Instant Coup in Pakistan, Slow Coup in America by Frank Rich The Bush years have brought an effective assault on our democratic institutions from within. The public has not erupted in riots as the executive branch has subverted the rule of law in often secretive increments. The results amount to a quiet coup, ultimately more insidious than a blatant putsch like Musharraf's. To believe that this corruption will simply evaporate when the Bush presidency is done is to underestimate ...

Spooks refuse to toe Cheney's line on Iran
A National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, which pulls together the judgments of the US's 16 intelligence agencies, has been held up for more than a year because it contains views at odds with the alarmist conclusions on Iran's nuclear program espoused by Vice President Dick Cheney. The report is expected to be released this month, but without its key findings being made public. - Gareth Porter(Nov 9, '07)

New crises sap Bush's 'war on terror'
While the war in Iraq might be going a bit better, if Washington is to be believed, things on the periphery of the "war on terror" are not going well at all. From Pakistan to Turkey to the Horn of Africa, there's an alarming "arc of crisis" that could deal devastating setbacks to Washington's hopes of bolstering moderate forces against its perceived enemies. - Jim Lobe (Nov 9, '07)

THE ROVING EYE
Iraq: Call an air strike
There might be less violence in Baghdad, but that's because sectarian clashes have died down as there are virtually no more neighborhoods to be ethnically cleansed. And US engagements are declining, but only because troops are spending more time in the bases. Now, whenever there is a mission in Baghdad, it inevitably means an air strike. - Pepe Escobar (Nov 9, '07)

Finding home-grown back-stabbers
If the US loses in Iraq, don't blame Bush and company, blame the American critics and "defeatists". Sound absurd? Just look to World War I and the German government's home front strategy. Or, more recently, Vietnam. Same song, different singers and the message is still the same: If you're not with us, you're to blame. - William J Astore

Military Families Celebrate Veterans' Dayby Barbara LedeenVeterans' Day from the standpoint of a military mom.

This Veterans Day by Frank Schaeffer
As we honor our vets let's not forget that when they served they took the hearts of their families with them. I know. While my son was at war I was hollowed out.

Thanking Our Veterans by Margaret Hunter
With her husband deployed in Afghanistan, Margaret Hunter shares her gratitude for veterans

A Dangerous Transfer of Wealth

By Douglas Farah


The Washington Post had a provocative article on the massive redistribution of oil wealth the new, record prices for oil, is causing.

The reality of shifting resources from one section of the world to another is not unusual, although this shift is the largest in history. Nor is it necessarily a bad thing for new countries to experience the bounty of controlling a vital natural resource. But what is disturbing about it is that it is mostly benefiting countries that wish to do us harm.

Our inability to wean ourselves from foreign oil has long been providing the financing for groups and countries that want to eliminate us, including terrorist organizations fed from the oil-rich nations. For CIA director R. James Woolsey has been trying to drive that point home for years. The irony of financing our own destruction seems lost on most policy makers.

Even if one does not buy into the ecological stakes in the need to slash our oil consumption, the national security reasons should be compelling, and yet no one in this election year, Democrats or Republicans, is making that case. And the current administration certainly has not.

In short, we are delivering a $700 billion (at least, as prices are still rising) to the following nations: Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Venezuela. The implications are profound, and an orchestrated response by us is years away. My full blog is here.


November 12, 2007 10:10 AM Link

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7110902573.html

Oil Price Rise Causes Global Shift in Wealth
Iran, Russia and Venezuela Feel the Benefits

By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 10, 2007; Page A01

High oil prices are fueling one of the biggest transfers of wealth in history. Oil consumers are paying $4 billion to $5 billion more for crude oil every day than they did just five years ago, pumping more than $2 trillion into the coffers of oil companies and oil-producing nations this year alone.

The consequences are evident in minds and mortar: anger at Chinese motor-fuel pumps and inflated confidence in the Kremlin; new weapons in Chad and new petrochemical plants in Saudi Arabia; no-driving campaigns in South Korea and bigger sales for Toyota hybrid cars; a fiscal burden in Senegal and a bonanza in Brazil. In Burma, recent demonstrations were triggered by a government decision to raise fuel prices.

In the United States, the rising bill for imported petroleum lowers already anemic consumer savings rates, adds to inflation, worsens the trade deficit, undermines the dollar and makes it more difficult for the Federal Reserve to balance its competing goals of fighting inflation and sustaining growth.

