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Huckabee: Holy Man and Hereticby Deroy MurdockThe Republican presidential race has devolved into holy war.
The Value of the O Factorby Armstrong WilliamsEverybody is trying to figure out just how much Oprah Winfrey’s support for Barack Obama will help the man become President.
The False Torture Debate
William Pfaff
Paris, December 13, 2007 – It is a strange affair when the CIA's destruction of videos made of its torture of prisoners has created a greater scandal in the U.S. Congress and the press than the fact that the torture itself took place.
The actual scandal is that the United States has been torturing prisoners on orders from the top of the Bush administration, using methods of torture authorized from the top that the administration still refuses to condemn or renounce. The White House says "the United States does not torture," and therefore nothing that it does is torture.
It is equally important that the U.S. Congress has been unable, or unwilling, as a body, to condemn torture in unequivocal terms, nor have Bush presidential nominees to high legal and judicial office been willing in testifying to Congress to identify torture as anything other than what America's enemies do, not us -- since as the president says, we Americans do not torture.
Yet were the smallest child compelled to watch this procedure known as water-boarding, he or she would know that it was torture. He or she would scream in horror at the terrible thing being done to this man (or woman; it seems that the U.S. does not discriminate sexually in either victims nor professional torturers.)
Where does this leave us? Everyone knows that the policy of the United States is to torture, while the policy of the president and his men is cynically to deny it. The CIA dsstroys the evidence of this torture -- which it has conscientiously filmed, just as Nazi torturers and camp officials made careful records of their wartime actions and victims: records which then were used against them in their postwar trials.
This may be significant. It is possible that America's torturers and their superiors have recognized that whatever the administration's efforts, a non-negligible risk exists that individuals responsible for torture could eventually end before some new version of the Nuremberg tribunals that caused Nazi war criminals to be hung, or the new International Criminal Court, or some equivalent war crimes tribunal at The Hague.
Just this week [Dec. 12] the Bosnian Serb general who commanded 44 months of the 1992-1995 siege of Sarajevo was convicted at The Hague of murder, inhumane acts, and orchestrating terror, and was sentenced to 33 years imprisonment, under the same international war crimes accords that include the international ban on torture.
As the Bush administration approaches its end, such thoughts may have arisen in some official minds. The CIA may have less than total faith in the willingness of a new administration to protect it (especially after what happened to the agency after Vietnam). All but the deluded among its leaders know that they have been ordering, facilitating, or committing crimes including torture, which is a felony in U.S. law, illegal in international law, forbidden by U.S. military manuals, and by common international opinion a loathsome practice. They probably have thought of what a prosecutor could do with those videos.
They would be mad to think that George W. Bush or Richard Cheney would ever declare to future international or American tribunals that whatever the CIA did in the war on terror was done on their orders, and that they assume full responsibility.
The presidential and vice-presidential position is that the United States does not torture. If anyone at the CIA or elsewhere committed torture, it must have been a rogue operation. (It was Donald Rumsfeld whose sense of command responsibility led him to say of Abu Ghraib that the problem lay with "a few hillbillies" who would be prosecuted – as indeed they were.)
The American nation has placed itself in an impossible position. The president says we do not torture. Yet everyone knows the president has with transparent euphemisms ordered the use of torture. White House and Justice Department meetings have been reported by participants in which officials lingered salaciously over the various near-death tortures to authorize.
The discussion of recent days in the Congress has concerned who ordered the destruction of the tapes. "Not I," says the new head of the CIA, Gen. Michael Hayden; "I've just arrived." "Not I, says George Tenet, former CIA director, although he is said to have ordered the torture filmed. The tapes reportedly were destroyed under Porter Goss, Tenet's successor. Congress asks: Why weren't we told?
It was not told because it already knew. That is the big secret that is no longer a secret. As early as 2002 CIA officials were briefing members of congressional intelligence committees on these practices. Those briefed included the present Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. They had a "virtual tour" of all that was going on, including the renditions, secret facilities abroad, and especially the torture.
The congressional reaction? According to Congressman Porter Goss, later head of the CIA, it was "not just approval, but encouragement." Two of the legislators, according to The Washington Post, asked if what the agency was doing "was tough enough."
No wonder everyone is happy today to call for special investigations of who destroyed the tapes. That changes the subject. The important information is the subject of the videos: state torture. Who in the government was responsible; who knew about it; who went along. And who objected? And to judge from the public reaction to date: who cares? The national consensus seems to be that it is better to have destroyed the evidence.
© Copyright 2007 by Tribune Media Services International. All Rights Reserved.
William Pfaff
Paris, December 13, 2007 – It is a strange affair when the CIA's destruction of videos made of its torture of prisoners has created a greater scandal in the U.S. Congress and the press than the fact that the torture itself took place.
The actual scandal is that the United States has been torturing prisoners on orders from the top of the Bush administration, using methods of torture authorized from the top that the administration still refuses to condemn or renounce. The White House says "the United States does not torture," and therefore nothing that it does is torture.
It is equally important that the U.S. Congress has been unable, or unwilling, as a body, to condemn torture in unequivocal terms, nor have Bush presidential nominees to high legal and judicial office been willing in testifying to Congress to identify torture as anything other than what America's enemies do, not us -- since as the president says, we Americans do not torture.
Yet were the smallest child compelled to watch this procedure known as water-boarding, he or she would know that it was torture. He or she would scream in horror at the terrible thing being done to this man (or woman; it seems that the U.S. does not discriminate sexually in either victims nor professional torturers.)
Where does this leave us? Everyone knows that the policy of the United States is to torture, while the policy of the president and his men is cynically to deny it. The CIA dsstroys the evidence of this torture -- which it has conscientiously filmed, just as Nazi torturers and camp officials made careful records of their wartime actions and victims: records which then were used against them in their postwar trials.
This may be significant. It is possible that America's torturers and their superiors have recognized that whatever the administration's efforts, a non-negligible risk exists that individuals responsible for torture could eventually end before some new version of the Nuremberg tribunals that caused Nazi war criminals to be hung, or the new International Criminal Court, or some equivalent war crimes tribunal at The Hague.
Just this week [Dec. 12] the Bosnian Serb general who commanded 44 months of the 1992-1995 siege of Sarajevo was convicted at The Hague of murder, inhumane acts, and orchestrating terror, and was sentenced to 33 years imprisonment, under the same international war crimes accords that include the international ban on torture.
As the Bush administration approaches its end, such thoughts may have arisen in some official minds. The CIA may have less than total faith in the willingness of a new administration to protect it (especially after what happened to the agency after Vietnam). All but the deluded among its leaders know that they have been ordering, facilitating, or committing crimes including torture, which is a felony in U.S. law, illegal in international law, forbidden by U.S. military manuals, and by common international opinion a loathsome practice. They probably have thought of what a prosecutor could do with those videos.
They would be mad to think that George W. Bush or Richard Cheney would ever declare to future international or American tribunals that whatever the CIA did in the war on terror was done on their orders, and that they assume full responsibility.
The presidential and vice-presidential position is that the United States does not torture. If anyone at the CIA or elsewhere committed torture, it must have been a rogue operation. (It was Donald Rumsfeld whose sense of command responsibility led him to say of Abu Ghraib that the problem lay with "a few hillbillies" who would be prosecuted – as indeed they were.)
The American nation has placed itself in an impossible position. The president says we do not torture. Yet everyone knows the president has with transparent euphemisms ordered the use of torture. White House and Justice Department meetings have been reported by participants in which officials lingered salaciously over the various near-death tortures to authorize.
