3,232. 3,547. 3,689. Anybody remember these numbers? I don’t, and for that I’m a bit ashamed. But 4,000, well, that one seems to give us pause. For some reason the sight of three zeros makes us turn our necks long enough to pay attention, ask more questions and continue to find few real answers. So here’s my question on the anniversary of this 4th set of three zeros: Was it worth it? And more broadly, how has the Bush administration demonstrated that this war has: been worth...

I’ve been trying to put my finger on why I feel Obama’s speech today was important, not only to me personally, but the country as a whole. And as I’ve been surfing the blogosphere and reading the various opinions, I found a word that pretty much sums it up. And all thanks to a title of one of Andrew Sullivan’s post that’s really only tangentially related to what I’m about to say. Because while one of Sully’s readers argues that Obama’s remarks prove...

Looks like McCain is pretty much neck and neck with Romney. He pulls 34%, while Romney takes 29%. That’s pretty much right where the numbers were at before the caucuses. If Romney can tie McCain it will really help him make a “comeback” story. From Zogby: “Among Republicans, McCain leads Romney among Independents 43% to 26%, voters over 50, Moderates (50% to 20%), women (36% to 25%), and in the North (45% to 21%, effectively knocking out Paul). It is tied between Romney and McCain...

First he said this… “It reminds me of what Sinclair Lewis once said. He says, ‘when fascism comes to this country, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross.’ Now I don’t know whether that’s a fair assessment or not, but you wonder about using a cross, like he is the only Christian or implying that subtly. So, I don’t think I would ever use anything like that.” But at the same time, he was creating the following ad which just started running...

(AP Photo by Evan Vucci) Joe Biden is sort of like the anti-Obama. He’s deeply entrenched in Washington, is a firm believer in the process and has a boatload of national legislative experience. So will that help him make an impact in Iowa? Well, if you ask Joe Biden… DES MOINES – - Joe Biden is talking. “Barack does a room, Hillary does a room, I do the same room and I win,” he says. “I have absolute confidence in that. The question is: Do I get in enough rooms?” [...] He...

Yesterday, the press was given an article where Huckabee was interviewed about his foreign policy views, and his tone towards Bush is, well, ballsy to say the least. What’s more, I think this is a significant turning point in his campaign. I’ll explain why after some AP reportage… Huckaboom: “American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, and reach out,” Huckabee said. “The Bush administration’s arrogant bunker mentality has been...

Folks, it was part of her strategy. Seriously. And that has a lot of people wondering if her lead campaign strategist, Mark Penn, should be put out to pasture. From Newsday: “There are two people who have come up with this strategy — one Hillary Clinton and one Mark Penn,” said a top Clinton ally, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Mark wanted to run her, basically, for re-election, and we are seeing what happened.” Said another Clinton camper: “The heat’s...

A commentor in my previous post about our government’s increasingly paranoid information collection tactics provided this massive list of stories, so I’m passing them along: FBI apologizes to lawyer held in Madrid bombings: Link Homeland Security saves America by busting a toy store owner for legally selling a Rubik’s Cube knockoff: Link FBI invokes Patriot Act for Criminal Copyright Infringement: Link Though warned in 2001 to use this power sparingly, FBI agents issued more than...

And not a moment too soon! BAGHDAD – Iraq’s parliament on Monday shrugged off U.S. criticism and adjourned for a month, as key lawmakers declared there was no point waiting any longer for the prime minister to deliver Washington-demanded benchmark legislation for their vote. Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani closed the final three-hour session without a quorum present and declared lawmakers would not reconvene until Sept. 4. That date is just 11 days before the top U.S. military and political...

Seriously, bar none without a doubt the best I’ve seen in a long time. With a couple of TV spots like these, Richardson could really capture some attention. They’re smart, braggadicious without being preachy, take potshots at the whole electoral system and are kind of self deprecating to boot. Take a look.

My site’s look and feel is down, but not out. I can’t login to the backend, so I don’t know when I’ll be posting, but all the content is there and I hope to get back to posting soon. Also, if anybody knows anything about Wordpress, please drop me a line at justinpgardner at yahoo dot com.

You may have heard about this, but if not it’s worth a click.

We kidnap them, “interrogate” them and then find out they did nothing wrong. But then their countries don’t want them anymore. From the Wash Post: LONDON — More than a fifth of the approximately 385 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been cleared for release but may have to wait months or years for their freedom because U.S. officials are finding it increasingly difficult to line up places to send them, according to Bush administration officials and defense lawyers. More...

Yet another sign that we need some new ideas about how to address the issue of drugs in America. From the AP: (AP) Cocaine prices in the United States have dropped and the drug’s purity increased, despite years of effort and nearly $5 billion spent by the U.S. government to combat Colombia’s drug industry, the White House drug czar acknowledged in a letter to a key senator. The drug czar, John Walters, wrote Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, that retail cocaine prices fell by 11 percent...

Politico says he did, but I don’t agree. Find out more here.

Bush said no, then said yes… said Tuesday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice might have one-on-one talks with Iranian leaders at an international conference on Iraq next month, but that Tehran’s nuclear program would not be on the table. In an interview, Bush initially appeared to rule out any contact with Iran, a member of his “axis of evil.” “What I’m not willing to do is sit down bilaterally with the Iranians,” he told PBS’ “The Charlie...

Find out more about two brave souls, and then check out the moronic, “manly” comments of two action-hero obsessed bloggers who think the current students should have done the same thing and fought the gunman… At the very least, count the shots and jump him reloading or changing hands. Better yet, just jump him. Handguns aren’t very accurate, even at close range. I shoot mine all the time at the range, and I still can’t hit squat. I doubt this guy was any better than...

And together, Kim Jong-Il and I are going to change the country’s image. Find out more.

Sounds ridiculous, but it’s reportedly happening to our brave men and women with preexisting “personality disorders.” Eventually the rocket shrapnel was removed from Town’s neck and his ears stopped leaking blood. But his hearing never really recovered, and in many ways, neither has his life. A soldier honored twelve times during his seven years in uniform, Town has spent the last three struggling with deafness, memory failure and depression. By September 2006 he and the...

Southwest Bureau Chief for the Chicago Tribune, Howard Witt, just contacted me with an important update about the remarkably unjust, race-motivated sentencing of Shaquanda Cotton in Paris, TX. Just in case you haven’t heard the backstory, I’ll let Shaquanda tell you herself from the “About Me” section on her blog Free Shaquanda Cotton: I am a 14-year-old black freshman who shoved a hall monitor at Paris High School in a dispute over entering the building before the school...

The answer is simple if you can translate it.

Want another reason to give up meat or at least go with local farmers who treat their animals humanely? The stress, crowding and contamination inside confinement buildings foster disease, especially respiratory illnesses. In addition to toxic fumes, bacteria, yeast and molds have been recorded in swine buildings at a level more than 1,000 times higher than in normal air. To prevent disease outbreaks (and to stimulate faster growth), the hog industry adds more than 10 million pounds of antibiotics...

That’s the meme being offered around the right-wing noise machine. McClatchy Newspapers has more: WASHINGTON – The Bush administration and its defenders like to point out that President Bush isn’t the first president to fire U.S. attorneys and replace them with loyalists. While that’s true, the current case is different. Mass firings of U.S. attorneys are fairly common when a new president takes office, but not in a second-term administration. Prosecutors are usually appointed...

That’s what some proposed legislation in South Carolina is suggesting. Sean Aqui talks about the slippery slope here.