News about Iraq has recently dropped off, and the military has filled the void with intimations that the surge is working. The explanation is clearly due to US military efforts, which are capable of fixing everything. That we are still within the six-month ceasefire window opened by Moqtada Al Sadr in August is a minor detail. The BBC is happily burbiling away right now with interviews of people from the American Enterprise Institute (a favorite source for the BBC) telling us that weak... [More]

Subduing Protesters in New Orleans

As reported today in New Orleans to Demolish Thousands of ‘Poor’ Homes by Leonard Doyle (Common Dreams) and New Orleans Police Taser, Pepper Spray Residents Seeking to Block Public Housing Demolition (Democracy Now!), a meeting of the City Council of New Orleans to decide whether to raze 4500 units of low-income housing and replace them with mixed-income housing was disrupted by police wading into crowds of chanting protesters with pepper spray and tasers. The clips on Democracy Now! sound like an... [More]

As feared by right-wing pundits everywhere, the power of a slightly democratic Congress and Senate is a fearsome thing to behold. As stated in the article, Senate Approves $70 Billion To Continue Wars (Common Dreams):

“In a boost to President George W. Bush, the Senate voted late Tuesday to approve the catch-all 555 billion dollar budget bill, adding extra war funds without any of the restrictions that Democrats hoped to pin on their release, such as linking them to a withdrawal date for US troops.”

... [More]

It would be nice if all of the faithful in America would apply their faith constructively for once. Instead of shopping amongst the meatheads on the Republican side or the non-commital shysters on the Democratic side, they should take a look at Kucinich’s platform and believe that he could make it work. Vote him into the presidency and give him four years—if he only accomplishes half of what he would like to, America will be on its way to being the country we were all[1] taught it already was.

Debates... [More]

There’s a fun little video called What We Call the News (JibJab), which lampoons the state of American media today, which has degenerated from “anchors of integrity and three channels to choose” to “a ratings race, with the anchors replaced by blondes with big, fake boobs”. To be fair, it’s not these superficial qualities that form the crux of the problem—Lou Dobbs, for example, is neither blonde nor especially busty. But he exemplifies the problem with the news with his shocking incompetence and... [More]

The Congress spent the weekend proving, once again, that they have no idea what the safe word is in the sub/dom game they’ve been playing with the executive branch since early 2001. And, despite the title of this article, Hillary Clinton Votes for War — Again by David Bromwich (Common Dreams), it’s not just Hillary grinning madly around the ball gag, either: she’s joined by 75 close friends in the Senate who also saw fit to approve the following language[1]:

“…that it should be the policy of the United States to stop inside... [More]”

On the subject of the suspiciously quiet home front in the war on terror, there’s Things I Used to Know by Scott Adams (Dilbert Blog):

“We Americans know that Al Qaeda has cells in America planning to attack. And we know that there are more terrorists than ever, thanks to the Iraq war. It’s easy to get people and explosives into the country on private boats or across our porous borders. The woods must be full of terrorists by now. Apparently all the slow ones came to America. I mean, Iraq has almost as many car bombs as... [More]”

What is a terrorist? A terrorist, according to the dictionary, is someone who kills or destroys in an attempt to exert political influence. According to the media and almost all of America’s politicians and police forces, it’s pretty much anyone who’s ever had a seditious thought. Ever. And why is every one of these potential terrorists treated like the most capable evil mastermind to ever walk the earth? A thirty second sound byte is usually more than enough to show that the person (or people)... [More]

Or “Benito Giuliani”, if you prefer. That’s how he was known to the denizens of the fair city over which he ruled with an iron fist, using and abusing his beloved black-booted police squads to do so. It’s this same Rudy Giuliani—former mayor of New York City and proud owner of an elaborate back tattoo depicting himself holding a bullhorn, an American flag and a New York hot dog while simultaneously digging a fireman out of the rubble of the World Trade Center on which he stands, illuminated... [More]

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is often credited with the blustery threat to “wipe Israel off the map”. Though the mainstream press is pleased as punch to press this citation into service again and again, in myriad forms, it was noted in more responsible circles quite some time ago that the president of Iran had said no such thing. As meticulously documented in ’Wiped off the Map’ – The Rumor of the Century by Arash Norouzi (AntiWar.com), the statement he made, translated directly and faithfully from the Farsi, was:

“The Imam said... [More]”