The discussion of recent days in the Congress has concerned who ordered the destruction of the tapes. "Not I," says the new head of the CIA, Gen. Michael Hayden; "I've just arrived." "Not I, says George Tenet, former CIA director, although he is said to have ordered the torture filmed. The tapes reportedly were destroyed under Porter Goss, Tenet's successor. Congress asks: Why weren't we told?
It was not told because it already knew. That is the big secret that is no longer a secret. As early as 2002 CIA officials were briefing members of congressional intelligence committees on these practices. Those briefed included the present Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. They had a "virtual tour" of all that was going on, including the renditions, secret facilities abroad, and especially the torture.
The congressional reaction? According to Congressman Porter Goss, later head of the CIA, it was "not just approval, but encouragement." Two of the legislators, according to The Washington Post, asked if what the agency was doing "was tough enough."
No wonder everyone is happy today to call for special investigations of who destroyed the tapes. That changes the subject. The important information is the subject of the videos: state torture. Who in the government was responsible; who knew about it; who went along. And who objected? And to judge from the public reaction to date: who cares? The national consensus seems to be that it is better to have destroyed the evidence.
© Copyright 2007 by Tribune Media Services International. All Rights Reserved.
Obama edges Clinton in poll Romney well ahead in 'Monitor' survey
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dl...TPAGE/712140350
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dl...TPAGE/712140350
- Mike Gallagher : Courage in Trying Times
- Linda Chavez : Hillary: Too Clever by Half
- Victor Davis Hanson : All Mixed-Up Over Iran
- Burt Prelutsky : Dancing With the Candidates
- Joel Mowbray : Hezbollah’s Girl?
- Diana West : Deflating "Zeppelin"
- Thomas Sowell : Say It Ain't So
- Kathleen Parker : He's Not Satan, He's My Brother
- Oliver North : The New Iraq - Part III
- Mona Charen : A Second Look at Romney
- Patrick J. Buchanan : Is World War III on Hold?
- Brent Bozell III : Who's Scared of Christmas?
- Paul Edwards : Question Mormonism and You're a Bigot?
- Rich Lowry : Huckacide
- Amanda Carpenter : No Tough Questions During Dem Debate
- Michael Reagan : Primary Nonsense
- Paul Weyrich : A Congressional Tax Package to Raise Costs to Consumers
- Amanda Carpenter : Hillary Launches Spanish Language Ads
- Charles Krauthammer : Knee-Deep in Religion
- John Hawkins : Everything You Need To Know About The Top Tier GOP Candidates In A Single Column
- Mario Diaz : Judge Declares Declaration of Independence Unconstitutional
- Ross Mackenzie : On Iran, Iraq, Elections, Jihadists, Apologists, Government, etc...
- John McCaslin : Two Toes Up
Bush Startlingly Inept in Answering Question About Military Contractor Accountability
by Gustav Wynn
Democratic Debate; "Unbelievable" is the Operative Word:
by Mike Folkerth
Sore Losermen
by David Michael Green
Apology Overdue
by Mary Pitt
The Inconvenient Truth – America's Gulags
by Chris Gelken
Union of Russia and Belarus Soon
by Lord Stirling
THE DANGER OF GOP PUSH FOR MEDIA CONSOLIDATION
by Ed Tubbs
GOP Front-Runners Run Out of Wiggle Room
by Len Hart
ANOTHER BRILLIANT BUSH APPOINTMENT: BUT DOES IT REALLY MATTER?
by William Fisher
BASEBALL & DRUGS: BIG MONEY IS THE PROBLEM
by Bruce K. Gagnon
Politics: Is America receiving only the chaff instead of the wheat?
by Mary MacElveen
The democratic debate snooze factor
by Terry Riley
The CIA Destroys Tapes...(What's New?)
by Mumia Abu-Jamal
Will Defeating Terrorism Be A Defeat For Bush?
by Muhammad Khurshid
Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition
by Mary Starrett
Fateful Minutes in Philadephia Dimmed Clinton's Prospects
Clinton ponders her future at Dec. 13 Democratic debate. (AP).
DES MOINES -- If Hillary Clinton ends up losing the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, she will look back at a fateful moment in Philadelphia in late October as the reason why.
Clinton has gone through six weeks of misery -- some of it self-inflicted, some not. Thursday brought one of her worst days. She was forced to apologize personally to Barack Obama and then accepted the resignation of her New Hampshire co-chair Bill Shaheen after he told the Post's Alec MacGillis Wednesday that Obama would be ripped apart by the Republicans over his drug use as a student.
Clinton's team recognizes she has little time to right herself or risk double losses in Iowa and New Hampshire that could mark the beginning of the end of her candidacy. As they scramble to put the campaign on an upward trajectory and seek to reassure nervous supporters and fundraisers, they have one eye cocked back to Philadelphia.
The final minutes of that debate, which are now seared into the collective consciousness of Clinton's advisers. Clinton's stumble that night has kept the candidate and her campaign off balance ever since. She has had to deal with a husband who has strayed off message, a mini-controversy over whether her campaign staff planted questions at Iowa forums, and an Obama campaign that suddenly found its voice after months of uneven campaigning.
The cruel irony for Clinton is that Obama had an equally bad moment in Las Vegas two weeks after her mistake, and on the same issue: illegal immigration. Obama was no more adept at saying with clarity whether he favored giving drivers licenses to illegal aliens at the Las Vegas debate than Clinton had been in Philadelphia -- and he had had two weeks to think about it.
But what happened in Las Vegas stayed in Las Vegas. What happened in Philadelphia did not. The question the Clinton campaign keeps asking is why? What was it about that exchange over immigration that it now threatens months and months of effective campaigning and a series of debate performances in which Clinton was judged superior to Obama and the other Democrats in the field?
Small moments sometimes have great resonance and this may be a classic example -- one of the most fateful exchanges in a debate since Gerald Ford wrongly liberated Eastern Europe in a 1976 debate with Jimmy Carter. Clinton's answer in Philadelphia -- seemingly attempting to duck and straddle at the same time -- became a metaphor for the doubts that long have existed about her candidacy.
For all the effectiveness Clinton and her advisers demonstrated through the summer and early fall, questions about her never fully disappeared. Her Iowa team long has known that, even when the polls seemed to be improving here, and while Iowa has always been her worst state, the signs of slippage in New Hampshire underscore that the doubts extend beyond the cornfields here.
They can be summed up with the words "trust" and "warmth." Democratic voters see Clinton as intelligent, strong, experienced -- all the attributes that her advisers say make her ready to be president on day one.
What they don't see is a candidate they always like or trust. Her advisers struggle to understand -- as Al Gore's advisers did eight years ago -- why the Hillary Clinton they see behind the scenes, a woman with a sense of humor and a nurturing instinct for many of the younger women who work for her, is not seen by the voters. The repair work is now underway and the question is whether it has come too late. Clinton's new ads feature her mother, Dorothy Rodham, and her daughter, Chelsea.
Her campaign message continues to aim at the concerns of middle-class voters, who are as much a target of Hillary Clinton as they were for Bill Clinton in 1992. Her focus on health care and kitchen-table economics speaks, her advisers hope, to the insecurities of many down-scale voters -- and to the middle-aged women she needs to turn out for her at the caucuses on Jan. 3.
Advisers to John Edwards believe Clinton's troubles began long before the Philadelphia debate. They mark the transition point in the Democratic race to the Yearly Kos conference debate in Chicago in August, when Clinton defended lobbyists and declined to join Edwards and Obama in ruling out Washington lobbyists' contributions.
