95 QuickLinks

Thursday, May 22, 2008
For Keith and the Countdown Staff
Talk show host fired for criticizing O'Reilly. This is ridiculous and those who fired him deserve the same!

Monday, March 24, 2008
NYT Report on Tibet is Grossly Slanted Toward Law and Order
I was amazed to read this article on Tibet and the Chinese response. Certainly, the causes of the riots and upheavals would be a fitting subject, rather than the Law and Order perspective taken.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008
"Liberalism is Gone"
(1 comments) Christian Science Monitor writer bemoans the death of Liberalism. Perhaps we should wait for it to stop breathing before the autopsy!

Thursday, December 13, 2007
Faith and Politics
The prominence of the Huckabee and Romney presidential campaigns raises some serious issues, not the least of which is what these men really believe about life and the real world.

Monday, December 10, 2007
Camping with Nancy
A fable about tents and politics and corruption.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007
ESPN Monday Night Football
(2 comments) A Rant on Broadcast Incompetence

Wednesday, November 21, 2007
The Mind of the New Conservative
(3 comments) A profile of the psychology that fosters modern conservatism.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007
"Hyperpartisanship"
A provocative NYT book review puts neocon politics into perspective and stimulates comment. Ronald Brownstein's work will be important reading, but his conclusions about cooperative politics may be optimistic.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007
"Generational Test for Republicans"/Global Warming
(2 comments) An article in Politico about younger Republicans provokes a longer look at ideational phenomena among conservative Republicans. There may be grist for the Democrats' mill in Republican authoritarianism and fear.

Friday, November 2, 2007
Do The Math!
Peering through all the verbiage, naivete, and deliberate obfuscation, and examining closely the Democrats in Congress one sees two antagonistic strategies as work, one not very satisfying and the other frayed at the edges with tragedy in the offing.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007
3Com at the Abattoir
The impending sale of strategic 3Com to a group including a substantial Chinese presence should be something to seriously worry about, but the kicker in this situation is the former governor behind it all.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Seymour Hersh: "Shifting Targets"
Hersh is good, but he pulls back from the inevitable conclusion on Bush and Cheney's war aims with Iran. Then on Countdown he pulled back again. It's obvious why Iran will be attacked, and it is not oil, nukes, or flying carpets!

Thursday, September 27, 2007
Temptation
An essay by James Brett on Enlightenment principles embedded in our Constitution and our society, but increasingly ignored and misunderstood by corporate elites.

Thursday, September 13, 2007
Texas Governor Perry's Slick-Glib Politics
(2 comments) Governor Perry's slick and glib declaration of "Conservative principles" last weekend in California demanded a response.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Congressional Democrats
Spinelessness. Is it media hype, or is there real truth to the ever growing charge of "spinelessness" among the Democrats. It's a complex thing and, yes, there is spinelessness.

Thursday, September 6, 2007
Liberalism and Religion
Stanley Fish's essay in NYTimesSelect suggesting that Liberalism and Secularism are the same thing is wrong.

Thursday, August 30, 2007
Corporatism
An article in "Yes!" magazine on corporate power prompts a less sanguine perspective.

Monday, August 27, 2007
James Carroll: Outsourcing Intelligence
James Carroll's column in Monday's Boston Globe brings home a very unpleasant and inconvenient truth. The corruption of public service is all but complete and the reason for it, as Pogo said, is us.

Sunday, August 26, 2007
The Illusion of Control
James Grant in the NYT has an excellent op-ed about the Fed and the confusion about capitalism. His bottom line that capitalism without failure is socialism for the rich needs a follow up statement, however.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Security and Freedom
(1 comments) Professor Bobbitt's op-ed in the NYT Wednesday morning is an extremely important essay on the relationship of security to civil rights and liberties. His essay should have a reframing effect on the currently shrill dialogue plaguing this important issue.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Decline and Fall
(1 comments) Dilip Hiro's catastrophilic essay in TomDispatch is an annoying disparagement of the root strength of the American people and culture. It is a misprision of contemporary politics.

Monday, August 13, 2007
The Reality and Politics of the Iraq War
Democrats moving in the direction of a prolonged war and occupation is simply a matter of stating the problem pragmatically rather than standing up on principle.