High prices have given a boost to oil-rich Alaska, which in September raised the annual oil dividend paid to every man, woman and child living there for a year to $1,654, an increase of $547 from last year. In other states, high prices create greater incentives for pursuing non-oil energy projects that once might have looked too expensive and hurt earnings at energy-intensive companies like airlines and chemical makers. Even Kellogg's cited higher energy costs as a drag on its third-quarter earnings.

With crude oil prices nearing $100 a barrel, there is no end in sight to the redistribution of more than 1 percent of the world's gross domestic product. Earlier oil shocks generated giant shifts in wealth and pools of petrodollars, but they eventually faded and economies adjusted. This new high point in petroleum prices has arrived over four years, and many believe it will represent a new plateau even if prices drop back somewhat in coming months.
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"There's never been anything like this on a sustained basis the way we've seen the last couple of years," said Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard University economics professor and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. Oil prices "are not spiking; they're just rising," he added.

The benefits, to the tune of $700 billion a year, are flowing to the world's oil-exporting countries.

Two of those nations -- Iran and Venezuela -- may be better able to defy the Bush administration because of swelling oil revenue. Venezuela has used its oil wealth to dispense patronage around South America, vying for influence even with longtime U.S. allies. And Iran could be less vulnerable to sanctions designed to pressure it into giving up its nuclear program or opening it to inspection.

The world's biggest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, is using its rejuvenated oil riches to build four cities. Projects like these are designed to burnish the country's image, develop a non-oil economy and generate enough employment to maintain social stability.

One is King Abdullah Economic City, a mega-project on the kingdom's west coast. According to Emaar, a real estate development firm in Dubai, the city will cost $27 billion and be spread across an area three times the size of Manhattan. A contractor who works there said a wide, palm tree-lined boulevard cuts a dozen miles across an ocean of sand and ends at the Red Sea. Construction workers in hard hats are navigating excavators, dredging land and digging foundations for a power plant, a desalinization plant and a port. The project will eventually include an industrial district, a financial island, a university and a residential area, and is expected to house 2 million people.

Despite mega-projects like this, Saudi Arabia is running a budget surplus. It has paid down much of the foreign debt it accumulated in the late 1990s and is adding to its foreign-exchange reserves.

Russia, the world's No. 2 oil exporter, shows oil's transformational impact in the political as well as the economic realm. When Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, less than two years after the collapse of the ruble and Russia's default on its international debt, the country's policymakers worried that 2003 could bring another financial crisis. The country's foreign-debt repayments were scheduled to peak at $17 billion that year.

Inside the Kremlin, with Putin nearing the end of his second and final term as president, that sum now looks like peanuts. Russia's gold and foreign-currency reserves have risen by more than that amount just since July. The soaring price of oil has helped Russia increase the federal budget tenfold since 1999 while paying off its foreign debt and building the third-largest gold and hard-currency reserves in the world, about $425 billion.

"The government is much stronger, much more self-assured and self-confident," said Vladimir Milov, head of the Institute of Energy Policy in Moscow and a former deputy minister of energy. "It believes it can cope with any economic crisis at home."

With good reason. Using energy revenue, the government has built up a $150 billion rainy-day account called the Stabilization Fund.

"This financial independence has contributed to more assertive actions by Russia in the international arena," Milov said. "There is a strong drive within part of the elite to show that we are off our knees."

The result: Russia is trying to reclaim former Soviet republics as part of its sphere of influence. Freed of the need to curry favor with foreign oil companies and Western bankers, Russia can resist what it views as American expansionism, particularly regarding NATO enlargement and U.S. missile defense in Eastern Europe, and forge an independent approach to contentious issues like Iran's nuclear program.

The abundance of petrodollars has also led to a consumer boom evident in the sprawling malls, 24-hour hyper-markets, new apartment and office buildings, and foreign cars that have become commonplace not just in Moscow and St. Petersburg but in provincial cities. Average income has doubled under Putin, and the number of people living below the poverty line has been cut in half.