The Edwards team continues to see both Clinton and Obama as vulnerable and believes the former North Carolina senator's focus on corporate greed and his record as a candidate who closes strongly can push him to victory here in Iowa. What they must overcome are doubts that he can win the nomination among voters in the early states.
What Clinton's team hopes to do is put the focus back on experienced and electability -- areas where they believe Obama is more vulnerable and she is strong. But she dares not risk a negative assault on Obama's credentials at this point, given the concerns people already have about her.
But she has struggled to be heard. The Obama-Oprah extravaganza, for however much it may produce votes for the Illinois senator, dominated the news in Iowa for days, obscuring all the other candidates. Clinton's problems are receiving more attention now than the case she is making for herself.
Thursday's debate provided only the briefest of opportunities for her to draw any contrasts with Obama or with Edwards, although it's clear that the Clinton campaign is now totally focused on preventing Obama from gaining substantial momentum in the week before Christmas and what is expected to be a brief lull in campaign activity.
Despite her problems, Clinton should not be underestimated. Her advisers see a fight to the finish in Iowa and believe they have put together an innovative ground operation that will turn out all of their supporters, including the many first-time caucus-goers who say they intend to vote for her.
Whether or not they overcome questions about her -- or effectively seed concerns about Obama's experience -- they will long wonder why a few minutes in Philadelphia caused so many problems for them and the once high-flying candidate.
-- Dan Balz
Think Again: The Nth Time is Farce: Neocons Attack the NIE, Yet Again
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/200...ons_attack.html
By Eric Alterman, George Zornick
December 13, 2007
U.S. intelligence agencies reported their consensus last week in a new National Intelligence Estimate that Iran appears to have halted its nuclear weapons program four years ago. This challenges what the White House and its neoconservative allies in the media and elsewhere thought they had already established as incontrovertible fact: that Iran’s nuclear weapons program poses an immediate, existential threat to the United States of America.
The report contradicts a 2005 NIE by stating that Iran is likely “less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging” and “may be more vulnerable to influence on the issue than we judged previously.” This, of course, doesn’t square with the thinking of those who desire yet another American attack on yet another Islamic, oil-rich, four-lettered nation beginning with “Ira-”
Those who advocated for military action against Iran swiftly jumped to discredit or downplay the new NIE. First up was President Bush, who has hyped Iran’s nuclear threat to the point of invoking World War III. Bush called a press conference immediately after the report was released to downplay the report’s assessment and insist that he only found out about the report very recently.
Yet it has been widely reported that this NIE has existed for a year already, and according to former CIA agent Larry Johnson, who was the first person to report that a new NIE on Iran existed, Bush himself has known about it since then, including every time he spoke ominously of a nuclear Iran and world wars. Naturally, albeit a bit frighteningly, Time columnist Joe Klein praised Bush’s reaction to the NIA as “an amazing moment of candor by the United States” where Bush “didn’t try to block it.” Really.
Bush’s neoconservative allies in the media have proven far more aggressive than the president. Their criticisms of the NIE took two basic approaches: one set of critics have attacked U.S. intelligence agencies for “politicizing” the report, which is code for reaching conclusions that are inconsistent with neoconservative ambitions; the second set of commentators has ascribed all kinds of Bush-hating psychological motives to the career intelligence officers who created the report.
Norman Podhoretz, a founding father of neoconservatism and a foreign policy advisor to Rudy Giuliani, wrote that “the intelligence community, which has for some years now been leaking material calculated to undermine George W. Bush, is doing it again.” Right-wing historian and columnist Victor Davis Hanson also accused the intelligence community of “condescending animus toward George Bush” along with “generic arrogance that their genius is not appreciated and so they leak and back stab against their betters to ensure someone out there knows just how brilliant they really are.” Of course, neither man has actually seen any classified intelligence, nor has any intelligence training to back up his analysis, but never mind that. Ideology requires no knowledge of reality.
These ideologues have grown accustomed in recent years to using the intelligence agencies to advance their foreign policy goals. The 2002 NIE on Iraq was sufficiently altered and politicized by bullying from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney that it made Iraq appear much more dangerous than it actually was. The Washington Post reported in June 2003 that Cheney and his Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby, personally visited CIA analysts working on the estimate to get them to re-examine their skepticism on Iraq’s weapons capabilities.
But, as Johnson points out, the tables have now turned. “Senior intelligence officers learned the lesson of 2002 and returned to the tradition of telling the President the truth, no matter how unpopular or unpalatable,” Johnson writes. “This Administration’s days are numbered and the analysts can read the tea leaves. They know there is no percentage in pandering to power by serving up half-truths and wishful thinking.”
Neoconservatives are now attacking the government’s intelligence agencies, something they have had to do for a better part of the last 30 years. At various points since the 1970s, neoconservatives have succeeded in setting up parallel intelligence outfits to counter the analysis of the real ones when they did not like their conclusions.
In the 1970s, CIA director George H.W. Bush was pressured into setting up the infamous “Team B,” a panel of hardliners purposely designed to hype Soviet capabilities and contradict NIE output by regular CIA officers. Their conclusions, which formed the basis for the Reagan buildup of the 1980s, turned out to be even further off the mark than the CIA’s own overestimations of Soviet capabilities.
Again in the 1990s, the Rumsfeld Commission—named after the same fellow who did such a bang-up job in Iraq— managed to come to a series of incorrect conclusions about the ability of third-world countries to obtain long-range missiles. It was used as a defense for Bush’s missile defense plan in the early part of this decade back before the administration was displaying much interest in the problem of terrorism.
So here again, history is repeating itself as a costly farce. Getting the intelligence agencies in line would be nice, but neoconservatives are used to playing against them and are already preparing to do so. Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) already plans to introduce legislation that would create a commission to get a “fresh set of eyes” on the NIE’s findings.
The Wall Street Journal editors meanwhile seem to wish that they could join their ideological comrade Christopher Hitchens in pushing to abolish the agency entirely—or at least get rid of its ability to undertake politically independent analysis. “But the ultimate responsibility for this fiasco lies with Mr. Bush. Too often he has appointed, or tolerated, officials who oppose his agenda, and failed to discipline them even when they have worked against his policies,” they explain. This view was reiterated on Tuesday in an op-ed by Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal: “We now have an ‘intelligence community’ that acts as an authority unto itself, and cannot be trusted to obey its political masters, much less keep a secret.” In other words, “Nice little intelligence community you have here, I’d hate to see anything happen to it.”
Let’s hope the intelligence agency does not scare as easily as these neocons apparently do.
Eric Alterman is a Senior Fellow of the Center for American Progress and a Distinguished Professor of English at Brooklyn College, and a professor of journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. His blog, “Altercation,” appears at www.mediamatters.org/altercation. His seventh book, Why We’re Liberals: A Political Handbook for Post-Bush America, will appear early next year.
George Zornick is a New York-based writer.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/200...ons_attack.html
By Eric Alterman, George Zornick
December 13, 2007
U.S. intelligence agencies reported their consensus last week in a new National Intelligence Estimate that Iran appears to have halted its nuclear weapons program four years ago. This challenges what the White House and its neoconservative allies in the media and elsewhere thought they had already established as incontrovertible fact: that Iran’s nuclear weapons program poses an immediate, existential threat to the United States of America.