Thursday, August 9, 2007
Politicians on Steroids
Commentary on the problem of politicians addicted to lobbyist and PAC money, with attention to a Boston Globe article on Barack Obama.

Monday, August 6, 2007
The Lose-Lose Dilemma
Commentary on and around Michael Schwartz's essay in TomDispatch about the military dilemma in Iraq and the public political dilemma here at home.

Sunday, August 5, 2007
"Why We Fight" (the video)
(2 comments) If you have not seen this excellent video description of the military-industrial complex, tying in Congress and think-tanks, then here it is with some annotations.

Friday, August 3, 2007
Rockridge: The Overton Window on Iraq
Joe Brewer of Rockridge Institute has a three-part series on political taxonomy which is employed in this ALP essay to show the huge influence of the media in defining policy in America.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Draining the Swamp
NYT Editorial on Congressional Ethics Reform is good. There are deep issues, though, and the beginning of reform should not lapse into self-satisfaction.

Friday, July 27, 2007
NYT on Free Trade
Friday's NYT editorial on free trade is simplistic and wrong. We need to achieve organic balance between human endeavor on the one hand and profit-making commerce on the other. Balance must be organic and stable.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Black Sheep or Whistling Through the Graveyard
Are the Cheneyites just "black sheep" or are they deadly malefactors bent on destruction of the republic? You see both attitudes in D.C. these days: deliberate ignorance and paralyzing fear.

Friday, July 20, 2007
On Protracted War
An article in the Christian Science Monitor republished by Common Dreams provokes a startling reassessment of the military-industrial complex.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Global Free Trade
Globalization and Free Trade are out of balance with social and political development. The Washington Post is wrong to criticize Democrats for seeking a better balance.

Monday, July 16, 2007
What is Wrong With the Democrats? Part II
(3 comments) None of the Democrats' reasons for avoiding impeachment are sufficient to ignore their oaths of office!

Sunday, July 15, 2007
Motown
Stanley Fish in Times Select on the recent Supreme Court integration decision may muddy the waters, but the point remains. The Roberts Court has reversed Brown v. Board of Education and set a terrible precedent.

Friday, July 13, 2007
La Grande Peur
The Great Fear of the French Revolution epoch may well have been stoked by forces at play inside Paris. The country was deliberately made to fear "brigands" and the like. Chertoff does not look smart enough to know this, but someone like Rove and Cheney would see the usefulness of stoking the great American fear.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007
War and the Republicans
The Iraq War was wrong from the beginning and those who are only now coming to understand this are not now forgiven. They must pay the political price for their savage willfullness and indifference to their fellow man.

Sunday, July 8, 2007
McDade
The Party for the Planet--Live Earth-- celebration from the point of view of folks out in the ranch country of central Texas.

Friday, July 6, 2007
Swarm Politics
(2 comments) An article in National Geographic this month may have some interesting consequences for understanding politics, particularly in an epoch governed by fear. Democratic politicians do not appear to come off very well in this new glimpse of mass behaviors.

Thursday, July 5, 2007
Immigration: Control at the Workplace
Peter D. Salins' op-ed in Tuesday's New York Times should be considered and the hazards weighed very, very carefully.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Protecting Cheney
Commutation of Libby's sentence circles the wagons around Cheney.

Friday, June 29, 2007
Speaker Pelosi's Constitutional Crisis
The Speaker does not have the authority to take impeachment off the table, and the sooner she admits this the better off the nation will be.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Paris Hilton
(2 comments) Pandering after so-called "celebrities" Keith Olbermann and his colleagues are censoring the news. They should be ashamed of themselves! We should turn off their programs when they are deliberately meaningless!

Monday, June 25, 2007
Cheney
(2 comments) The Washington Post lead article Monday is not what it seems. Cheney's path to torture and cruelty is classic political incompetence not the enthusiastic work of a patriot.

Friday, June 22, 2007
James Brett: What is Wrong With the Democrats?
(1 comments) Plenty! And it may be fatal!