But many economists have called petroleum reserves a bane, saying they enable oil-rich countries to avoid taking steps that would diversify their economies and spread wealth more equally. Russia, for example, has rising inflation, soaring imports and a lack of new investment in the very industry that is fueling the boom.
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'Our Oil Wealth Is a Curse'

The problems are worse in Nigeria, which is battling an insurgency that has curtailed output in the oil-rich Niger River Delta. The central government has been disbursing its remaining oil revenue, though corruption has undermined the program's effectiveness. The government has also cut domestic gas subsidies, raising prices several times over in the name of improving health, education and infrastructure.

"Our oil wealth is a curse rather than a blessing for our country," said Halima Dahiru, a 36-year-old housewife, as she waited for a bus near a Texaco station in Kano, the commercial capital of northern Nigeria. Billows of dust enveloped the gas station as vehicles frenetically cruised along the laterite-covered road, adding to the harmattan haze that blankets the city.

"You go to bed and wake up the next morning to hear the government has increased the price of petrol, and you have to live with it," she said. "The only sensible thing to do is to adjust to the new reality because nothing will make the government listen to public outcry."

Newly oil-exporting countries such as Sudan and Chad and the companies operating there -- including Malaysia's Petronas and France's Total -- are winners. Sudan's capital, Khartoum, is booming, with new skyscrapers and five-star luxury hotels, despite U.S. and European sanctions aimed at pressuring the country to halt attacks against people in the western Darfur region.

Chad's government has used some of its oil revenue to buy weapons rather than develop the country's economy. In eastern Chad, there are hardly any gas stations; people buy their gas -- often for motorcycles, not cars -- from roadside stands that sell it out of glass bottles.

Oil-importing countries face their own challenges. The hardest hit are the poorest. Last year, Senegal's budget deficit doubled, inflation quickened and growth slowed. The cash-strapped state-owned petrochemical business had to shut down for long periods.

In China, the government increased domestic pump prices on Oct. 31 by nearly 10 percent with shortages, rationing and long lines throughout the country. Violence broke out at some gas stations, including an incident last week in Henan province in which one man killed another who had chastised him for jumping to the front of a line for gas.

A scarcity of diesel fuel even hit China's richest cities -- Beijing, Shanghai and trading ports on the east coast -- which in the past have been kept well supplied. In Ningbo, a city south of Shanghai, the wait at some gas stations this week was more than three hours, and lines stretched more than 200 yards.

Rumors circulated that gas stations or the government was hoarding fuel in anticipation of further price increases, prompting the official New China News Agency to warn that anyone caught spreading rumors about fuel-price increases will be "severely punished."

Li Leijun, 37, a taxi driver, said he was so angry that he was unable to buy fuel that he argued with gas station attendants and called the police. "I still didn't get any diesel," he said.

Since shedding orthodox Maoist economic policies, China's leaders have unleashed decades of pent-up demand. China consumes 9 percent of world oil output, up from 6.4 percent five years ago, according to the International Energy Agency. Yet it still subsidizes fuel. As a result, consumption this decade has skyrocketed at an 8.7 percent annual rate despite soaring prices and concerns about the environmental impact of profligate fuel use.
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Consumption in South Africa is also defying high prices as long-impoverished blacks join the middle and upper classes. Cars are a status symbol, and gasoline consumption jumped 39 percent in the decade after the end of apartheid in 1994. New-vehicle sales last year rose 15.7 percent over 2005.

Highly developed consumer nations have been better able to adapt. In Japan, which relies on imports for nearly 100 percent of its fuel, nearly everyone is a loser -- with the big exception of Toyota.

Yet Japan has been weaning itself off oil for years. It now imports 16 percent less oil than it did in 1973, although the economy has more than doubled. Billions of dollars were invested to convert oil-reliant electricity-generation systems into ones powered by natural gas, coal, nuclear energy or alternative fuels. Japan accounts for 48 percent of the globe's solar-power generation -- compared with 15 percent in the United States. The adoption rate for fluorescent light bulbs is 80 percent, compared with 6 percent in the United States.

Still, rising fuel prices are pushing up the prices of raw and industrial materials, as well as food, which relies on fertilizers and transportation. Because of rising wheat prices, Nissin Food Products, the instant-noodle industry leader, will increase prices 7 to 11 percent in January, the first price hike in 17 years.