It is not difficult to find patterns in small data-sets. In fact, one can see patterns in any amount of data—the trick is to find patterns that are useful in predicting the future. For example, the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001, conquered it, installed a government, then proceeded to lose any semblance of control over the next four years. 16 months later, the United States invaded Iraq and repeated the pattern. The State department has not yet given up on Iraq in the same way that... [More]

While America continues failing spectacularly in Iraq—despite pumping ungodly amounts of money into the venture—its eye wanders to Iraq’s neighbor, Iran. The lads in charge of the States have been grinding their war machine forward for months, nearly years, pumping themselves up, convincing themselves—which isn’t very hard—that this war will be much easier, that this war will go as planned, that this war will have a plan and that this war will be the beginning of the end of the Arabic... [More]

In the last several days, several polls have shown a remarkable turnaround in collective American opinion. Where previous polls have shown strong statistical divergence on important issues—both foreign and domestic—recent data suggests a much stronger alignment with the rest of world opinion on the following matters:

1. The number of Americans believing in the Rapture—that Jesus himself will return to Earth and lift believers to heaven while condemning unbelievers to a thousand years of... [More]

The executive branch of our government has long since crossed over from brazenly illegal to just batsh*t[1] crazy. In this atmosphere, you’ve got to shout to be heard above the din of casual corruption and corrosion of all that once defined the US as a democratic power. And Mr. Gonzales is no shrinking violet. The consolidation of power under the ever more powerfully defined executive proceeds—nay, accelerates—apace under the highest-ranking cop in the land, the Attorney General. Ever since... [More]

For the last six months or so, Doonesbury has been publishing blog entries from US soldiers on duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. There is no way to tell just how edited or censored they are; there is no way even to tell if they actually come from soldiers. As with almost everything you see and here, it’s difficult to know what to believe. It’s also difficult not to use that fact to pick and choose what to believe, selecting only that which does not offend your delicate sensibilities—that which... [More]

That, in a nutshell, sums up the last 6 years in America under the Bush Agenda. Faith-based and fancy-free. The title of this article cites Bush’s response to Nancy Pelosi when she asked him why he thought that “this time it’s going to work” (meaning an infusion of troops), as documented in The Pentagon’s not-so-little secret by Sidney Blumenthal (Salon).

Accusations that Bush’s approach[1] to the world is simplistic and detached from reality are mean-spirited. It is anything but simplistic; the sheer artfulness and complexity... [More]

The last US election in November was widely regarded as the dirtiest in US history. The Republicans, in particular, slung nearly ceaselessly from a never-ending supply of mud. With just over 21 months to go until Americans start making up excuses for not voting for President, the first salvo has already been fired at Barack Hussein Obama, United States Senator and proud leader of an exploratory committee to determine whether his winning smile will be able to dredge up enough cash for a run at... [More]

The Daily Show this week had a number of very good clips, mostly centering on Iraq, Rumsfeld and Bush. In particular, they highlight the high-quality correspondents that the show still has, despite the loss of Carrel, Helms, Cordry and Colbert. Oliver, Bee, Riggle and Mandvi are filling in quite nicely, as you’ll see below.

Fareed Zakaria (Part I and Part II)

Though he’s always interesting, this interview with Zakaria is the best one yet; his analysis of Iraq and the Middle East is spot-on.... [More]

Instead of focusing on money spent on military budgets, World Wide Military Deployments takes a look at the number of soldiers deployed around the world by various countries. This is a relatively good measure of the degree to which a country exerts its forceful influence on other countries. The top 5 are:

United States ~ 400,000

140,000 in Iraq, 74,000 in Germany, 40,000 each in Japan, Korea and Kuwait and over 1000 troops in a dozen other countries, mostly in the Middle East

Turkey ~ 36,000... [More]

There have been a flood of political cartoons covering the conference on the Holocaust taking place in Iran in the last couple of days. They almost all depict president Ahmadinejad of Iran as Hitler or a Nazi of some kind. To be fair to the normally right-leaning caricaturists of America, there have also been a hell of a lot of them depicting Bush as divorced from reality and incredibly political in all of his decisions. This reaction is somewhat expected, as Bush’s rating dips down toward the... [More]

Did you ever read the Batman comics? One of his enemies was that lawyer who liked to flip a coin, Twoface.[1] He had two completely different personalities and used a coin to decide which one he was going to be … until the next time he decided to flip the coin. It’s unclear exactly what his superpower was, but that’s Batman for you. There is now ample evidence that airport security policy around the world is being created by this guy, except his two personalities are Terry Gilliam and George... [More]

