Politics
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The Clintons and the Truth
Bob Somerby at The Daily Howler is doing a very important job of pointing out how the Beltway courtiers, otherwise known as the media, give Americans a profoundly distorted picture of the historical truth. He’s done a convincing job of showing how most of what we think we know about Al Gore is just wrong
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Getting Perspective on Iran
Hat tip to reader Forestwalker for making me aware of the work of Douglas Johnston, whose efforts to develop the religious dimension in diplomatic relations especially with Muslim nations may save all our necks in the long run. Listen to a very interesting interview about his several high-level initiatives in Sudan and Iran if you
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End of the Republic II
From Chalmers Johnson over at TPM Cafe: The combination of huge standing armies, almost continuous wars, an ever growing economic dependence on the military-industrial complex and the making of weaponry, and ruinous military expenses as well as a vast, bloated "defense" budget, not to speak of the creation of a whole second Defense Department (known
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Creeping Authoritarianism
The Cheney Doctrine. Regular readers of this blog might think that my incessant harping on the authoritarian theme is so much beating of a dead horse, but as long as it remains a threat, it isn’t really dead. And it still remains a threat until we drive a stake through its blackened heart. The trend
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SOTU Tonight
Before the Speech. I'm not going to watch Bush's part. It's just too painful, and nothing this man says has any credibility. I am however very interested to hear Jim Webb's response. That could be interesting. More on this after the event. After the Speech. Well, I watched it anyway. A couple of obvious points:
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How Fragile the Rule of Law
“There is no expressed grant of habeas in the Constitution; there’s a prohibition against taking it away,” Gonzales said. Gonzales’s remark left Specter, the committee’s ranking Republican, stammering. “Wait a minute,” Specter interjected. “The Constitution says you can’t take it away except in case of rebellion or invasion. Doesn’t that mean you have the right
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Showdown at the OK Corral
Not much drama last night Bush’s speech last night. The drama is yet to come. As expected a sniggering Bush essentially told the American people, "Stop me; I dare you. " The drama will come only if there are some Wyatt Earps who can get together a posse to face him down. As I’ve said
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Latent Authoritarians
I have been haunted by my viewing of "The Sorrow and the Pity" during the holiday break. I'm not sure why. So I'm going to ramble a little to see if I can figure it out. Creeping Authoritarianism One thing that has become clearer to me in the last six years is that democracy is
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Surging with Kagan & Keane and Other Thoughts
The ISG Report and its recommendations are history and now a report written by Robert Kagan and Gen. Jack Keane under AEI auspices is the key to understand Bush’s mind regarding America’s near-term future in Iraq. But as I wrote earlier, the significance of the ISG report was not so much in its recommendations but
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The Case of Andrew Sullivan
I was interested to see Slate’s Robert Wright and Andrew Sullivan in this diavlog. The formerly hawkish Sullivan recants his previous support of the war. Apparently he explains why in some detail in his book, The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Back, which I have only read the reviews of.