Greasing Toyota's Gears

A winner is Toyota. Soaring gasoline prices have buffed the image of the hybrid Prius and Toyota's other fuel-efficient models, such as the Camry and Corolla. Although stagnant in Japan, sales were strong in North America, Europe, Asia and emerging markets. In October, Prius sales stood at 13,158 vehicles, up 51 percent from 8,733 in October last year. Worldwide, the number of hybrid cars sold by Toyota surpassed 1 million in May.

Britain's national average gasoline price topped 1 pound per liter, or about $8 a gallon, for the first time this week because of record oil prices.

"But there is very little publicity about it -- you don't see many headlines saying, 'Oil at all-time record high,' " said Chris Skrebowski, editor of Petroleum Review, a published by the Energy Institute in London. "It's different from the United States. Here, everyone has just accepted that it is expensive."

While British drivers are feeling the pinch, the government is gaining revenue, Skrebowski said, because about 80 percent of the cost of gas is tax. Because Britain produces almost all the oil it consumes, its economy has been cushioned against increasing oil prices, Skrebowski said.

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But Britain's North Sea oil production is dwindling, having peaked in 1999 at 2.6 million barrels per day. Today, production is 1.4 million to 1.6 million barrels per day, Skrebowski said, while domestic oil consumption is about 1.7 million barrels a day. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who took office in June, has made energy independence a priority.

Meanwhile, analysts said, Europeans buying oil priced in dollars are finding the rising prices somewhat cushioned by the strength of their currency. The value of the dollar has been sliding to record lows against the euro and the British pound.

Argentina has tried to keep fuel prices for consumers at artificially low levels.

President N¿stor Kirchner in recent years has leaned heavily on energy companies to keep prices down, going so far as to call for a public boycott of Royal Dutch Shell when the company raised pump prices. Individual suppliers -- wary of attracting the ire of the government -- have adopted a policy of raising prices gradually and by small amounts.

As the market pressures have mounted, Kirchner has signed a series of agreements with Venezuelan President Hugo Ch¿vez. This year, the two created a project called Petrosuramerica, a joint venture designed to promote cooperative energy projects and provide energy security to Argentina.
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In Brazil, the region's largest economy, high oil prices have had a different political effect. Last year, the country became a net oil exporter, thanks to major increases in domestic oil exploration and the country's broad use of sugar-based ethanol as a transport fuel.

But new oil wealth can trickle away even more easily than it comes. Last month, Standard & Poor's downgraded Kazakhstan's credit rating after the country's banks lost billions on purchases of subprime mortgages.

Correspondents Peter Finn in Moscow, Blaine Harden in Tokyo, Ariana Eunjung Cha in Shanghai, Kevin Sullivan in London, Craig Timberg in Johannesburg, Stephanie McCrummen in Nairobi, Monte Reel in Buenos Aires and Faiza Saleh Ambah in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, and special correspondents Aminu Abubakar in Kano, Nigeria, and Alia Ibrahim in Beirut contributed to this report.

Solidarity
by Charles Sullivan / November 12th, 2007

We are living in extraordinarily dangerous times, when evil, rather than justice, prevails. The schoolyard is terrorized by thugs and punks with names like Bush, Cheney, Limbaugh, Robertson, Clinton, Rockefeller, Rice, Rumsfeld, Perle, Kristol and Giuliani—pedigreed people all. (Full article …)


“In a Time of War”: On the Absurdities of Non-Impeachment
by Paul Street / November 12th, 2007

“We Have Some Major Priorities”

Here are 49 words to inspire dismay and disgust: (Full article …)


Protection for “Haves” in Bush’s Ownership Society
by Bill Willers / November 12th, 2007

The corporate, rightist aim to privatize all aspects of society now includes a private military services industry that does what has long been considered the province of publicly funded traditional military forces. The growth of this industry in recent years has been meteoric. (Full article …)