The report contradicts a 2005 NIE by stating that Iran is likely “less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging” and “may be more vulnerable to influence on the issue than we judged previously.” This, of course, doesn’t square with the thinking of those who desire yet another American attack on yet another Islamic, oil-rich, four-lettered nation beginning with “Ira-”
Those who advocated for military action against Iran swiftly jumped to discredit or downplay the new NIE. First up was President Bush, who has hyped Iran’s nuclear threat to the point of invoking World War III. Bush called a press conference immediately after the report was released to downplay the report’s assessment and insist that he only found out about the report very recently.
Yet it has been widely reported that this NIE has existed for a year already, and according to former CIA agent Larry Johnson, who was the first person to report that a new NIE on Iran existed, Bush himself has known about it since then, including every time he spoke ominously of a nuclear Iran and world wars. Naturally, albeit a bit frighteningly, Time columnist Joe Klein praised Bush’s reaction to the NIA as “an amazing moment of candor by the United States” where Bush “didn’t try to block it.” Really.
Bush’s neoconservative allies in the media have proven far more aggressive than the president. Their criticisms of the NIE took two basic approaches: one set of critics have attacked U.S. intelligence agencies for “politicizing” the report, which is code for reaching conclusions that are inconsistent with neoconservative ambitions; the second set of commentators has ascribed all kinds of Bush-hating psychological motives to the career intelligence officers who created the report.
Norman Podhoretz, a founding father of neoconservatism and a foreign policy advisor to Rudy Giuliani, wrote that “the intelligence community, which has for some years now been leaking material calculated to undermine George W. Bush, is doing it again.” Right-wing historian and columnist Victor Davis Hanson also accused the intelligence community of “condescending animus toward George Bush” along with “generic arrogance that their genius is not appreciated and so they leak and back stab against their betters to ensure someone out there knows just how brilliant they really are.” Of course, neither man has actually seen any classified intelligence, nor has any intelligence training to back up his analysis, but never mind that. Ideology requires no knowledge of reality.
These ideologues have grown accustomed in recent years to using the intelligence agencies to advance their foreign policy goals. The 2002 NIE on Iraq was sufficiently altered and politicized by bullying from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney that it made Iraq appear much more dangerous than it actually was. The Washington Post reported in June 2003 that Cheney and his Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby, personally visited CIA analysts working on the estimate to get them to re-examine their skepticism on Iraq’s weapons capabilities.
But, as Johnson points out, the tables have now turned. “Senior intelligence officers learned the lesson of 2002 and returned to the tradition of telling the President the truth, no matter how unpopular or unpalatable,” Johnson writes. “This Administration’s days are numbered and the analysts can read the tea leaves. They know there is no percentage in pandering to power by serving up half-truths and wishful thinking.”
Neoconservatives are now attacking the government’s intelligence agencies, something they have had to do for a better part of the last 30 years. At various points since the 1970s, neoconservatives have succeeded in setting up parallel intelligence outfits to counter the analysis of the real ones when they did not like their conclusions.
In the 1970s, CIA director George H.W. Bush was pressured into setting up the infamous “Team B,” a panel of hardliners purposely designed to hype Soviet capabilities and contradict NIE output by regular CIA officers. Their conclusions, which formed the basis for the Reagan buildup of the 1980s, turned out to be even further off the mark than the CIA’s own overestimations of Soviet capabilities.
Again in the 1990s, the Rumsfeld Commission—named after the same fellow who did such a bang-up job in Iraq— managed to come to a series of incorrect conclusions about the ability of third-world countries to obtain long-range missiles. It was used as a defense for Bush’s missile defense plan in the early part of this decade back before the administration was displaying much interest in the problem of terrorism.
So here again, history is repeating itself as a costly farce. Getting the intelligence agencies in line would be nice, but neoconservatives are used to playing against them and are already preparing to do so. Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) already plans to introduce legislation that would create a commission to get a “fresh set of eyes” on the NIE’s findings.
The Wall Street Journal editors meanwhile seem to wish that they could join their ideological comrade Christopher Hitchens in pushing to abolish the agency entirely—or at least get rid of its ability to undertake politically independent analysis. “But the ultimate responsibility for this fiasco lies with Mr. Bush. Too often he has appointed, or tolerated, officials who oppose his agenda, and failed to discipline them even when they have worked against his policies,” they explain. This view was reiterated on Tuesday in an op-ed by Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal: “We now have an ‘intelligence community’ that acts as an authority unto itself, and cannot be trusted to obey its political masters, much less keep a secret.” In other words, “Nice little intelligence community you have here, I’d hate to see anything happen to it.”
Let’s hope the intelligence agency does not scare as easily as these neocons apparently do.
Eric Alterman is a Senior Fellow of the Center for American Progress and a Distinguished Professor of English at Brooklyn College, and a professor of journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. His blog, “Altercation,” appears at www.mediamatters.org/altercation. His seventh book, Why We’re Liberals: A Political Handbook for Post-Bush America, will appear early next year.
George Zornick is a New York-based writer.
Throwing Homeowners a Lifeline: Direct Lending for Troubled Borrowers
Chemical Anti-Terrorism Standards: Implementation Is a Must
40 Reasons to Reengage: Why We Need to Recommit to Afghanistan
The Future of Kosovo: NATO Must Act Once Again
Beyond Justice: Bush Administration Labor Department Abuses
Foreign Assistance: Bipartisanship Needed to Fight Global Poverty
Secretary Gates: Asking Tough Questions on Afghanistan
Economic Snapshot for December 2007: Low-Growth Continues
Standing Up for Human Rights: Human Rights Day 2007
Restoring Military Power: A New Progressive Defense Strategy
Chemical Anti-Terrorism Standards: Implementation Is a Must
40 Reasons to Reengage: Why We Need to Recommit to Afghanistan
The Future of Kosovo: NATO Must Act Once Again
Beyond Justice: Bush Administration Labor Department Abuses
Foreign Assistance: Bipartisanship Needed to Fight Global Poverty
Secretary Gates: Asking Tough Questions on Afghanistan
Economic Snapshot for December 2007: Low-Growth Continues
Standing Up for Human Rights: Human Rights Day 2007
Restoring Military Power: A New Progressive Defense Strategy
John McCain on Pork and Patriotism - Brian Carney, Wall Street Journal
Voters Balking at Clinton, Part II - Mike Littwin, Rocky Mountain News
Obama Becomes the Front-Runner - Toby Harnden, Daily Telegraph
Fading Romney Targets Huckabee - Jonathan Martin, The Politico
Barack's Blast From the Past - Gail Collins, New York Times
In Dem Primaries, Experience Loses - D. Morris & E. McGann, NY Post
Huckabee Could Hand the GOP to Giuliani - Ramesh Ponnuru, Time
When Inevitability Isn't So... Inevitable - John Zogby, Zogby International
Democrats and the Politics of Failure - Terence Samuel, American Prospect
Lasting Peace? An Iraq Town Shrugs Off Terror - Ulrike Putz, Der Spiegel
Conventional Wisdom Wrong Again on Iraq - Victor Davis Hanson, NRO
The Guard's Turn to Surge - Sydney Freedberg, National Journal
Intelligence: The Risk of Unreliability - Joseph Weisberg, Washington Post
Class and the Classroom - Christopher Caldwell, Financial Times
Critics, Cheats Can't Turn Page On Era - Mike Lupica, NY Daily News
Let Baseball Players Police Themselves - J.C. Bradbury, New York Times
Twenty-Five Years of McLaughlin - Andrew Ferguson, Weekly Standard
Latest Polls: Iowa, New Hampsire, South Carolina, Florida & More
Voters Balking at Clinton, Part II - Mike Littwin, Rocky Mountain News
Obama Becomes the Front-Runner - Toby Harnden, Daily Telegraph
Fading Romney Targets Huckabee - Jonathan Martin, The Politico
Barack's Blast From the Past - Gail Collins, New York Times
In Dem Primaries, Experience Loses - D. Morris & E. McGann, NY Post
Huckabee Could Hand the GOP to Giuliani - Ramesh Ponnuru, Time
When Inevitability Isn't So... Inevitable - John Zogby, Zogby International
Democrats and the Politics of Failure - Terence Samuel, American Prospect
Lasting Peace? An Iraq Town Shrugs Off Terror - Ulrike Putz, Der Spiegel
Conventional Wisdom Wrong Again on Iraq - Victor Davis Hanson, NRO
The Guard's Turn to Surge - Sydney Freedberg, National Journal
Intelligence: The Risk of Unreliability - Joseph Weisberg, Washington Post
Class and the Classroom - Christopher Caldwell, Financial Times
Critics, Cheats Can't Turn Page On Era - Mike Lupica, NY Daily News
Let Baseball Players Police Themselves - J.C. Bradbury, New York Times
Twenty-Five Years of McLaughlin - Andrew Ferguson, Weekly Standard
Latest Polls: Iowa, New Hampsire, South Carolina, Florida & More
Editorials
The Triumph of Hope Over Experience? - The Economist
Pelosi Hits Bottom - Washington Times
Subprime Politics - The Nation
The Perils of Putinism - Wall Street Journal
Political News & Analysis
Obama Edges Clinton in Poll - Concord Monitor
Democrats Debate in Iowa: Tax the Wealthiest Americans - WSJ
Giuliani Shifts Tactics, Goes On Offensive - USA Today
Poll Shows More Optimism on War - Washington Post
Is the GOP About To Commit 'Huckacide'?
