAN: NEGOTIATION OR REGIME CHANGE?
Congess got it right last week when it defeated Senator Rick Santorum's proposal to appropriate $100 million to promote pro-democracy efforts in Iran.

Monday, June 12, 2006
SAUDI ARABIAN COSMETICS?
Saudi Arabia puts the finishing touches on its new Human Rights Commission.

Monday, May 29, 2006
OIL ON TROUBLED WATERS
Hugo Chavez has been busily scoring points with low-income American consumers.

Thursday, May 25, 2006
USED THE PHONE LATELY? WORRIED?
The ACLU filed has launched a nationwide campaign to encourage citizens to make their utility commissions aware of their privacy concerns.

Monday, May 22, 2006
PAIN MANAGEMENT: A DOUBLE STANDARD?
Rush Limbaugh's drug case may reveal evidence of a double-standard applied by the DEA and its state and local partners.

Sunday, May 14, 2006
BLOCKING JUSTICE
(1 comments) The "state secrets" defense has become a routine defense used by the U.S. Government to keep embarrassing cases from being tried.

Tuesday, May 2, 2006
AMERICAN BEDFELLOWS
The “Global War on Terror” has produced the unintended consequence of bringing the United States ever-closer to some of the world’s most repressive regimes.

Sunday, April 30, 2006
THE ISSUE THAT WON'T GO AWAY
Remember Defense Secretary Rumsfeld’s 2002 statement referring to Guantanamo prisoners as “the worst of the worst”?

Thursday, April 20, 2006
ANTI-TERRORISM FINANCING LAWS
Muslim charities are being summarily shut down for supporting terrorist causes while giant firms such as Halliburton are receiving the full protections of American law for allegedly breaking U.S. government sanctions.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006
WORDS TO PONDER
Despite our flawed strategy and our many tactical mistakes over the past six years, the U.S. still has lots of lots of non-military carrots and sticks to apply.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006
SUPPORT FOR “SPREADING DEMOCRACY”
A majority of those surveyed in a recent poll 58 percent) said they feel "democracy is something that countries only come to on their own."

Thursday, April 13, 2006
ALAS, POOR SCOTT
Scott McClelan, like most presidential press secretaries before him, he is kept out of the loop on many key issues so that is "plausible deniability" is not compromised.

Tuesday, April 4, 2006
BUSH'S MIXED SIGNALS
The Bush Administration is sending dangerously mixed signals precisely to those whose "hearts and minds" it claims to be trying to win.

Monday, March 27, 2006
IRAQ TOLD TO REBUILD ITSELF
Last week’s announcement that Iraq will now have to pay for its own reconstruction has left some observers wondering whether the yet-to-be-formed government there will be up to the task.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006
THE OXYCOPS
(1 comments) In its zeal to stamp out the illegal drug use, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is cracking down on doctors who prescribe medications to relieve chronic pain, and the patients who depend on these drugs to live normal lives.

Monday, March 20, 2006
GIVE US YOUR HUDDLED MASSES – OR NOT
There will be no comprehensive reform proposal approved by the U.S. Congress during this session or any session in the near future because the immigration restrictionists have seized control of the debate.

Saturday, March 18, 2006
THE AGE OF ANXIETY REDUX
We are living though an age of high anxiety (for which the government’s favorite cliché is “the post-9/11 environment”) that is likely to have a very long-lasting effect on the American psyche.

Monday, March 13, 2006
QUOTH THE CRAVEN EVERMORE*
(1 comments)

Wednesday, March 1, 2006
SON OF GITMO
The Pentagon should have learned that getting out ahead of bad news is far better than waiting for its inevitable disclosure by the press.

Monday, February 27, 2006
DEATHS IN U.S. CUSTODY

Saturday, February 25, 2006
DEATH IN U.S. CUSTODY
“Command Responsibility” ought to begin with the Commander-in-Chief.

Friday, February 24, 2006
REMEMBER RENDITION?

Monday, February 20, 2006
THE PLIGHT OF NATIONAL SECURITY WHISTLEBLOWERS
Find illegal activity in the U.S. national security agency you work for. Report it to your superiors. Get rewarded by being demoted or having your security clearance revoked -- tantamount to losing your career – while those whose conduct you’ve reported get promoted.

Friday, February 17, 2006
WHAT TO DO WITH THE PRISONERS?
Foreign policy and human rights experts appear to agree with the United Nations report calling on the U.S. to shut down its detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

Saturday, February 11, 2006
RISING ABOVE PRINCIPLE

Tuesday, January 31, 2006
PALESTINE: WHAT’S NEXT?
That President Bush is a big fan of elections should surprise no one. He’s won a lot of them. But his simplistic equation -- elections = freedom = democracy = peace -- has been running into a bit of trouble lately.

Monday, January 30, 2006
THE END OF U.S. AID?
The funeral of USAID is far from a done deal yet. But, given the tight relationship between President Bush and Secretary Rice, there's a good chance that USAID's demise may never have to be announced in a State Department press release.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006
RUSSIA’S NEW NGO LAW: A CONTRARY VIEW
Human rights groups have condemned Russia’s new law governing non-governmental organizations, but the leader of one major NGO disagrees.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006
DEPORTEES SUE
Another test of whether our justice system can work in an environment of war, fear, and executive power.

Monday, January 23, 2006
WHO SAYS GOVERNMENT CAN’T HUSTLE?

Wednesday, January 18, 2006
WHY SHOULD WE BE SURPRISED?
(2 comments) Iran’s president launched a media tsunami when he declared the Holocaust a myth.

