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William Fisher has managed economic development programs in the Middle East and elsewhere for the US State Department and the US Agency for International Development. He served in the international affairs area in the Kennedy Administration and now writes on subjects ranging from human rights to foreign affairs for a number of newspapers and online journals.
SHARE 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.
(5 comments) SHARE Sunday, November 6, 2011 Liberties Lost Since 9/11
One of the world's renowned human rights defenders concludes that the so-called 'War on Terror' has cost Americans some of their most cherished liberties.
(45 comments) SHARE Sunday, February 7, 2010 The Silence of the Sheep
Do you want the president of the United States to have the power to kill you? Well, it seems he took the power without asking anyone.
(10 comments) SHARE Tuesday, April 6, 2010 Feel Safer Now?
None of my usual distractions worked in this case to detour my anger! I am still angry; in fact, I am furious. Furious enough to try to tell this story.
If this case didn't make you angry, you need to take a refresher course in American History or Civics 101.
And you need to do it right away! Before the Constitution disappears altogether.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, May 16, 2010 An Open Letter To Arizona Senator Sylvia Allen
The Senator sounds really worried and abgry. She has good reason. But I think she's drecting her emotions at the wrong target. Janet Napolitano and Barack Obama should be her targets.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, April 24, 2011 Where is Mohammed al-Tajer?
Do you understand how or why our government is so unwilling or so unable to speak out against man's inhumanity to man? Bahrain is a perfect example.
SHARE Wednesday, March 9, 2011 Egypt Shocked by Proof of Mubarak's Legacy
Egyptian knew most of this grisly stuff anyway, either by gossip or by experience. But it's a different ballgame when it turns up on State TV as well as on Facebook and Twitter.
SHARE Saturday, May 14, 2011 WILL SAUDI WOMEN DRIVERS MAKE NASCAR NERVOUS?
Like all of the Arab Awakening demos that have takern place in recent months, this one is totally nmon-violent. But instead of using people to motivate the crows, it's using cars. Read and see how.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, February 28, 2011 Could Syria Be Next?
People who are waiting for Tahrir Square in Syria may be disappointed for a while. But on the other hand, mayube not!
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, May 19, 2009 Obama Considering National Security Courts
George Orwell Redux! Barack Obama is considering the creation of a national security court to try cases in which there is enough reliable intelligence to hold a foreign terrorism suspect in preventive detention, but not enough to bring a case in federal court or even through military commissions.
(7 comments) SHARE Sunday, August 26, 2012 America: How Exceptional?
Yes, America is extraordinary in many ways. But perfect it is not. And there's a huge question about whether we've even been truly "exce[tional."
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, December 8, 2008 Hope For Homeowners? Not So Much
Does anyone remember what actualy caused our economic meltdown? Yep, at least one person.
SHARE Wednesday, October 3, 2012 Bahrain's Cat and Mouse Games
The PR machine grinds out self-congratulatory rhetoric about Bahrain becoming a model for civil rights practice while the police and the courts dish out long jailtime for those who speak out. American's Ally!
(6 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 29, 2009 Court Rebukes Bush, Obama Administrations
A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that the "state secrets privilege" - routinely used by the government to block lawsuits against its officials - can only be used to contest specific evidence, but not to dismiss an entire suit. Hailed by human rights advocates, the ruling addressed the role of a flight planning company, Jeppesen DataPlan, in the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, March 17, 2012 The GOP's Death Wish
The GOP says "not so", but follow the feet and you'll get to the graveyard of what was once a legitimate political party.
(7 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 8, 2009 Obama's Big Gamble
Our new president's lawyers have been traipsing into court to argue the very same legal positions used by George W. Bush in his push for the Imperial Presidency. Torture, rendition, war powers, spying on citizens - it ain't over by any measure.
SHARE Sunday, February 26, 2012 Bahrain in Wonderland
Would tiny, oil-rich Bahrian actually go ahead with a premier Formula One racing event while the country's self-appointed king is tear-gassing and torturing his own subjects?