- Rich Lowry, National Review
Will Shaheen Help Sink Clinton's Ship?
- Tom Curry, MSNBC
Plan B For Pelosi And Reid
- E. J. Dionne, Washington Post
An Overdose of Public Piety
- Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post
- Rich Lowry, National Review
Will Shaheen Help Sink Clinton's Ship?
- Tom Curry, MSNBC
Plan B For Pelosi And Reid
- E. J. Dionne, Washington Post
An Overdose of Public Piety
- Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post
The Quest for Middle East Peace
by Carl Doerner / December 14th, 2007
Past midnight, my flight from Dubai to Tehran crosses the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf. The sky is moonless and black, as are the waters below, except for the running lights of the freighters moored or under way. Among them are the forty-plus vessels of two U.S. carrier groups recently deployed to the Gulf by Cheney and Bush. (Full article …)
We Should be Outraged
by John Blair / December 14th, 2007
In a meeting of climate change activists recently, I told those assembled that I did not understand why everyone in the room was not outraged at the seeming inaction of policy makers to tackle global warming when the evidence shows that serious response is required. (Full article …)
Alan Dershowitz on Waterboarding
An Expansion of State Power
by Mike Whitney / December 14th, 2007
Alan Dershowitz is a skillful debater, a capable attorney, and and a ferocious defender of Israel. He is also a Harvard professor and a former member of OJ Simpson’s legal defense called the Dream Team. (Full article …)
Thinking Outside the (Christmas) Box
by Rosemarie Jackowski / December 14th, 2007
You say that Christmas has become too commercialized. In some towns the display of decorated trees is now controversial. Confused about whether to say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays”. What about Kwanza, Hanukkah, and the Holy Days of Islam? Maybe a simple greeting of “Peace to you brother” would be appropriate. Better be careful though with that one. I have a few friends who have been arrested for saying “Peace” at the wrong time in the wrong place. Ah, the stress of it all could drive a person to over-indulge in the spiked nog. (Full article …)
Kosovo: We're On The Brink Of A Balkans Bloodbath - by George Galloway - 2007-12-14
The 2008 Presidential Election: Concepts Progressives Must Know About Monetary Policy and History- by Richard C. Cook - 2007-12-14
The 2008 Presidential Election: Concepts Progressives Must Know About Monetary Policy and History- by Richard C. Cook - 2007-12-14
<h3 class="post-title"> Obama vs. Bush
On How Honesty is the Highest form of Leadership </h3>
Hillary Clinton fired the co-chair of her New Hampshire campaign, Bill Shaheen, because he speculated that Barack Obama would be attacked by Republicans for admitting youthful drug use,if he were the nominee. She then apologized to Obama.
But in this controversy, what is forgotten is that our current incumbent also admitted to youthful drug use:
I'd say that we know from this recorded interview that Bush 1) used marijuana in his youth, 2) used "blow" or cocaine in his youth, and 3) is deliberately dishonest about both in public.
We also know that Bush was an alcoholic until he was 40 years old, would go up at parties to little old ladies and ask them how sex is after 50, and fancied himself a ladies man (I think the evangelicals have words like fornication & adultery for that sort of thing, but the evangelicals seem to be selective in choosing the target of such vocabulary).
Of course, if you say you later got religion, and if you are a Republican, all these sins are suddenly forgiven and the nation's newspapers and t.v. pundits and Baptist preachers immediately stop even remembering that they happened.
So everyone reported Bush's condemnation of drug use by athletes on Friday with a straight face, and without making reference to his own drug use. (There is evidence that the alcoholism continued while he was in the White House).
I don't doubt that what Bill Shaheen said is correct, and that the Republicans will play all sorts of dirty tricks on Barack Obama if he is the Democratic nominee. The Republican Party is about velociraptor politics.
But if they did come after Obama for his honesty, I'd reply that they have been led for the past 7 years by someone who did the same things and then stonewalled the public about them. Bush seems to think it is better to teach little children to lie than to be honest with them about the temptations they will face in this society during adolescence.
And the corporate media will never even notice, when they collaborate in the future swiftboating of Obama, that they gave W. a pass because he is a Republican and an elite white male from an old-established political family.
Obama did the right thing in coming clean. Bush did the wrong thing in obscuring the truth. Obama demonstrated leadership. Bush showed himself a political and moral coward, and a hypocrite. posted by Juan Cole
On How Honesty is the Highest form of Leadership </h3>
Hillary Clinton fired the co-chair of her New Hampshire campaign, Bill Shaheen, because he speculated that Barack Obama would be attacked by Republicans for admitting youthful drug use,if he were the nominee. She then apologized to Obama.
But in this controversy, what is forgotten is that our current incumbent also admitted to youthful drug use:
' Bush has said that he did not use illegal drugs at any time since 1974, but he has declined to discuss whether he used drugs before 1974.
A conversation between Bush and an old friend and author, Doug Wead, touched on the subject of use of illegal drugs. In the taped recordings of the conversation, Bush explained his refusal to answer questions about whether he had used marijuana at some time in his past. “I wouldn’t answer the marijuana questions,” Bush says. “You know why? Because I don’t want some little kid doing what I tried.” When Wead reminded Bush that the latter had publicly denied using cocaine, Bush replied, "I haven't denied anything." '
I'd say that we know from this recorded interview that Bush 1) used marijuana in his youth, 2) used "blow" or cocaine in his youth, and 3) is deliberately dishonest about both in public.
We also know that Bush was an alcoholic until he was 40 years old, would go up at parties to little old ladies and ask them how sex is after 50, and fancied himself a ladies man (I think the evangelicals have words like fornication & adultery for that sort of thing, but the evangelicals seem to be selective in choosing the target of such vocabulary).