Dollar Crisis: None dare call it 'conspiracy'- by Hal Lindsey - 2007-11-11




US Dollar Plummets - 2007-11-11

Elections, Economic Illiteracy & Hysteria - George Will, Newsweek
The Dollar In Danger - Sebastian Mallaby, Washington Post
U.S. Will Regain Economic Supremacy - A. Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph
The Dems' Immigration Dilemma - Gloria Borger, US News & World Report
Can Obama Rock the Nomination? - Ana Marie Cox, Time
Edwards: Lost in the Cornfields - Richard Wolffe, Newsweek
Faith in a Winning Message - Sen. Sam Brownback, Washington Post
Ron Paul Earns a Curtain Call - Steve Kornacki, New York Observer
A Failed Congressional Ploy - Robert Novak, Chicago Sun-Times
Teacher Unions' Gain Is Children's Loss - Michael Barone, RealClearPolitics
Monticello's Shadows - Myron Magnet, City Journal
Innovation vs. Universal Health Care - Jonathan Cohn, The New Republic
Bush Tax Cuts Expose Clinton-Era Deficit Myth - Kevin Hassett, Bloomberg
Executing the Winning Strategy in Iraq - Kim Kagan, Weekly Standard
Inside the Surge - Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker
Slandering the American Soldier - Mackubin Owens, National Review
The Last Veteran of World War I - Richard Rubin, New York Times

A New Channel for Soft Money Starts Flowing - New York Times
Democrats' Provocative Iowa Dinner Conversation - Washington Post
McCain Guarantees New Hamphire Victory - The Hill
Clinton Responds to Question Planting Scandal - Fox News

• 
  Another security firm accused of shooting
  By Alex Koppelman
• 
  Obama goes for the capillaries in Iowa
  By Walter Shapiro
• 
  Public bathroom dilemma: Paper or air?
  By Rebecca Clarren
• 
  Blacks vs. whites in novel of gentrification
  By Laura Miller

Has Al Gore's fat lady finally sung?
Those who hope the former vice president will make a last-minute presidential run are likely to be disappointed by news that he has joined a venture capital firm

By Alex Koppelman

War Room

• Vice President Lieberman?
• Prominent conservatives urge Republicans to consider former Democrat for 2008 ticket
  
  By Steve Benen
  
  Blog Report

Obama goes for the capillaries
Barack Obama delivers a rousing speech in Iowa on Saturday night, all but calling out Hillary Clinton, and then gets weak-kneed on Sunday morning

By Walter Shapiro

News

Frank Rich:
The Coup at Home

The New York Times:
Veterans Without Health Care

The New York Times:
The Plight of American Veterans

Mopping up the Israel Lobby
Posted by Paul Gottfried on November 12, 2007 What makes this lobby especially obnoxious, and this is the one valuable series of revelations in the book, is not only its money and power. It is also the lobby’s arrogance and sheer viciousness, which extends to issues going beyond Israeli security, and which is manifested in its close ties to such shrieking gentile-haters as Abe Foxman and Alan Dershowitz. [Read More]

Requiem for a Tough Guy
Posted by Taki Theodoracopulos on November 10, 2007 Norman Mailer died around four thirty Saturday morning New York time. Unlike his tumultuous life, his end was very peaceful. I spoke to his oldest son Michael who called me. I met him in the early Sixties during a riotous party in his house in Brooklyn. I was in my twenties.... [Read More]

Intel Official: Change Your Ideas About Privacy
The nation's number-two intelligence official, Don Kerr, contends that you shouldn't expect the government to protect your anonymity.

Whistleblower: Telecom Immunity a Cover-Up<li>McConnell Restricts Intelligence Estimates

Obama vs. Hillary: Who Can Beat GOP?

Edwards Hits Hillary for Plant

Politics >> Neocon Sandwich: U.S. Building Military Base Directly Atop Iraqi Oil Platform



More in Politics >> Armitage: I Was Foolish To Leak Plame's CIA Identity...U.S. Space Program: Bomb Anywhere On Earth In 2 Hours

In Pictures: President Bush Visits Army Medical Center (Warning: Graphic Photos)



DailyKos: The Veteran Memorials You Don’t See
Quick Read

Veterans Week 2007: We Sent Them to War, Why Can't We Send Them to College?
Paul Rieckhoff, 11.12.2007

Before I served in Iraq, I worked on Wall Street. We used to talk about ROI -- "return on investment." By any standard, the GI Bill was a good buy.

Time to Choose

As the primary season nears, eight Nation contributors make their best case for their chosen candidates. Vote your choice in the Nation Poll.

The Politics of Planting

Ari Melber | Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign has come under fire for planting fake questions at town hall events--and the netroots are on to her.

Nation contributors evaluate the candidates.



Joseph Biden John Nichols | The best fighter, the most quick-witted.

Hillary Clinton Ellen Chesler | A progressive who can win--and govern.