SHARE Sunday, December 18, 2011 Is ICE Running Out of Criminals to Deport?
A few months ago, our immigration authorities were criticized for deporting people for broken tail lights and so forth under a program designed to catch serious criminals. Did things get better? Read On!
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, April 1, 2012 Texas Prosecutors Go Rogue --And Get Away With It!
In its infinite wisdom, our Supreme Court has granted prosecutors virtual immunity from prosecution for misconduct that has doomed many to long prison sentences -- sometimes on death row. Now, a courageous group of lawyers are trying to correct this travesty of justice.
SHARE Monday, February 18, 2013 Bahrain: Will Dialogue Bring Peace?
Watch the behaviour of the King of Bahrain and his minions as they ponder just how much freedom they're willing to surrender in the interests of peace.
(8 comments) SHARE Sunday, April 15, 2012 Bahrain Follows The Money
Bahrain's Royalty is counting on the Formula One Grand Prix to refurbish the country's brutal image. But fun at the races might just backfire to the benefit of the thousands who have been arrested and tortured.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 22, 2006 THE OXYCOPS
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.
(4 comments) SHARE Saturday, February 20, 2010 Where is the Outrage?
Tea-baggers tilt at windmills while real outrages go unanswered.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 22, 2012 Thanksgiving 2012
What can we be thankful for?
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 13, 2008 THE HIGH COST OF OUTSOURCING SECURITY
Are Iraq, Afghanistan private contractors really saving us money? The Congressional Budget Office
asts doubt.
SHARE Sunday, September 18, 2011 Egypt: The Murder of Dissent
Press freedom is under a serious threat from Egypt's military rulers. Little has changed from the decades of repression under Hosni Mubarak.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 16, 2010 Bloggers Under Fire
We sit down at our computers and write whatever's on our mind. We take it for granted that we can say pretty much anything we want. We have our First Amendment. Other folks aren't so lucky. Here are some of them.
SHARE Monday, September 29, 2008 Goodbye, Mr. Brooks.
John McCain: Sterling judge of character? What was David Brooks thinking?
SHARE Monday, March 26, 2012 Is This the Accountability We Were Promised?
The lawyers who bring human rights cases to US courts have to be the most patient and most frustrated guys in the legal profession. How are they now looking for a way around America's courts, which seem to have forgotten their mission: Justice!
SHARE 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.
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, January 28, 2012 What We Left Behind in Iraq
We pulled out of Iraq not because we wanted to but because the Iraqi government wanted us to. Today, it is arguable whether what we left there is better or worse than what we found there.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, January 25, 2011 Diplomacy: Fig Leaf for Inaction?
Human Rights: Has Obama done enough? How about Europe? And the UN? What should we expect?
SHARE Monday, December 5, 2011 Driving on Breast Milk
A Saudi cleric proposes a solution to mingling by unrelated men and women. But the women see him and raise him.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, August 19, 2011 The Kids Count
It's hard to fathom, but politicians won't act even when our children's welfare is involved! Unbelievable!
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 30, 2012 The Perpetual Trial of Sami Al-Arian
The power of the Justice System is truly awesome. Pray you never find yourself in its talons!
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, January 20, 2011 Another Chance for Second-Class Justice?
President Obama is reportedly getting ready to start terrorist trials of GITMO detainees using Military Commissions. Here's to second-0class justice!
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, February 25, 2011 It's On to Cali and a Real Good Time!
Is there a "Conservative History" that's different from "American History"? It would seem so. Just ask Messrs. Koch and Walker!
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, December 9, 2011 Abu Ghraib Redux
There's another Abu Ghraib scandal coming our way!
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, January 22, 2011 Battle of the Prosecutors
Military Commmissions: Due Process for the Accused or a Mistake of Epic Proportions?
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 29, 2011 Egypt Security Raids US, German and Egyptian NGOs
This couldn't be more Mubarak-esque! Take a look at what the Egyptian Army is trying to do to the country's last bastions of civil liberties and huiman rights!
(4 comments) SHARE Monday, November 2, 2009 Justice Delayed...