Of course, if you say you later got religion, and if you are a Republican, all these sins are suddenly forgiven and the nation's newspapers and t.v. pundits and Baptist preachers immediately stop even remembering that they happened.
So everyone reported Bush's condemnation of drug use by athletes on Friday with a straight face, and without making reference to his own drug use. (There is evidence that the alcoholism continued while he was in the White House).
I don't doubt that what Bill Shaheen said is correct, and that the Republicans will play all sorts of dirty tricks on Barack Obama if he is the Democratic nominee. The Republican Party is about velociraptor politics.
But if they did come after Obama for his honesty, I'd reply that they have been led for the past 7 years by someone who did the same things and then stonewalled the public about them. Bush seems to think it is better to teach little children to lie than to be honest with them about the temptations they will face in this society during adolescence.
And the corporate media will never even notice, when they collaborate in the future swiftboating of Obama, that they gave W. a pass because he is a Republican and an elite white male from an old-established political family.
Obama did the right thing in coming clean. Bush did the wrong thing in obscuring the truth. Obama demonstrated leadership. Bush showed himself a political and moral coward, and a hypocrite. posted by Juan Cole
Obama Shows Confidence in Iowa Sprint - Jeff Zeleny, New York Times
Are Voters 'Prepared to Roll the Dice'? - Bill Clinton, Charlie Rose Show
America's Priorities in the War on Terror - Mike Huckabee, Foreign Affairs
Tested. Ready. Now. America Needs a Leader - Rudy Giuliani
The Sleeper: How Edwards Could Win Iowa - Flores & Smalley, Newsweek
McCain's Last Stand: He Still Has a Chance - Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard
Democratic Endorsement Editorial: Why Clinton - Des Moines Register
For the Republicans: John McCain - Boston Globe
Are Voters 'Prepared to Roll the Dice'? - Bill Clinton, Charlie Rose Show
America's Priorities in the War on Terror - Mike Huckabee, Foreign Affairs
Tested. Ready. Now. America Needs a Leader - Rudy Giuliani
The Sleeper: How Edwards Could Win Iowa - Flores & Smalley, Newsweek
McCain's Last Stand: He Still Has a Chance - Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard
Democratic Endorsement Editorial: Why Clinton - Des Moines Register
For the Republicans: John McCain - Boston Globe
Voters Balking at Clinton, Part II
- Mike Littwin, Rocky Mountain News
When Inevitability Isn't So... Inevitable
- John Zogby, Zogby International
Huckabee Could Hand the GOP to Giuliani
- Ramesh Ponnuru, Time
How Obama Became the Front-Runner
- Toby Harnden, Daily Telegraph
- Mike Littwin, Rocky Mountain News
When Inevitability Isn't So... Inevitable
- John Zogby, Zogby International
Huckabee Could Hand the GOP to Giuliani
- Ramesh Ponnuru, Time
How Obama Became the Front-Runner
- Toby Harnden, Daily Telegraph
Obama Shows Confidence in Iowa Sprint - Jeff Zeleny, New York Times
Clinton Machine To Be Tested in N.H. - Alec MacGillis, Washington Post
McCain's Last Stand: He Still Has a Chance - Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard
The Sleeper: How Edwards Could Win Iowa - Flores & Smalley, Newsweek
Are Voters 'Prepared to Roll the Dice'? - Bill Clinton, Charlie Rose Show
Hillary vs. Rudy Is Put on Hold - Michael Goodwin, New York Daily News
America's Democracy Stands Apart - Simon Jenkins, Sunday Times
Tested. Ready. Now. America Needs a Leader - Rudy Giuliani
A Realistic and Principled Foreign Policy - Bill Richardson, Foreign Affairs
America's Priorities in the War on Terror - Mike Huckabee, Foreign Affairs
Remembering the Comeback Kid - James Carville, Boston Globe
Justice William Jefferson Clinton? - Douglas Kmiec, Wall Street Journal
Fed Spreads The Runway Foam - David Ignatius, Washington Post
Government Entitlement For Risk Takers - George Will, Houston Chronicle
Gates Has Become the Anti-Rumsfeld - Jim Hoagland, Washington Post
Consensus in Bali on Global Warming - Thomas Friedman, New York Times
Children? Not If You Love the Planet - Mark Steyn, Orange County Register
Clinton Machine To Be Tested in N.H. - Alec MacGillis, Washington Post
McCain's Last Stand: He Still Has a Chance - Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard
The Sleeper: How Edwards Could Win Iowa - Flores & Smalley, Newsweek
Are Voters 'Prepared to Roll the Dice'? - Bill Clinton, Charlie Rose Show
Hillary vs. Rudy Is Put on Hold - Michael Goodwin, New York Daily News
America's Democracy Stands Apart - Simon Jenkins, Sunday Times
Tested. Ready. Now. America Needs a Leader - Rudy Giuliani
A Realistic and Principled Foreign Policy - Bill Richardson, Foreign Affairs
America's Priorities in the War on Terror - Mike Huckabee, Foreign Affairs
Remembering the Comeback Kid - James Carville, Boston Globe
Justice William Jefferson Clinton? - Douglas Kmiec, Wall Street Journal
Fed Spreads The Runway Foam - David Ignatius, Washington Post
Government Entitlement For Risk Takers - George Will, Houston Chronicle
Gates Has Become the Anti-Rumsfeld - Jim Hoagland, Washington Post
Consensus in Bali on Global Warming - Thomas Friedman, New York Times
Children? Not If You Love the Planet - Mark Steyn, Orange County Register
Editorials
Clinton, McCain for Iowa Caucuses - Des Moines Register
Obama, McCain for New Hampshire Primary - Boston Globe
The Recipe for Economic Growth - Las Vegas Review-Journal
Canada's Thought Police - New York Post
Political News & Analysis
Huckabee Seeks To Broaden His Appeal - Chicago Tribune
Bill Clinton: Hillary Needs a 'Miracle' - New York Daily News
Obama Is Hitting His Stride in Iowa - Los Angeles Times
In Florida, Giuliani Seeks To Brake Fall - Washington Times
- Frank Rich: Latter-Day Republicans vs. the Church of Oprah
- Op-Ed Contributor: Clause and Effect
- Never Mind What's in Them, Bags Are the Fashion
- Google Gets Ready to Rumble With Microsoft
- Maureen Dowd: Reefer Madness in Iowa
- Who Invited the Dog?
- Music: In Seattle, a Fugue for Orchestra and Rancor
- Desperately Seeking a Kidney
- Personal Health: Mental Reserves Keep Brains Agile
- Thomas L. Friedman: It's Too Late for Later
Huckabee as a Kinder, Gentler Buchanan - John Heilemann, NY Magazine
Candidates Scrambling to Cope with Huckabee Rise - Michael Cooper, NYT
Taxing Time For Democrats - Michael Barone, US News & World Report
New Paul 'Money Bomb' May Break Record - Kenneth Vogel, The Politico
Bernanke Blows Smoke - Larry Kudlow, RealClearPolitics
Al Jazeera Goes Mainstream - Ned Lamont, The Nation
Thoughts on Religion and Politics - Rod Dreher, Dallas Morning News
Candidates Scrambling to Cope with Huckabee Rise - Michael Cooper, NYT
Taxing Time For Democrats - Michael Barone, US News & World Report
New Paul 'Money Bomb' May Break Record - Kenneth Vogel, The Politico
Bernanke Blows Smoke - Larry Kudlow, RealClearPolitics
Al Jazeera Goes Mainstream - Ned Lamont, The Nation
Thoughts on Religion and Politics - Rod Dreher, Dallas Morning News
Where Anti-Immigrant Zealots Like Lou Dobbs Get Their "Facts"
By Heidi Beirich, Intelligence Report
The media keeps turning to racist group FAIR for its "expertise."
