I use the words, “stands witness,” because they have a very singular significance. George W. Bush did meet privately with selected families of fallen Americans, but he did not put himself there on the tarmac in the dead of night to witness, directly and in person, the graphic human consequences of his war policies. Whether the war in Afghanistan, or any war, is justified and necessary, or not, to...

Incredibly, President Barack Obama’s in-depth Afghanistan review is underplaying the evident peril that arming unruly warlords empowers them to use American war techniques to scuttle his agenda and settle mutual scores with more lethal force instead . It is fast-forwarding two great dangers. First, it is ensuring that Afghanistan can have no central government in Kabul capable of enforcing discipline on the...

The Watertown Daily Times has endorsed Republican Dede Scozzafava for the race to represent the 23rd Congressional District in New York. Below is their endorsement. The national attention focused on the special election for New York’s 23rd Congressional District has proved exhilarating, frustrating and slightly irrelevant. Political analysts have cast the three-way race in different ways. Some have described...

Message to America: A bewildered man emerges Wednesday from a restaurant in Peshawar, Pakistan, to a scene of utter devastation. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed at least 107. If this editorial from Pakistan’s The Nation is anything to go by, Hillary Clinton’s “hearts and minds” visit to Pakistan is, as the headline says, “falling flat”...

Now that most economists, our government, the Federal Reserve, Wall Street Barons, and our ignorant and shallow 24/7 info-entertainment Media pundits have pronounced that the recession is over, there are no more excuses. For all those people still lounging around on unemployment benefits, given up looking, or working at temporary and part-time jobs, get off your lazy duffs. There are no more excuses. Take...

From the local CBS affiliate in Boston:

Yes, yes, to fight the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. But eight years later, American blood and treasure are still being poured into a country of dirt-poor, illiterate people who support themselves by growing poppy for opium and heroin under one of the most corrupt governments in the world. As Barack Obama makes a midnight visit to honor the incoming dead and console their families, critics may sneer at...

The vote is in. Tom Friedman says no more troops for Afghanistan. Why? When I think back on all the moments of progress in that part of the world — all the times when a key player in the Middle East actually did something that put a smile on my face — all of them have one thing in common: America had nothing to do with it. America helped build out what they started, but the breakthrough didn’t start...

From a Politico email alert: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled a health reform bill Thursday that would cost $894 billion over 10 years and includes a public option. It meets President Obama’s goal of not adding to the federal deficit, cutting the deficit by about $30 billion in the first 10 years. And now it gets interesting. Full story here.

Tom Friedman says don’t send more troops to Afghanistan, because there are no positive trends to build on, like the Anbar Awakening before the surge in Iraq. Yet back in 2007, Friedman condemned the surge precisely because there was no progress to build on: January 3, 2007 Now President Bush wants a “surge” of more U.S. troops to Baghdad, in one last attempt to bring order. Whenever I hear this surge...

Speaking as one who has been critical of most of President Obama’s domestic initiatives this year, I find myself in the curious position of having to praise him three times in one week. First, he moved to finally provide long overdue improvements to the nation’s power grid. Then he worked with Congressional leadership to shut down foreign tax dodge schemes. (Sadly, with Charlie Rangel’s name...

David Adams commanded a US advisory team in the Afghan province of Khost. Ann Marlowe reported from Afghanistan. They write, From the beginning of 2007 to March 2008, the 82nd Airborne Division’s strategy in Khost proved that 250 paratroopers could secure a province of a million people in the Pashtun belt. The key to success in Khost—which shares a 184 kilometer-long border with Pakistan’s lawless...

There’s plenty of material out there, but Steve Biddle’s article in TNR [subscription only] stands head and shouders above the rest. Even if you’re against more troops, you should test your logic against Biddle. For example, NYT columnist Nick Kristof wrote: The United States was born of our ancestors’ nationalistic resentment of a foreign power whose troops we saw as occupiers, not protectors....

When I read this item at Politico over coffee this morning, I had to double check and see if I hadn’t inadvertently followed a link to The Onion. A new bill is being introduced which would make it far more difficult for people to hide their assets in foreign banks to avoid paying taxes on the money. Good idea! But it’s being introduced, in part, by Charlie Rangel. (I’ll give you a moment to...

It sure sounds that way. More HERE.

WASHINGTON — Memo to Democrats: You will be defined by President Obama whether you like it or not, so you might as well embrace him for the benefits he can bring you. Memo to Republicans: Talk a right-wing game in your ideological magazines and at your tea parties if that makes you happy. But to win elections, your candidates had better look like middle-of-the-road problem-solvers. Those are...

Poking the Cobra Raging Moderate, by Will Durst Now is the time for all good men to put their hands together, pull them apart and rapidly put them back together again, and repeat, to give props to the president for not curling up into a fetal position with a “Kick Me” sign taped to his butt. You know. Like a Democrat. He’s taking it straight to his perceived enemy, calling both Fox News and Rush Limbaugh...

Bob Englehart, The Hartford Courant This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

I like Steve Benen and used to read his blog, The Carpetbagger Report, regularly. I still occasionally read his posts at his current home, The Washington Monthly’s Political Animal — but I have to seriously question this post from earlier today, bemoaning Democrats’ perceived inability (unwillingness?) to enforce “party loyalty.” An excerpt: Political parties that expect loyalty...

This quip is one for the archives, best appreciated if you read the entire (brief) story at NYT. “Kudo to the governor for his creative use of coincidence with his veto message,” the spokesman, Quintin Mecke said in an e-mail message. He added, “We will call it even and start with a clean slate with the governor from here on out.”

“I won’t risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary,” the President said this week at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station. “And if it’s necessary, we will back you up to the hilt.” He was talking to men and women in uniform but answering an American who never wore one, Dick Cheney, who has accused him of “dithering” about sending more troops to Afghanistan during...

Exactly how important is it to Americans that their elected officials receive a mathematical majority of votes in any given election in order to carry the vaunted mantle of having a “mandate from the people?” And if we see a continuing trend of voter dissatisfaction with the normal two menu choices and 3rd party candidates carry more and more influence, will this help or hurt our great American...

Conservative talk show mega-maven Rush Limbaugh ranted and thundered about what was supposedly a old thesis done by President Barack Obama. But in the end, it turned out to be a hoax. Details HERE. Meanwhile, some of Limbaugh’s new statements will likely make NFL owners breathe a sigh of relief that he was booted from buying into an NFL team. Read these. His fans and defenders will say it’s taken...

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés and I have been posting on a Texas criminal justice case that has now become an issue of national interest. It is the now infamous case of Todd Willingham who was executed almost six years ago for the 1991 arson related death of his three children at his home in Corsicana, Texas. The Texas Forensic Science Commission was reviewing the case and hired the noted fire scientist Craig...

A leaked memo from the Democratic Whip’s office shows that they may have under 200 votes for the public option, so the issue of 60 Senate votes may be moot. See details at the Plumline.