For those of us who seek justice, the rule of law can be frustrating. But consider what kind of country we'd be without due process!
(4 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 2, 2012 Justice Delayed? Justice Cancelled?
What can we do when our government fails? When it lies to us? When it takes away the freedom of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of its citizens?
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, October 2, 2008 A Debate Question for Joe Biden
"Winning" tonight's debate should be a no-brainer. But Joe Biden needs to answer some hard questions too.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, September 14, 2012 Not for the Faint-Hearted
The Internet won't do all your work. You need to know what you're looking for. Stories like these are a lot harder to find than the latest steamy affair initiated by a guy who wants to represent you next year.
SHARE Saturday, October 15, 2011 Those Pesky Renditions Again!
Should someone be telling us voters and taxpayers about new information on thwe CIA's extraordinary renditions and secret prisons? Yes, but who?
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, November 24, 2012 Prosecuting the Prosecutor
DID A FORMER TEXAS PROSECUTOR -- NOW A JUDGE -- WITHOLD EXCULPATORY EVIDENCE THAT PUT MICHAEL MORTON BEHIND BARS FOR 25 YEARS?
SHARE Sunday, March 11, 2012 Sending Americans into Exile
The President claims the authority to kill you with drones overseas. Now he refuses to let you back into your own country after you travel abroad.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, December 5, 2012 How Does This Federal Judge Sleep at Night?
The 'tough on crime" bunch continues to pack our prisons with hundreds of thousads of people who shouldn't be there at all. In the process, they ensure that we lose the so-called "drug war". And they do that with your money.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 20, 2010 Europe's Great Cover Up!
American readers are conflicted about Europe's upcoming Burqa-Ban. Europeans, not so much!
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, November 19, 2011 Egypt: Demonstrators Push to Reverse Army's Power Grab.
Is the Egyptian Army trying to hang on to power as the country's rulers? Or is it trying to shed that responsibility a.s.a.p. because it knows nothing about governance? And it's getting tired of being everyone's whipping boy! You figure it out.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, August 16, 2008 THOSE PESKY ACTIVIST JUDGES
Voters have a right to demand that presidential candidates let us know their views on detention, rendition, the role of the courts and the limits on presidential power.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, January 25, 2010 Well done, Mr. Kennedy!
Are you impatiently waiting to change Exxon-Mobil's diapers, or take KBR's kids (subsidiaries) to school? It's all about to happen!
SHARE Friday, August 5, 2011 Can We Please Call a Nut a Nut?
Here's how the cult of "objectivity" distorts our knowledge of what's going on in the world.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 16, 2011 Oh Those "Debates"
Republican Wannabees for the President Nomination seem to have drunk all the Kool-Aid.But they'd be great at a showbiz roast or, better yet, a Minstrel Show.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, September 15, 2012 A Judge Who Actually Judges
A young recently appointed Federal judge is squaring off against giving even more intrusive power to the Executive Branch of overnment.
SHARE Monday, July 9, 2012 Texas Justice: 22 Years on Death Row
Our prosecutorial bar will be perceived as weak and uncaring until these peer groups are ready to use their power to aggressively weed out bad behavior
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, January 14, 2011 GITMO By The Numbers
Corporate Media are falling in lockstep behind the government in publishing unsupported data -- again.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 16, 2012 Remember Mubarak?
The King of Bahrain gives us all a lesson in PR 101, designed to turn day to night, handcuffs to jewelled bracelets, sows' ears to silk purses.
SHARE 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.
(8 comments) SHARE Sunday, October 12, 2008 Let's Cut W. a Little Slack!
Maybe the best we can do is to ignore George W. Bush until he leaves the White House. After all, he's the one who's going to have to live with his legacy.
(7 comments) SHARE Tuesday, June 22, 2010 Peace Groups Slam High Court Ruling on "Terror Support"
Carter, whose organisation, the Carter Centre, filed a "friend of the court" brief in the case, said in a statement, "We are disappointed that the Supreme Court has upheld a law that inhibits the work of human rights and conflict resolution groups. The vague language of the law leaves us wondering if we will be prosecuted for our work to promote peace and freedom," he added.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, September 29, 2012 For one lucky guy, Mardi Gras comes early!