Bill Moyers Journal on the Media Consolidation Crisis: "The Stakes Are Enormous" [VIDEO]
Video: The FCC is poised to relax the rules barring publishing conglomerates from buying up local papers and television station this month. More »
Rep. Wexler Calls for Cheney Impeachment Hearings [VIDEO]
Video: The charges are too serious to ignore. It is the constitutional duty of Congress to hold impeachment hearings. More »
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/www.alternet.org
'Tis the shopping season, and many bedraggled consumers are going store to store seeking gifts for loved ones. But the most determined shoppers of all this season are corporate lobbyists, scurrying from agency to agency in Washington in search of special favors for themselves. They're not interested in giving, but in getting.
Indeed, they've already given. They put tens of millions of dollars into the campaign coffers of George W and the GOP, and they've enjoyed big-time payback for seven years. But time is running out - Republicans lost control of congress, and Bush is soon to go, so corporate lobbyists are now on a frantic, last-minute shopping spree, grabbing all they can, while they can.
Their shopping list is filled with requests for the Bushites to rig regulatory rules to benefit their industries. Coal barons, for example, are pleading for permission to dump tons of rubble and waste into the valleys and streams of Appalachia. This "spoil," as they call it, is the by-product of an environmentally- devastating mining shortcut called mountaintop removal. To get at the coal, they blow up the top third of these beautiful mountains. Rather than hauling off their rubble, they want final OK simply to shove it down the mountainside, burying the streams, animals, and everything else below.
On other fronts, such chicken potentates as Perdue want an exemption from public health laws that ban massive releases of ammonia from their factory farms; electric power plants want to increase their toxic emissions without the "burden" of installing pollution controls; and big business lobbyists are demanding new rules to keep workers from using family leave laws, which allow unpaid time-off to care for newborns or deal with family illness.
This is Jim Hightower saying... These truly are gifts that would keep on giving - giving profit to the few, and pain to the many.
arrogant bunker mentality," which he described as having "been counterproductive at home and abroad."
Assuming Huckabee read the piece, he had to realize there'd be at least some pushback. Mitt Romney was the first out of the gate.
Mitt Romney ripped into Iowa frontrunner Mike Huckabee at a town hall in Humboldt, Iowa, [yesterday] morning over an article Huckabee penned in the current issue of the journal Foreign Affairs. In the article, the former Arkansas governor accused the Bush administration of having an "arrogant bunker mentality" on the world stage.
"I said, 'Did this come from Barack Obama? Or from Hillary Clinton? Did it come from John Edwards?" Romney told the crowd of about 100 people. "No, it was one of our own. It was Governor Huckabee."Romney kept this up on "Meet the Press."
"I've been saying for months -- and I think all the Republican candidates, in fact, have been saying for months, if not years -- that following the collapse of Saddam Hussein, our policy was unprepared, unplanned, understaffed, undermanaged, and that we made a number of errors and much of the difficulty we face today is due to those errors.
But it's very different to point out the mistakes that were made. The President's pointed out the mistakes as well. And then to say the Bush administration, our President, is arrogant with a bunker mentality -- that's a completely different statement, for which Mike Huckabee owes the President an apology."Oddly enough, Huckabee is already starting to back down.
TP noted that Huckabee, on CNN, characterized himself as the true Bush ally, not Romney.
"I didn't say the President was arrogant.... I've said that the policies have been arrogant.... I'm the one who actually supported the President's surge. I supported the Bush tax cuts, when Mr. Romney didn't. I was with President Bush on gun control, when Mitt Romney wasn't. I was with the President on the President's pro-life position, when Mitt Romney wasn't."Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Bubba Misfires, Hillary Does A Flyover.. Obama Gloats
Hillary forsakes her broom for the Hill-A-Copter as she skitters around Iowa to muster up votes for the caucuses. Bubba says she ain't gonna win and Obama gloats as he begins to soar in the polls. The 3 ring circus begins in the Democrat primaries.
Hillary forsakes her broom for the Hill-A-Copter as she skitters around Iowa to muster up votes for the caucuses. Bubba says she ain't gonna win and Obama gloats as he begins to soar in the polls. The 3 ring circus begins in the Democrat primaries.
Austin is a stronghold for Ron Paul campaign
( Published on Monday, December 17, 2007 )
Supporters run the gamut from techies to libertarians to 'black helicopter' crowd.
( Published on Monday, December 17, 2007 )
Supporters run the gamut from techies to libertarians to 'black helicopter' crowd.
Ron Paul Smashes Record With $6 Million Plus Haul
( Published on Monday, December 17, 2007 )
Expect hit pieces to go into overdrive as media tries to spin momentous day
Fleeing by Fridayby Jed BabbinDemocrats' Congressional Irresponsibility will dog their candidates into the primaries.
The Obama-Clinton Issue - David Brooks, New York Times
Clinton's Difficulties Deeper Than Strategy - E. J. Dionne, Washington Post
Why Giuliani Needs a Miracle - Rich Lowry, New York Post
America's Next Top Democrat - Walter Shapiro, Salon
Why Huckabee Might Be Helping Mitt - John McIntyre, RealClearPolitics
Romney Can't 'Solve' His Mormon Problem - Stuart Rothenberg, Roll Call
For Romney, a Course Set Long Ago - David Kirkpatrick, New York Times
Does Gore Know What He's Talking About? - Ed Koch, RealClearPolitics
Iowa's Undemocratic Caucuses - Cranberg, Strentz, Roberts, NY Times
Bush's Certitude Will Haunt America - HDS Greenway, Boston Globe
It's Not a Time to Backslide in Iraq - Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessean
The Wahhabi Woman Problem - Anne Applebaum, Slate
Stop Scaring Us, Senator Feinstein - Henry Miller, Los Angeles Times
A Buyer's Christmas - James Surowiecki, The New Yorker
Academic Intimidation - Thomas Sowell, RealClearPolitics
Five Events That Have Defined 2007 - Gideon Rachman, Financial Times
Why TR Claimed the Seas - Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal
Clinton's Difficulties Deeper Than Strategy - E. J. Dionne, Washington Post
Why Giuliani Needs a Miracle - Rich Lowry, New York Post
America's Next Top Democrat - Walter Shapiro, Salon
Why Huckabee Might Be Helping Mitt - John McIntyre, RealClearPolitics
Romney Can't 'Solve' His Mormon Problem - Stuart Rothenberg, Roll Call
For Romney, a Course Set Long Ago - David Kirkpatrick, New York Times
Does Gore Know What He's Talking About? - Ed Koch, RealClearPolitics
Iowa's Undemocratic Caucuses - Cranberg, Strentz, Roberts, NY Times
Bush's Certitude Will Haunt America - HDS Greenway, Boston Globe
It's Not a Time to Backslide in Iraq - Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessean
The Wahhabi Woman Problem - Anne Applebaum, Slate
Stop Scaring Us, Senator Feinstein - Henry Miller, Los Angeles Times
A Buyer's Christmas - James Surowiecki, The New Yorker
Academic Intimidation - Thomas Sowell, RealClearPolitics
Five Events That Have Defined 2007 - Gideon Rachman, Financial Times
Why TR Claimed the Seas - Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal
Editorials
Why McCain is Making a Primary Comeback - Wall Street Journal
Congress Oinks Its Way to a Spending Bill - Washington Examiner
The Mayor Wants Inside Your Refrigerator - San Francisco Chronicle
Knock, Knock: Hillary Goes Door to Door - New Hampshire Union Leader
Political News & Analysis
In N.H., the Swing Voter Is Vanishing - Washington Post
McCain Senses Momentum Is Starting to Help Him - New York Times
Clinton Debuts Softer Strategy - Chicago Tribune
Giuliani Begins Retreat From New Hampshire - New York Sun
How Petraeus Turned Around Iraq
- Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer
Then They Came for Mark Steyn...