John Edwards Katherine S. Newman | Like FDR, he's the real deal.

Christopher Dodd Bruce Shapiro | Strongest on human rights and civil liberties.

Mike Gravel Richard Kim | An inconvenient truth-teller.

Dennis Kucinich Gore Vidal | A farsighted populist and pacifist.

Barack Obama Michael Eric Dyson | A visionary candidate for a new America.

Bill Richardson Rocky Anderson | The broadest experience, smart on Iraq.

Rudy Giuliani's "War With Iran" Team

Veterans' Suicides: a Hidden Cost of Bush's Wars

Penny Coleman, AlterNet

War on Iraq: Americans have been effectively insulated from the human cost of our wars. That's not an accident; it's policy.


Democrats in 2007: Majorities in Congress, Still Caving to Bush

Robert Parry, Consortium News

Twelve months after being swept into Congress, the Democrats have caved in again and again to a weak and unpopular president.

Veterans Make Up One Quarter of US Homeless, Here Are Some of Their Stories [VIDEO]

Post by Adam Howard
Video: The Veterans Affairs Department has identified 1,500 homeless veterans from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. More »

• Full Post

Kucinich On His Cheney Impeachment Measure: "It's Not Over" [VIDEO]

Bill Moyers: When Are We Going to See Democracy In Pakistan? [VIDEO]
Video:

Bush Is Officially The Most Hated US President Ever [VIDEO]

The VA's Claim Dodge
Deb Derrick
November 12, 2007 | web only
Beyond the awful conditions at Walter Reed hospital, something smells fishy in the government's handling of veterans' claims. One appalling case study suggests what might be happening.

Giving Vets Their Due
Kay Steiger
Six years after the invasion of Afghanistan, it's time to examine the benefits we give our soldiers once they return home.

Photo credit: iStockPhoto

'Apocalyptic scenario' if Egypt, Saudi go nuclear: Israel minister
( Published on Friday, November 09, 2007 )
Egyptian and Saudi nuclear ambitions, on top of Iran's atomic drive, will lead to an "apocalyptic scenario", a senior Israeli cabinet minister said in comments published on Friday

McCain & The Character Factor - David Brooks, New York Times
Clinton's Strategy For Crushing the Media - Michael Crowley, TNR
Giuliani's Lead is Weaker Than It Looks - Gerald Seib, Wall Street Journal
The Can't-Win Democratic Congress - E. J. Dionne, Washington Post
Democrats Zero for 40 on Iraq - Jim VandeHei & John Harris, The Politico
As Iraq Improves, Coverage Dries Up - Ralph Peters, New York Post
What Musharraf Could Not Abide - H.D.S. Greenway, Boston Globe
What's It Like to Be Pakistan's Leader? - Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal
Will Chavez Pull the Trigger? - M. Rowan & D. Schoen, Los Angeles Times
Hit the Brakes on License Plan - Bill Hammond, New York Daily News
Immigrant Issue Can't Save GOP - Linda Chavez, Boston Herald
Pay-Go Is Good Politics - Froma Harrop, Houston Chronicle
The Rich Aren't Made of Money - Jonah Goldberg, Los Angeles Times
For Read on '08 Races, Look at Class of '06 - Stuart Rothenberg, Roll Call
Crusades Versus Caution - Thomas Sowell, RealClearPolitics
Repairing a Crack in the System - Paul Cassell, Washington Post
The Problem with Modern Memorials - Duncan Anderson, Am. Thinker

08 Clock Ticks for Congress - The Hill
Anti-War Voters Lash Out at Dems They Helped Put in Office - Bloomberg
Anti-abortion Group Will Back Fred Thompson - Tennessean
McCain Disavows Group Trying to Help His Campaign - New York Times

Refuting the Populists on 'Income Inequality' - Wall Street Journal
Clinton Records Under Wraps - Washington Post
The Court and Guns - Rocky Mountain News
The Challenge of Gordon Brown's Global Vision - Daily Telegraph

'Hidden Costs' Double Price Of Two Wars, Democrats Say

• Economist's View: New estimates for the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars: 'Hidden Costs' Double Price Of Two Wars...
• Daily Kos: State of the Nation: When writing about the monetary cost of the war in Iraq in recent months, typing out, "$500 billion,...
• The Washington Monthly: THE COST OF THE WAR....Milton Friedman said that borrowing and taxing were the same thing. With that...
• The Huffington Post: Bill's Defense Of Hillary: 'It's A Southern Thing, Not A ......