Sure, luck has a part to play. But the courage and tenacity of this case of characters should make us all proud.
(4 comments) SHARE Saturday, October 1, 2011 He's Dead, But Is It Legal?
Glenn Greenwald: He was simply ordered killed by the President: his judge, jury and executioner." Where are the courts?
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, February 5, 2013 Of Hope and Disgust: Solitary Confinement
During the last generation,a virtual cavalcade of Federal lawmakers has proposed -- or opposed -- a comprehensive review of the solitary confinement regulations of our nation's bulging prisons. Nonjeof these proposals has resulted in a study. Now, thanks to Sen. Dick Durban, such a study is in the offing. But for many prisoners and former prisoners, it comes far too late.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 11, 2012 Ozzie: Open Mouth, Insert Foot?
Ozzie Guillen has the same First Amendment rights as the rest of to say whatever he wants about anyone he wants to talk about. But, frankly, we enjoy his baseball more than his politics.
SHARE Friday, January 30, 2009 What's in Annex M Anyway?
Things you should know about the Army Field Manual on Interrogations
SHARE Tuesday, March 2, 2010 Blackwater's Migraines Multiply
it emerged at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee that Blackwater employees took more than 500 assault rifles intended for the Afghan police force and routinely carried weapons without permission. Blackwater was awarded contracts worth billions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
SHARE 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.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, August 4, 2012 Censoring the Whistle!
Here we have yet another clue that the Afghan Government is skilled at poppy production and corruption. Don't expect much more from them regardless of what the propagandists tell us!
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 4, 2009 And Where Was A.G. Ashcroft? A.W.O.L.
After years of denial, finally an admission of guilt from the Bushies. It's refreshing. But it's also worth remembering how panicked and paranoid most of us were right after 9/11!
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 20, 2009 The Constitution Lives!
The wheels of justice move slowly. But sometimes they do move.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, April 19, 2009 Clinton, Agnew, Nixon Redux
Will Bush's lawyers pay attention when their livlihoods are threatened?
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, September 9, 2009 Rendition Victim Not Giving Up
Thwarted by U.S. Courts, a German citizen who claims he was "rendered" by the U.S. and secretly detained and tortured for four months is taking his case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
(4 comments) SHARE Sunday, December 13, 2009 Good News 2009
Where I make good on a deal made with a friend -- to make up for all the depressing news stories I had to write this year.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, December 24, 2005 PLEASE, MISS CONDI… MAY I?
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.
SHARE Monday, December 19, 2011 Death Sentences Drop to Lowest Number Since 1976
There are no do-overs for those we execute. Do we ever make a mistake? Ask the Innocence Project. Ask the Death Pentalty Information Center.
SHARE 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.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, October 9, 2008 Palin: Sancho Pander
My nomination for writing the most mindless cynical piece of the entire campaign. Lou Dobbs in drag!
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, May 9, 2011 Bahrain: Iran Accused of Aiding Pro-democracy "Terrorists"
While Syria steals the headlines for The Arab Spring, the protesters in tiny Bahrain are largely ignored. Particularly troubling is the silence of the Obama White House.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, January 21, 2012 The Royal Stall
What part of "dialogue" does King Hamad not understyand?
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, March 6, 2009 Heck of a job, VA.
Bush paid lip-service to our vets. Barack Obama has to DO something.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 30, 2011 From Saudi Arabia: Thanks, Muammar!
We may be treating Saudi Arabia's leaderhsip with kidd gloves, but the Saudi people may not be so patient.
SHARE Saturday, April 16, 2011 The Three Blind Mice of the Middle East
When movements such as The Arab Awakening reach the kind of
numbers and intensity it took to oust Mubarak from Egypt and Ben Ali from Tunisia they become virtualy nstoppable.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, May 2, 2011 Egypt: What Else is the Army Not Doing?
