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Tom Driscoll

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Tom driscoll is an opinion columnist, poet, performiing songwriter (let's just say he writes).

www.notsilence.blogspot.com

OpEd News Member for 856 week(s) and 0 day(s)

35 Articles, 1 Quick Links, 16 Comments, 3 Diaries, 0 Polls

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SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 11, 2008
What our war makes possible, the next Five years and 4000 lives gone, a constantly shifting definition of the mission at hand, and President Bush thanks our troops for what they "have made possible" in Iraq. The truly disturbing aspect is what that possibility is in George Bush's understanding of it: this terrible war, only to make possible the next one.
(12 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 16, 2008
Small steps on small arms In South Africa the government got out of the way and ultimately ended up following the lead of its people in opposing the trade of small arms to Robert Mugabe's repressive regime. That's the hopeful half of the story. There just might be a chance of doing that here just as well, getting the government out of our way on the path towards peace.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 5, 2013
The punishment they seek Some thoughts on capital punishment and the Boston Marathon bombing.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 7, 2008
"They pull me back in" There's this love/hate thing going on between Cheney and McCain/Palin. Nobody is really comfortable with the spooky uncle with the brass knuckles and the bag full of bloody rags in his closet. But still, when things get ugly -you gotta love him.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 31, 2007
Dimming the light: what Bhutto said to us Even before Benazir Bhutto lost her life this past week it seemed to be that the troubles of that far off country were speaking as much about our own country's politics and principles, as those of Pakistan.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 30, 2008
The pitfalls of common sense Sarah Palin agreeing with Obama? Careful handling by the McCain campaign is sure to protect her from other such lapses. -into common sense. And when all else fails, we'll always have John McCain to explain what she really understands.
Sculpture weeps The Capitol Building, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Justice of the double edged sword On the courts: advising a little less anguished despair over voting rights, and little less easy early celebration over marriage equality
An American flag is seen through rain drops on a window as rain falls in Baltimore, Sunday, April 22, 2012., From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 24, 2013
Balance Sheet Blues As we move on the notion of immigration reform the question arises, mightn't we be better served with reforming citizenship itself? Even our own?
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 31, 2008
Barack Obama, American Fundamentalist I think I've discovered something about Barack Obama and I'm ready to share this discovery with the rest of you. It's not a secret exactly. It's really obvious when you actually listen to the things he says. I know you're not supposed to do that without proper inoculation first, but I have and I've come away from the experience with this observation: Barack Obama is a fundamentalist, an American fundamentalist.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 16, 2008
The choice in choosing This past Saturday at a rally in Pennsylvania she chose to remind us of what she symbolizes for the McCain campaign: She called out Obama for his "radical views" on abortion, which she claims he wants to hide. She complains of the judges he'd appoint and how they will stifle debate on abortion issues. But is it debate we're lacking? Or is it candor?
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 26, 2007
Solomon's Sword ...I feel my country is that helpless child, our soldiers serving overseas and their loved ones here at home hoping, they are that child too. And of all the characters in that ancient story, what we seem to have on our hands (with the current administration) is the woman who would have watched as the child was cut in two.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 29, 2008
it's 3 a.m. -do you know where your candidate is? Senator Hillary Clinton knows better. She's simply not opting for better. Her latest campaign ad leaves one feeling she has read what she calls "Karl Rove's playbook" and she's willing to give it a try.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Sad, more than angry President George W. Bush wasn't the only one, last night at the Republican National Convention, to bring up the trials John McCain suffered as a P.O.W. during the Vietnam War.But I think it was our president who outdid all others, not in celebrating McCain -but in the cynical, divisive and destructive exploitation of his story.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 17, 2008
Bad night, and good luck There are differences, for sure -substantive and import ones maybe-between Obama and Clinton. Last night didn't get us any closer to seeing them. I couldn't help noticing Gibson and Stephanopoulos as part of the problem. To borrow and bend a line from Shakespeare, I think the problem is in ourselves and in our (media)stars.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 4, 2008
Sleepers, joining hands Recalling the end of Bush's presidency, circa 2004
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 27, 2008
Progress To Debate? To Save the Economy? What? The only progress that's been made has been political. As the economy was souring, the candidate who had admitted the economy "wasn't his thing" was starting to fall in the polls. With one deft political slight of hand, announcing policy he doesn't even know whether he supports, John McCain now casts himself as running against the Congress, against Democrats and even against George Bush. A fairly preposterous idea, I grant you
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 10, 2007
Of Retroactive Warning Signs and Preemptive Strikes In actuality Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran pose no threat to America or her interests with any form of arms capacity. What does stand as a challenge, and what is suddenly showing in rather stark light, is the frail logic of our policies, with regard to arms, with regard to the exercise of power, in the Mideast and around the world.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 20, 2008