America's next top spouse
A guide to the brassy, opinionated, loud, difficult and plum-crazy partners on the arms of their president-running partners. Who says the campaign season is dull?

By Rebecca Traister

• No logo for the U.S. in Pakistan
• Made in the U.S.A. labels aren't working like they're supposed to near the border of Afghanistan
  
  By Andrew Leonard
  
  How the World Works
• Clinton and "the boys," again
• If Hillary has moved past it, why hasn't Bill?
  
  By Tim Grieve
  
  War Room

Ron Paul and the "war on Christmas"
Presidential hopeful echoes Bill O'Reilly, defends Christmas from "secularists"

By Steve Benen

Edwards Won't Promise To Support Hillary As The Nominee
In a recent campaign stop in Iowa, the candidate declined to answer whether he would support a Hillary nomination.

Would Edwards Quit to Stop Clinton?
Edwards Threatens Congress in New Ad
For Edwards, Time is No Ally in Iowa
HM: Don't Write Edwards Out Yet

TPMtv: The Return of John Bolton
Remember John Bolton? The neocon installed at the State Department to keep Colin Powell under control and then later given a recess appointment to be US Ambassador. I could give you a list of particulars but suffice it to say that Bolton was a key factor in basically all the Bush White House's most disastrous decisions and he's still got the Iran war coming up.

Now he's back on the airwaves with a new book and the ear of a certain Republican presidential candidate who's running on his record as mayor of New York. We bring you all the ugly details ...



Watch this episode on YouTube.

Court takes no action in guns case

Supreme Court Takes No Action Tuesday in District of Columbia Guns Case

Staff
AP News

Nov 13, 2007 10:22 EST

The Supreme Court took no action Tuesday in the case involving the District of Columbia's ban on handguns.


The justices discussed the case at their private conference on Friday, but reached no resolution.

Four justices must vote to grant an appeal. The court does not always reach a decision the first time it discusses a case.

At issue is the capital's 31-year ban on handguns, among the strictest gun-control laws in the nation. In March, a federal appeals court struck down the ban as incompatible with the Second Amendment.

The next time the court could announce its decision about hearing the case is Nov. 26.

The case is District of Columbia v. Heller, 07-290.

Source: AP News

Top 10 Highest Ranked Anti-Pork Senatorsby Human EventsLast week, the Club for Growth released its 2007 Senate RePORK Card, compiling a scorecard of all senators’ votes on 15 anti-pork amendments throughout 2007...

The (Anti-Religious) Bigotry of the Elitesby Newt GingrichI got a note this week that reminded me, once again, how much the American people disagree with the Washington elite -- and how differently we would run our country if and when we get the chance.

Hillary's Inevitability Says Goodbyeby Monica CrowleyThe.S.S. Hillary Clinton -- like the Titanic, once considered unsinkable -- has hit not just …

Democrats remain stalled on Iraq debate From politico.com

Bhutto: Musharraf must quit power From washingtontimes.com

Records Under Wraps lFrom washingtonpost.com

Claims Of Missing Weapons Prompts GPS Tracking From cbs4.com

Iran launches anti-vice crackdown From news.bbc.co.uk

The Market Made Me Do It
by Donald Cohen, The Huffington Post
Denied health care coverage is the inevitable product of free-market fundamentalism.

Fast Track to Poverty
by Dean Baker, Truthout
Conservatives touted homeownership and fostered a housing bubble—a devastating combo.

Lure of Executive Excess
by Charlie Cray and Christopher Hayes, The Nation
A tax vote finds Senate Democrats caught between the interests of their donors and their voters.

News in Iraq is Good
by Robert Dreyfuss, TomDispatch.com
Declining violence in Iraq makes an even more compelling case for a pullout.

Why on Earth Are Hillary and Obama Supporting Pro-Corporate Trade Deals?

Joshua Holland, AlterNet

WorkPlace: It's a perfect blend of bad policy and losing politics.


All We Want for Christmas is a Good Economy

Marie Cocco, Washington Post Writers Group

As the holiday season approaches, a recent poll shows that the economy has beaten Iraq as the issue of most concern to Americans.