What's going on in Egypt keeps reminding me of Don Rumsfeld's "command influence" and the "few bad apples." Tell me if I'm losing it!
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, April 21, 2011 Lawyers Matter!
The media naturally focuses on the most egregious sins of the legal profession. Very little far and balanced here! But just try to imaging an America without lawyers!
(5 comments) SHARE Saturday, December 27, 2008 The "Yes We Can" Multiplier
How Obama's appointees can make their work more effective.
SHARE Thursday, March 8, 2012 FOIA: Honored in the Breach!
President Obama pledged an era of open government, of transparency and accountability. But it appears the Freedom of Information Act is going in the wrong direction.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, January 28, 2013 Pleading With Satan
Such a smoke screen of mythology has now enveloped our beloved rule of law that even seasoned lawyers sometimes can't tell the real thing from the Kabuki version.
SHARE Sunday, September 11, 2011 Joe Trippi's New Gig
Bahrain has hired a couple of high-powered PR people to erase its outrageous human rights record. One is Joe Trippi, John Edwards' former Internet guru. The other is Matt Lauer, who used to work for the State Department in the public diplomacy area. It's a good test of whether PR can change people's attitudes when nothing substantive really changes!
SHARE Saturday, January 7, 2012 Obama Immigration Agency Exaggerating Deportations
Is this an Obama gambit for currying favor with with anti-immigrant right? But at the same time, it's likely to curry anger from Latino voters.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, April 8, 2011 Are Mideast Women Being Sidelined from "The Arab Awakening"?
The women of Tahrir Square and similar hotspots in the Middle East weren't just there to make the tea. Nor onlt to raise their voices in protest along with their male colleagues, They were engaged in -- and in many cases led -- the pro-democracy demos. They were motivated, smart, courageous. So what's ther future in the democracy movement now?
SHARE Thursday, December 30, 2010 Barbour Burning?
Is Haley Barbour really a color-blind,fair-minded son of the New South?
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, August 10, 2009 Sotomayor: The Umpires Strike Out!
What did we learn from Judge Sotomayor's hearing in the Senate. Did we learn anything?
SHARE 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.
SHARE Monday, January 7, 2013 Our New Double-Standard for Justice
Our judges seem to be as befuddled as the rest of us when it come to defining exactly what 'terrorism' is and is not -- and whenand how people should be punished for it. One of the judges in this case could only comment that, like porn, he kew it when he saw it. Shouldn't we have to have a tad more precision than that?
SHARE Wednesday, October 17, 2012 Waiting for Lefty
Wondering what ever happened to the prisoners who were sent to Guantanamo Bay? Many were released -- after years of captivity. Other were scheduled ti be tried in civilian courts, but Cibgress demurred and Obama didn't fight. Instead, he created a third-class systice system and is about to try these guys before Military Commissions -- a system most lawyers find has beebn designed to produce, not justice, but convictions.
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, November 3, 2012 Whaddya Mean, Don't Vote!
Our candidates for president may think as little of us as many of us think of them. They have put the nation deep into catatonia by what they said - and didn't say.
SHARE 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.
SHARE Saturday, December 31, 2011 Toothless and Tone Deaf
Here's a classic example of the Arab League's Foxes mobilizing to guard Syria's Henhouses.
SHARE Thursday, January 19, 2012 Baradei's Anguish
One of the prospective leaders of post-revolutionary Egypt has taken his hat out of the ring. He is Mohamed ElBaradei, whom naby consider on of the more capable among possible leders.
SHARE 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.
SHARE Thursday, September 11, 2008 Lipstick on the Constitution?
Government secrecy: One of the big issues our presidential candidates are busy not discussing.
SHARE Thursday, March 25, 2010 Post-Racial What?
Bigotry has been with us always. The Tea Party crowd, and their allies, are unlikely to do much to stop it.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 31, 2011 Assad's Cookie-Cutter
President Hafaz al-Assad of Syria needs two things: 1) a few new ideas; 2) a good speechwriter.