Monday, January 2, 2006
BUSH AT YEAR-END
On September 11, 2001, GWB could have asked the American people to “pay any price” – and we would have done it.

Saturday, December 31, 2005
MIXED MESSAGE?
A new international exchange program for journalists named for famed broadcaster Edward R. Murrow and emphasizing “the democratic principles that guided Mr. Murrow's practice of his craft: integrity and ethics and courage and social responsibility”.

Saturday, December 24, 2005
PLEASE, MISS CONDI… MAY I?
(2 comments) President George W. Bush is famous for not admitting mistakes. But every now and then he tries to correct one –without fanfare and well under the radar.

Monday, December 19, 2005
ABOUT BUSH, MCCAIN, TORTURE AND BEYOND

Monday, December 12, 2005
WINK, WINK, NOD, NOD
Excusing political theater of the absurd.

Friday, December 9, 2005
HOW DO AMERICANS FEEL ABOUT TORTURE?
If the Bush Administration listens to the American public, rather than to Sen. John McCain, it needn’t be too worried about the issue of torture of suspected terrorists.

Thursday, December 8, 2005
THE ISSUE THAT WON’T GO AWAY
2005 may be remembered as the year “torture” and “rendition” became parts of the everyday American vocabulary.

Wednesday, December 7, 2005
TERRORISM PROSECUTIONS, 2005: HOW MUCH PROGRESS?
Amidst charges that President Bush and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) are inflating the number of criminal prosecutions for terrorism, five cases shed light on the administration’s mixed record of convictions during 2005.

Wednesday, December 7, 2005
THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF FAKE NEWS
Congressional leaders were angered by the Pentagon’s admission that it has been planting and paying for Iraqi newspapers to publish ‘good news stories’.

Wednesday, November 30, 2005
FORUM FOR THE (DISTANT) FUTURE
A key pillar of the much-vaunted Middle East democracy initiative of President George W. Bush has collapsed – brought down by Egypt’s insistence that Arab governments should have more control over grants from a new fund designed to help indigenous pro-democracy organizations.

Saturday, November 26, 2005
DANGEROUS DENIAL
America’s newest public diplomacy czarina, Karen Hughes, is in dangerous denial and needs professional help.

Saturday, November 19, 2005
NEW BROWNIES IN THE WINGS?
Washington is a town where the best and the brightest co-exist with well-connected political hacks. It defies credulity that the Bush Administration continues to shoot itself in the foot by stubbornly choosing the latter, and thereby setting itself up for another ‘Brownie’.

Sunday, November 13, 2005
ROSA PARKS: WHY ONE PERSON MATTERS

Saturday, November 12, 2005
THE NEXT JUDY MILLER?
(1 comments)

Wednesday, September 21, 2005
THE FOX AT THE HENHOUSE
Can a member of the Bush team produce a credible report on what went wrong with Katrina and how to fix it?

Tuesday, September 20, 2005
WHO SHOULD PAY FOR KATRINA?
Advertising gurus Gerald Rafshoon and Doug Bailey, who were on opposing sides during the Jimmy Carter-Gerald Ford campaign in 1976, have come up with a pretty good alternative to financing Katrina reconstruction with taxpayer money.

Friday, September 16, 2005
MR. BUSH’S LEGACY: MORE THAN DUCT TAPE NEEDED
The speech President George W. Bush delivered in New Orleans last evening had the phony ring of a second-term president driven by a single goal: to rebuild what is left of his tattered legacy.

Thursday, September 15, 2005
Senate's Kabuki Dance With Roberts
After three days of hearings on the confirmation of Judge John G. Roberts to be the seventeenth Chief Justice of the United States, what the public has learned is that the nominee appears to be as much Talmudic scholar as jurist.

Saturday, September 10, 2005
TODAY, PADILLA. TOMORROW, WHO?

Friday, September 9, 2005
THE PRICE OF SECRECY
(1 comments)

Saturday, September 3, 2005
FROM THE IRAQI FRONT

Sunday, August 28, 2005
NGO SUES OVER PROSTITUTION POLICY

Saturday, August 20, 2005
DIPLOMATIC ASSURANCES -- WORTHLESS

Friday, August 19, 2005
AIR FORCE ACADEMY (AGAIN)

Wednesday, August 10, 2005
LOOKING BACK AT LBJ

Sunday, August 7, 2005
A WIN FOR SCIENCE!

Monday, August 1, 2005
TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION IN NORTH CAROLINA
(1 comments)

Friday, July 29, 2005
SAUDI AND NIGERIA IN THE CROSSHAIRS

Monday, July 25, 2005
KAREN HUGHES BEHIND THE FIREWALL

Monday, July 25, 2005
BILL O’REILLY IN DRAG
(2 comments)

Friday, July 22, 2005
GOVERNMENT WATCHDOGS: THE INSPECTORS GENERAL

Friday, July 22, 2005
GOVERNMENT WATCHDOGS

Friday, July 22, 2005
FINALLY: A DEGREE IN PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Friday, July 15, 2005
SKATING ON THIN ICE

Friday, July 15, 2005
ABUSE, WHAT ABUSE?

Monday, July 11, 2005
DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL
Twelve gays and lesbians discharged from the military because of their sexual orientation are suing the U.S. Government in an effort to overturn the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bars homosexuals from openly serving in the military.

Monday, July 11, 2005
GITMO’S FORGOTTEN SOLDIER
Many people will remember Janice Karpinsky, the Army Reserve Brigadier General who was reprimanded and demoted for failing to stop the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. But few will remember Brigadier General Rick Baccus.