This post, Articles of Impeachment against Bush and Cheney (Daily Kos), lists the most egregious offenses of the Bush junta over the last six years. Naturally, since it’s on the Daily Kos (which isn’t necessarily so much lefty as staunchly Democrat), they note that the impeachment must affect “both Bush and Cheney … It will not do any good for us to impeach Bush and have Cheney take the Oval Office”. A relatively obvious conclusion to which any analyst (who can think at least one move ahead) would have... [More]

In an interview just a few days ago, Ehud Olmert had an interesting slip of the tongue; here’s the quote:

“Iran openly, explicitly, and publicly threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Can you say that this is the same level, when they [the Iranians] are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as America, France, Israel, Russia?”

As discussed recently in Robert Gates Confirmed as US Secretary of Defense (earthli News) (first footnote), the “wipe Israel off the map…” comment has become accepted truth. Ahmadinejad,... [More]

This transcript of his confirmation hearing (New York Times) indicates that the transition from Rumsfeld to Gates is akin to the transition from a Republican Congress to a Democratic one: better, if not good yet. Despite the murky crimes lurking in Mr. Gates’ past vis-a-vis the Iran/Contra affair and his having been head of the CIA for some time, it’s hard not be heartened at hearing more honest—and reality-based—answers coming from a Secretary of Defense. Even though Rumsfeld made it easy for his successor... [More]

King and KingmakerChile’s Gen Pinochet dies at 91 (BBC) brings the sad, sad news that a true monster no longer walks among us. Naturally, since he’s dead, it’s time to start remembering that “[d]espite his human rights record, many Chileans loved him and said he saved the country from Marxism.” (emphasis added). Despite? That’s all he’s known for! Probably everybody loved him except for the friends and family of the “3,000 people [who] were killed or “disappeared” during his rule which ended in 1990.” Instead make sure to... [More]

Howard ZinnA recent speech, The Uses of History and the War on Terrorism by Howard Zinn (Democracy Now), shows that Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present (Amazon), still has a fire in his belly. It’s most excellent and well worth reading from start to finish. To make sure everyone’s awake and that they know they’re at the right lecture, he starts with a clear, succint, impossible-to-misinterpret topic sentence for his essay:

“They’ve taken over the country. They’ve taken over the policy. They’ve driven us into... [More]”

For a hard-hitting look at the neoconservative vision—in light of the disasters it has thus far engendered—there’s Neo-Con Futurology by Stephen Holmes (London Review of Books). Ostensibly a review of Francis Fukuyama’s latest book[1], it comprises a bold condemnation of that vision and of the blinkered philistines that wrought it for us. In particular, he focuses on the democratic agenda to which they have clung for the last several years. They have, with the help of a media willing to put in the time selling the idea, managed to make... [More]

Keith Ellison, Terrorist?The United States has its first Muslim Congressman in Keith Ellison (D-MN). It’s good timing and he seems a good sport as the racist shitheads come crawling out of the woodwork—shitheads like Glenn Beck, who interviewed him on TV recently. CNN’s Beck to first-ever Muslim congressman (Media Matters) has the lowdown on this new low in American television. He was unutterably rude to the Congressman, hiding behind a “I’m just askin’ what everybody’s thinkin’” facade.

You can hardly blame Beck for his... [More]

Sean Bell Shooting Crime SceneSean Bell was murdered in Queens, NY early one morning in late November. He died in a hail of 50 bullets fired by New York City police officers. See A Fatal Police Shooting in Queens (New York Times), an interactive graphic of the crime scene (Flash). As usual in these situations, the officers involved have been remanded to administrative positions (taken off the street). Regardless of the circumstances, police officers get the full “innocent until proven guilty” treatment, not only being able to stay at large... [More]

Here’s how America’s media and intellectual elite help Americans keep track of what’s important. Two recent articles about former presidents serve as illustrations below.

A Jihad on Jimmy

The first example comes from one of America’s leading lights of scholarship: The World According to Jimmy Carter by Alan Dershowitz (Huffington Post). In this, the eminent israel apologist and all-around war hawk takes Carter to task for his latest book about the Middle East, Palestine: Peace not Apartheid (Amazon).[1] After taking a moment for the... [More]