SHARE Thursday, March 3, 2011 Is That a Light at the End of the Tunnel? Or an Oncoming Train?
So far, the Egyptioan military appears to be responsive to the wishes of the Tahrir Square Democrats. Today they announced a new Prime Minister, after protests about the old one's ties to Mubarak. We talk with one of the most reliable analysts of all things Egyptian.
SHARE 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.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 13, 2011 Gaming the Voters
Can we find enough truth in what the pols are telling us to cast an inteligent vote -- on anything?
SHARE Saturday, September 22, 2012 Giving Voice to the Voiceless
Some of law enforcement's most sacred cows are getting a long overdue critical look. Will Congress actualy stay with the program and get something done?
SHARE Wednesday, December 21, 2011 Early Christmas for Virginia Prisoner
Our Justice System is broken in many places, one of which results in innocent people being convicted and sentenced to long terms in prison. The job of The Innocence Project, and other groups like it, is to get these prisoners out. They have been hugely successful but continue to face daunting obstacles.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, March 18, 2008 NEITHER SNOW NOR RAIN, ET CETERA
There are times when your friendly letter carrier can bring you bad news. Very bad.
SHARE Monday, January 12, 2009 THE OTHER GITMO
Another piece of Bush legacy for Obama's clean-up-the-mess list.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, September 5, 2012 Back to the Future with the GOP
Do you remember Dwight David Eisenhower? He was the WW II hero who became our president -- twice. And he was a Republican!
SHARE Sunday, February 15, 2009 DOD, CIA Cooperated in Detainee Abuse
Human rights groups are getting a trickle of information from their lawsuit -- but enough to make some pretty serious charges.
SHARE Wednesday, February 4, 2009 A No-Brainer for the Supremes?
There's no nuance here. This is a "bright line" case: Either the President has, or does not have, this power.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, July 23, 2012 Crazy While Locked Up!
For the past twenty years or so, a large and growing population of mentally ill men and women have been discovering that they have virtually no place to go and that their future is homelessness followed by jail. Thousands are serving long sentences for relatively minor infractions.
SHARE 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.
SHARE 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.
SHARE Wednesday, May 16, 2012 Who'll Have the Last Laugh?
You know how they define someone who keeps doing the same things over and over and expects a different result?
SHARE 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."
SHARE Sunday, January 13, 2008 THE OTHER GITMO
Human rights organizations are attempting to focus attention on "the other GITMO."
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, March 3, 2009 Something Obama Can Do.
The President is focused on our ecomnomic meltdown, and rightly so. But there's an unfinished task he could take on right now.
SHARE 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.
SHARE Monday, October 13, 2008 Facts: Campaign Collateral Damage
When the issue is the single one most central to the survival of our democracy, is having a beer with the new president an answer to anyting?
SHARE 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.
SHARE Tuesday, February 28, 2012 Will Iranian Government Use Brutal Tactics After Parliamentary Poll?
Iran is taking no chances that a Persian Spring will descend on the country in the run-up to Parliamentary elections on Friday. They've got the truncheons, rubber bullets, tear gas, paramilitary on motorcycles, and thousands of troops with live rounds ready and waiting for another bloodbath.
SHARE Friday, July 25, 2008 Did You Give at the Office?
In the name of "Global War on Terror" the U.S. Government is waging war against charities and foundations on the no-profit sector... and impeding the fight against terrorism.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, June 18, 2009 A 'Must Read' for the Book Czar
Since the Obama Administration now has czars for cars, information technology, bonuses, financial products, et cetera, can a book czar be far behind?
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, April 29, 2013 Georgia Justice
I'm going out on a limb and charging that the two affirming judges simply do not want this murderer to live. So they are finding whatever technicalities they can find to see that he's executed -- mental retardation or not.
SHARE Tuesday, January 5, 2010 Emma Lazarus Redux
What will immigration reform look like? E Pluribus Gridlock!
SHARE Saturday, September 15, 2012 A Judge Who Judges
A young recently appointed Federal judge readies for a judicial battle with the heavyweights.