Five years in Iraq: only to remain As Vice President Cheney flies home, and our troops do not, and the previously stated benchmarks of progress seem all but forgotten, as another day's statistically acceptable amount of blood is washed from the street, it seems the "surge" -first introduced as a means to an end-has become the end in itself. Our purpose in Iraq has become -only to remain.
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 29, 2008
How about a "good argument"? Some thoughts on the possibility of a "good argument" -instead of the ugly debate.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 14, 2008
The History Of The Absurd It is odd that Giuliani, of all people, would be so oblivious to the "blow back" of Reagan/Bush era policies. He's walked through some of the wreckage while it was still warm. But Rudy, the Republican candidate prefers to partake of the mythic history, where the bad guys trembled in fear as the good cowboy rode in, where dictators and dissidents became chess pieces for the board, where it was freedom fighters who found a frien
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 3, 2008
A question, lightly held This is not a movie review of "The Golden Compass". I'm not sure what this is, but I know it is not that. This meant only to leave you with a question or two. It is that sort of offering. It is meant as that sort of gift.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 28, 2008
The next casualty We entered Iraq more than five years ago on a fictive premise. When facts didn't quite fit our script, we willingly made them a casualty. There was that element of suspended disbelief. With Iran, now it seems the same authors are ready to move on to the next villain. Some of the theater critics will opine that it's all of the same drama, the 'next chapter' -or 'Act II'! I just feel we're watching reruns
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Wrong Number? Here's my problem with those rallying to oppose telecom immunity in the FISA reauthorization bill-I'm not sure this stand is in the right place or for the right reason. Maybe we shouldn't be trying to address an egregious constitutional crime perpetrated by the country's chief executive by merely providing for civil recourse -against accessories to the crime. The term that comes to mind is "lies and misdemeanors."
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Shame The substance of Senator Clinton's charge is less important than the style right now. Saying something as loud and and brazen as "Shame on you!" to the other candidate for her party's nomination has gotten her some media attention. And once again she has pinned her hopes on the premise that a well shouted argument might prove persuasive -for some only hearing the half of it.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 30, 2008
One more insult to the injury The most disturbing aspect of the sorry spectacle of President Bush's last State Of The Union Address -his airbrushed rendering of his Mideast misadventure. Where it concerned the situation in Iraq, the president's address wasn't any realistic accounting of the state of affairs. It was a delusional display of false premises and distorted fantasy.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 6, 2008
The short memory of "straight talk" Just about a month ago Sarak Palin was on record praising Obama's energy plan. Then "The Straight Talk Express" came to town and it became her responsibility to ridicule that policy.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 21, 2008
The personal history of a dream I realized a while back that the first time I saw the famous "I have a dream" speech must have been in the aftermath of Martin Luther King's assassination. This is simply a rememrance of that day.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 14, 2007
The Immigration Problem (or is this about citizenship?) The immigration debate It's like "suddenly I feel like I'm a twelve year old Red Sox fan again. I'm watching Earl Weaver's Baltimore Orioles play Billy Martin's New York Yankees and I'm wishing there was a way both sides could lose."
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Applause for the obvious and empty As the president professed his antipathy for genocide in Darfur during his address to Congress and the nation, as he stood there reveling in the applause, he had already signed and -at the same time- undermined law intended to enable meaningful action to oppose the killing.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 28, 2008
McCain's Bargain It might be troubling to consider what John McCain's opposition to the GI benefits bill says of his attitude towards our soldiers. In my view what is most unsettling is what it says of his attitude towards the country they come from.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 26, 2008
There are too many In one small community that historically displays shrines to the fallen in Afghanistan and Iraq, a unique problem has arisen. There are too many and they have simply run out of town.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 26, 2008
From Hell Has it really taken us that long to detain Karadzic? Did the international community really have to wait on the etiquette of a proper Serbian arrest of this criminal before seeing him brought to justice?
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 27, 2007
Howlers Our politics are getting scary lately.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 20, 2008
Barack, I knew Ronald Reagan... and you're no Ronald Reagan It's amazing what a little editing can do. A candidate can be discussing how a political campaign can come to be representative of ideas and ideals and offer a profound shift, different candidates ...different ideals. He can be discussing how the political culture and climate is calling for a certain kind of response -and the next minute, with a little prudent editing ...POOF! "Obama is a closet Reaganite! Isn't that bad?"
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 27, 2007
The Odor of Old Promises It might be that this country has finally lost its capacity for outrage, has long since surrendered the idea of reproach or redress when lied to. We have become the Orwellian farm animals who find it too troubling to remember the promises once posted on the stable wall.

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