Monday, June 18, 2007
Incumbency Rackets
DSCC and DCCC are "incumbency rackets" and completely outside the democratic tradition and against the principles incorporated into our Constitution.

Friday, June 15, 2007
James R. Brett: Not Since Kennedy
Never, since the assassination of Kennedy, has the national morale been so low. We are in significant trouble as a culture. Our form of government no longer functions. Corruption abounds. There is only one way out of this mess, and waiting for Bush to retire is not it.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Playing Politics With Gonzales
(1 comments) The Republicans play politics with the integrity of our government and blame the Democrats for playing politics, and the press parrots their absurd ideas. Gonzales is unqualified and is completely corrupt.

Thursday, May 31, 2007
James Brett: Reagan's Shoes
The entry of Fred D. Thompson into the array of Republican candidates poses several new problems for Democrats and an object lesson in politics.

Friday, May 25, 2007
On Christopher Hayes's "Markers"
Christopher Hayes "Case for a Democratic Marker" is an excellent essay. There are some good reasons to think that you will hear the term over and over again as the Democrats converge on a platform for the 2008 elections. Put another way, if they don't hear this idea, they may lose the most important election of our time.

Friday, May 18, 2007
James Brett: As Good As Principle
(1 comments) The viability of impeachment with a bare majority and a differing levels of party discipline.

Monday, May 14, 2007
Terms of Disconsolation
Writing politics is bad for your health, or at least it is a process of getting knocked down, gathering, then standing up to get knocked down again. It is not all relativism, though, there are serious consequences to losing a fight. Losing democracy may be one of them.

Thursday, May 10, 2007
Frank Caliendo
(1 comments) Comedian Frank Caliendo does Bush and Bill Clinton like you know them.

Thursday, May 3, 2007
Duty
Impeachment is not a tool to be used when Congress gets around to it. Impeachment is a Constitutional Duty. Frank Bowman's Times OpEd is only half right.

Friday, April 20, 2007
Political Realignment
Political Realignment, as noted in The Nation, is a probable outcome of the slow destruction of Cheneyism and Bushism. How this will take place and who will benefit will depend on who sees the solution first. It may not fall into the Democrats laps.

Thursday, April 19, 2007
World Bank
Wolfowitz is now a pawn in a larger game of geopolitics. His departure will signal a much needed opening to diplomatic solutions, and if he remains Bush will have signalled that he is still "the decider" and has no intention of placating an angry Europe which now includes the UK.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Where There's Smoke!
The Virginia Tech Massacre points up some chilling problems in mental health practice in the United States. This sullen and disturbed person, noted by everyone as a threat, released perhaps from mental health care, was nevertheless allowed to buy weapons with which to wantonly kill. The failure in our society needs fixing and soon!

Sunday, April 15, 2007
Brooks: "The Age of Darwin"
Misunderstanding science is normal, but misusing it to undermine the principles upon which this country was founded is bad stuff. David Brooks slipped some of this toxin into his Sunday column.

Thursday, April 12, 2007
Not So Secret: The Corruption of Classification
(1 comments) The CheneyBush Administration has abused the federal rules on classified material to hide its corruption and avoid justice. We must prepare to dig through this morass to save our democracy.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Klinkenborg at Fifty-Five
(2 comments) Verlyn Klinkenborg is a poet with a subject today that transcends our peerie focus on little crimes and their criminals. We are back looking at the Doomsday clock, another generation to teach.

Saturday, April 7, 2007
Our Planet
(2 comments) I really despise "Mallard Fillmore," the comic strip that pretends to be light-hearted conservative propaganda. It isn't; "Mallard" is currently framing science as a matter of opinion, which he compares to Hollywood testimonials. It is time this pernicious jerk were removed from the comic pages to the editorial pages.

Friday, April 6, 2007
Epidemic Ignorance!
(3 comments) American's knowledge of the world is abyssmal. Our understanding of history and geography and other cultures is pathetic. This kind of epidemic ignorance leads to mistakes like Iraq because cynical politicans play on this ignorance for their own profit.

Thursday, April 5, 2007
Follow-Up on Pelosi in Syria
(1 comments) Mr. Olmert's denial has the stink of Cheneyism on it. Speaker Pelosi would never invent a statement for the world press. She is no beginner in diplomacy; she would not be Speaker if she were!

Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Provoking War With Iran
(4 comments) Hard evidence is mounting that CheneyBush is spoiling for a fight with Iran. Iran knows it and yet must maintain what the ayatollahs and mullahs believe is integrity. This could be a crucial week according to sources on the ground in Israel.

Sunday, April 1, 2007
Rove and the Destruction of Democracy
(1 comments) Brett: The career of Carl Rove, the Machiavelli and Svengali of Cheneyism and feckless Bushism, it nearing its predictable end. This arrogant evil will not be tolerated. Our democratic republic will survive, but there will be pain.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Dickinson: "The Enemy Within"
(1 comments) Rolling Stone's article is a gem. Democrats have been shooting themselves in the feet and paying dearly for it. Those of us in the trenches have an option too.

Thursday, March 22, 2007
Confusion at the Post
(1 comments) The editors of the Post are really confused about corruption at the Department of Justice. Today's revelations in the tobacco prosecution are reason enough for a confrontation with Bush.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Campaigning in America
(1 comments) Globe: The dangers of a megaprimary are poorly understood. The main culprit is the corporate press, whose decisions make or break the candidates long before the primaries.

Friday, March 16, 2007
HuffPo: Hate Journalism and Republican Politics
(1 comments) Fox News broadcasts are to journalism what "professional wrestling" is to the Olympics--violent farce.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Faulty Logic
(10 comments) Blaming Harry Truman for Stalin's Soviet expansionism is not reasonable. James Carroll should be ashamed of his recent op-ed in the Globe.

Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Goodwin: Suffer the Children
(1 comments) Revelation after revelation of abuse of children in Texas is beginning to point toward a common thread. Privatization is the problem, but parents and doctors are not exempt!

Monday, March 5, 2007
Iraq: The Campaign Issue
(1 comments) As Lincoln Chaffee put it, there are more choices for Congress than either Democrats or Republicans are willing to admit. It must be campaign season!

Friday, March 2, 2007
Goodwin: Letting the Right Define Us
(2 comments) Romney is one more in the long line of rightwing demagogues hoping to define Liberals and Progressives in their own negative terms. This lets them ignore the crying needs of the American people. Why does the Left let this happen?

Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Looking for Mr. Goodbar in Iraq
(1 comments) Looking for a win in Iraq is like looking for your wallet under the street light. Terror, meanwhile, is real and Congress is doing damned little to protect against it. Send Congress a message!

Monday, February 26, 2007
Putin and Post-Putin
(1 comments) Putin's problem is the Russian economy first and foremost. Democracy is an issue, but it may have to wait. Meanwhile the U.S. should begin to understand the depth of Russia's problems.

Friday, February 23, 2007
Reflections on a Winter's Day
(1 comments) Our modern search for leadership like that we imagine America had at the founding is a fool's mission. The problem with our country is not in our leaders but in ourselves.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Dirty Job
(1 comments) Huffington's Cesca nails it. Al Gore is the one person who can bring respectability back to the Presidency on Day One.

Monday, February 19, 2007
Jeff Jacoby's Simplistic Nonsense
(2 comments) Support the troops does not mean support the war. The Globe's Jacoby is very wrong. The failures of the Commander-in-Chief are the essential issue and the arrogant irrationality of BushCheney the gravest threat to our survival.

Friday, February 16, 2007
Olbermann: 96 But Who's Counting
(2 comments) Keith Olbermann has been renewed at COUNTDOWN and this is good news and also a golden opportunity to dump the buffoonery in favor of more sharp hard-hitting commentary.

Thursday, February 15, 2007
Corporatism Now!
(1 comments) The SEC actions in favor of corporate management against investors is a huge step toward Corporatism ... the modern version of fascism.

Monday, February 12, 2007
Charges of Intelligence Manipulation Vindicated
(1 comments) Intelligence analyst confirms manipulation of the pre-Iraq intelligence.

Monday, February 12, 2007
Putinshchina? Maybe!
(1 comments) President Putin's remarks in Munich Saturday are grist for his own mill in Russia. His remarks were directed against BushCheney for a very understandable reason.