SHARE Friday, May 29, 2009 Mr. Common Law's Next Adventure
But before he disappears into the flinty wilderness of the rural New Hampshire he loves so dearly, let me say a few words about David Souter.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, August 5, 2008 Memo To Obama And McCain: Add To Your Do-Do List
A couple of important things AG Gonzales didn't do, AG Mukasey is unlikely to do -- and will get left for our next President.
SHARE Thursday, September 25, 2008 FINALLY - A GOOD NEWS STORY
What were the immigration authorities thinking of? Were they thinking at all?
SHARE Monday, May 29, 2006 OIL ON TROUBLED WATERS
Hugo Chavez has been busily scoring points with low-income American consumers.
SHARE Saturday, September 15, 2012 Can We Turn Hate Into Reason?
A number of countries in the Arab Middle East now enjoy freedom of speech as a result of their Arab Spring revolutions. But their idea of free speech is far from ours.
SHARE 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.
SHARE 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.
SHARE 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.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, February 9, 2009 THE ROAD MORE TRAVELED
How different will Eric Holder's Department of Justice Be, After All?
First test: Not so Much.
SHARE 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.
SHARE 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’.
SHARE Tuesday, October 21, 2008 Seven Years and Counting!
The U.S. lacks the leverage with other countries to get them to accept these GITMO detainees -- while the potential destination countries are all terrified of reprisals by China.
SHARE 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’.
(5 comments) SHARE Saturday, November 25, 2006 U.S. v. BUSH, et al
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.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, May 14, 2006 BLOCKING JUSTICE
The "state secrets" defense has become a routine defense used by the U.S. Government to keep embarrassing cases from being tried.
SHARE Tuesday, July 10, 2012 Virginia's Political Asset
Our lawmakers desperately need to understand some of the paths toward better behavior. If they don't, we'll just go on spending more money and throwing more lives on the landfill of broken lives.
SHARE 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.
SHARE Monday, March 10, 2008 McCAIN'S TURNABOUT
Pandering 101 for the Straight-talk Express guy.
SHARE 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”.
(7 comments) SHARE Tuesday, January 8, 2008 My Last Debate
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...
SHARE 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.
SHARE 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?
SHARE 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.
SHARE Tuesday, May 13, 2008 Inspector Clouseau Squared
How Scott Bloch's investigation of the White House, and vice versa, will end: With a whimper!
SHARE 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.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 22, 2006 SCIENTIFIC SLEIGHT OF HAND
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.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, June 9, 2008 Yes, we can - pander.
How far should a presidential candidate go to win critical votes?
SHARE 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.
SHARE Tuesday, May 20, 2008 GITMO FOREVER!
Whether there will ever be any trials at Guantanamo Bay remains unclear. So does the future of America's Caribbean paradise.
SHARE 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.
SHARE 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.
(13 comments) SHARE Friday, February 29, 2008 UNSPINNING THE PRESIDENT
"There Will Be Blood," was Dubya's message. Be afraid. Be very afraid!
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, January 18, 2006 WHY SHOULD WE BE SURPRISED?
Iran’s president launched a media tsunami when he declared the Holocaust a myth.
SHARE Saturday, November 26, 2005 DANGEROUS DENIAL
America’s newest public diplomacy czarina, Karen Hughes, is in dangerous denial and needs professional help.
SHARE Saturday, April 5, 2008 Collateral Damage?
These must be part of "the special interests" our presidential wanabees keep talking about.
SHARE 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.
SHARE 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.
SHARE 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.
SHARE 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."
SHARE 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”?
SHARE 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.
SHARE 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.
SHARE 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
SHARE Saturday, February 25, 2006 DEATH IN U.S. CUSTODY
“Command Responsibility” ought to begin with the Commander-in-Chief.
SHARE 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.
SHARE 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.
SHARE 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.
SHARE 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.
SHARE 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."
SHARE 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.
SHARE 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.
SHARE Friday, February 8, 2008 KABUKI ON THE HILL
If there was a big winner here, it was the audience!
SHARE 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.