- David Warren, Ottawa Citizen
Hillary Agonistes
- Thomas Lifson, American Thinker
The Mother of All Elections
- Duncan Currie, The American
- Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer
Then They Came for Mark Steyn...
- David Warren, Ottawa Citizen
Hillary Agonistes
- Thomas Lifson, American Thinker
The Mother of All Elections
- Duncan Currie, The American
New York Times / EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Fed And Regulators Shrugged As The Subprime Crisis Spread
Fed And Regulators Shrugged As The Subprime Crisis Spread
- Calculated Risk: Greenspan Shrugged...
- PrairiePundit: NY Times:Until the boom in subprime mortgages turned into a national nightmare this summer, the few ...
- The Democratic Party: Chat away......
New York Times / ERIC LICHTBLAU
Democrats Delay A Vote On Immunity For Wiretaps
Democrats Delay A Vote On Immunity For Wiretaps
- Middle Earth Journal: A bad day for al-Qaeda...
- TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime: Sen. Harry Reid pulled the FISA bill today saying there were too many amendments to consider bef...
Bill Moyers Journal on the Media Consolidation Crisis: "The Stakes Are Enormous" [VIDEO]
Video: The FCC is poised to relax the rules barring publishing conglomerates from buying up local papers and television station this month. More »
Huckabee Wanted to Free Confessed Murderer Because They Had Become a Christian [VIDEO]
Post by Adam Howard
Video: Mike Huckabee granted clemency twice as much as the three previous governors of Arkansas combined. More »
Huckabee's Middle East Policy
Lee Cary
Mike Huckabee's recently published foreign policy approach toward the Middle East is an advance to the past. More
Hillary's Stumble Could Be Great News for GOP
Steven M. Warshawsky
Despite her many flaws, Hillary remains the most formidable Democratic candidate for the general election. More
The Algorism of Global Doom
James Lewis
When the story of our time is written -- as soon as future historians can stop laughing -- Al Gore will be Exhibit #1 for the unprecedented nuttiness of our politics. More
Lee Cary
Mike Huckabee's recently published foreign policy approach toward the Middle East is an advance to the past. More
Hillary's Stumble Could Be Great News for GOP
Steven M. Warshawsky
Despite her many flaws, Hillary remains the most formidable Democratic candidate for the general election. More
The Algorism of Global Doom
James Lewis
When the story of our time is written -- as soon as future historians can stop laughing -- Al Gore will be Exhibit #1 for the unprecedented nuttiness of our politics. More
Mirage of Improvement in Iraq
Yet Another Facelift for the Failed Occupation
by Dahr Jamail / December 18th, 2007
The November 19 New York Times announces, “Baghdad’s Weary Start to Exhale as Security Improves.” (Full article …)
BYRON YORK: “Are you about worn out of all the television commercials you’re seeing?” “Huckabee Hits the Target” 12/18 6:00 AM
MARK STEYN: The sub-text of Huck's ad is: I can't be bothered deferring to the vacuous generalities of the liberal establishment's pseudo-religion. Iowa's pretty much in the bag. “We Wish You a Wedgy Christmas” 12/18 8:24 AM
CARRIE LUKAS: Many Americans like the idea of a woman president. That doesn’t mean they’re willing to support Hillary Clinton to get one. “No Sisters to the Rescue” 12/18 6:20 AM
RICH LOWRY: Rudy's victory scenario depends on a fractured party. “Rudy Fade” 12/18 12:00 AM
KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: Mike Huckabee plays religious hardball. “A Divider, Not a Uniter” 12/18 12:00 AM
MARK STEYN: The sub-text of Huck's ad is: I can't be bothered deferring to the vacuous generalities of the liberal establishment's pseudo-religion. Iowa's pretty much in the bag. “We Wish You a Wedgy Christmas” 12/18 8:24 AM
CARRIE LUKAS: Many Americans like the idea of a woman president. That doesn’t mean they’re willing to support Hillary Clinton to get one. “No Sisters to the Rescue” 12/18 6:20 AM
RICH LOWRY: Rudy's victory scenario depends on a fractured party. “Rudy Fade” 12/18 12:00 AM
KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: Mike Huckabee plays religious hardball. “A Divider, Not a Uniter” 12/18 12:00 AM
LARRY KUDLOW: Ben Bernanke did nothing last week to solve the growing global credit crisis. “Bernanke Blows Smoke”
TERRORISM -- DOES JOHN BOLTON OWE PRESIDENT BUSH AN APOLOGY?: In the current issue of Foreign Affairs, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee criticizes the Bush administration's unilateral foreign policy, calling it an "arrogant bunker mentality." In response, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and the right wing have rushed to defend President Bush. "We ought to be saying thank you to the president for keeping us safe these last six years," Romney said, adding that "Huckabee owes the President an apology." Huckabee wasn't the only one criticizing Bush's foreign policy this weekend. Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton ripped Bush in an interview with Der Spiegel. Bolton said Bush is excessively "moderate," subsequently "putting US national security at risk." So far, Romney and the right wing have been completely silent on Bolton, despite their criticisms of Huckabee. Although Bolton and Huckabee's attacks on Bush come from different perspectives -- Huckabee says Bush is too arrogant and Bolton says he is not arrogant enough -- they both agree that the President's foreign policy has made America less safe. Will Romney -- who thinks Bush has been "keeping us safe these last six years" -- also demand an apology from John Bolton?
HEALTH CARE -- BUSH CLAIMS 'WE HAVE FABULOUS HEALTH CARE' COMPARED TO 'OTHER SYSTEMS AROUND THE WORLD': During a Q & A following his speech on the economy in Fredericksburg, VA, yesterday, President Bush declared that "we have fabulous health care in America." "Before people start griping about the health care system here...compare it with other systems around the world," said Bush. U.S. health care has already been systematically compared to other systems around the world. In many cases, the results are not good for Americans. In 2002, the United States spent more on health care per person than other industrial countries like Britain, Canada, France, and Germany. But unlike those countries, which have universal health care systems, the United States still has roughly 47 million people who lack health coverage. In 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) did a comparative assessment of the health systems of 191 countries and found that in terms of the five measured performance indicators, the United States ranked 37th. In his recent documentary, SiCKO, Michael Moore illustrated clearly how U.S. health care ranked far behind much of the industrial world. As New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has noted, American health care "at its best is the best in the world," but for millions of Americans, "it's all too easy to fall through the cracks in our system."
Anti-Americanism: It's About American Power, Not Policy
Soeren Kern
The roots of enmity toward America reach far deeper than one man and his policies. The problem of anti-Americanism will not go away just because Americans elect a new president. More
Soeren Kern
The roots of enmity toward America reach far deeper than one man and his policies. The problem of anti-Americanism will not go away just because Americans elect a new president. More
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