Thursday, January 25, 2007
Fiddling With the Primary Schedule
(2 comments) The juggling of the political primary schedule to accommodate the big states will force more distortions into the political process and solve relatively few. It may get so bad that we will be forced into real political campaign reforms.

Friday, January 19, 2007
Making a Decision on Iraq
(2 comments) For Congress the Iraq War is a nightmare of conflicting ideas and political necessities. We never like to say "I quit!" or to have our noses rubbed in it, but that's what many see. The real test is to pin the tail on the appropriate donkey ... er ... elephant.

Thursday, January 18, 2007
CT Democrats Wince at Liebermanic Perfidy
(2 comments) My Left Nutmeg, from the Nutmeg State of Connecticut, has a blog today that perfectly shows the trouble an arrogant and pompous jackass like Lieberman causes down in the hustings.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007
The Age of Information
(2 comments) Public and private and bogus information are being "industrialized" and technology is too far ahead of the law. The very concept of democracy is at risk.

Sunday, January 14, 2007
Prescription?
(2 comments) The Washington Post editors reveal their Libertarian bias on prescription drug policy. The unseen hand in non-competitive markets is always greed. The Post should know better ... and Congress does know better!

Saturday, January 13, 2007
The "Decent Interval" Hypothesis
(2 comments) Rosa Brooks in the L.A. Times posits the "decent interval" hypothesis about Bush's plan. We should assume that this is at least part of the overall strategy.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007
"Ominous Signs"
(3 comments) Changes in our military leadership in the middle east portend an escalation and general conflict in the region.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007
An Enemy of the State
(3 comments) Sean Hannity's new program is a what you would expect, American fascism, racism, smugism, and protected by our freedom of speech. Too bad Hannity doesn't understand that!

Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Whimpering and Simpering
(3 comments) Biden is wrong, and Kennedy is not fooling us. Congress can and must act forthrightly and decisively. Bush cannot stand up to courage.

Friday, March 31, 2006
Dems Pick Up Serious Steam In Latest Zogby Polls
(3 comments) Of 10 states Zogby conducted polls this month, Democrats were ahead in 10, Republicans in six.

Friday, March 31, 2006
Helen Thomas: Bush takes potshots at messenger
(3 comments) President Bush seems to believe the news media's coverage of the Iraq war is why many Americans fail to see that everything is coming up roses there. That's an old ploy: "Kill the messenger who brings the bad news."

Friday, March 31, 2006
Feds Looking at Knight Ridder/McClatchy Deal
(3 comments) Antitrust regulators are reviewing the McClatchy Co.'s proposed $4.5 billion takeover of Knight Ridder, including its plan to sell 12 newspapers it is acquiring.

Friday, March 31, 2006
14,000 Lobbying Docs Missing; 300 Lobby Without Registering
(3 comments) According to Center for Public Integrity research, while under the oversight of the Senate Ethics Committee, lobbying disclosure has been glaringly un-enforced. * Nearly 14,000 lobbying documents that should have been filed periodically with the Senate Office of Public Records are missing; * Nearly 300 individuals and entities lobbied without registering; * 49 of the top 50 lobbying firms failed to file required forms; * Almost one in five companies have missing lobbying forms; and, * Almost 20 percent of all forms are filed late.

Friday, March 31, 2006
ETHICS -- FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS ACCEPT FAVORS FROM THE INDUSTRY THEY OVERSEE
(3 comments) A Center for Public Integrity (CPI) investigation has found that since 1999, the FDA has allowed hundreds of its employees to accept $1.3 million in sponsored travel from nonprofit groups closely tied to pharmaceutical and medical device companies. These nonprofit associations "draw their members, their boards and even some of their funding from medical and pharmaceutical-related companies" who often have business before the FDA.

Friday, March 31, 2006
Study: Red Bull and alcohol don't mix
(3 comments) A popular urban myth among young people is that combining energy drinks with alcohol will improve their stamina when they go "clubbing." New findings indicate that when the popular Red Bull energy drink is consumed with alcohol, it actually reduces the user's ability to recognize loss of motor skills.