How much more blood and how many more billions will America pour into a senseless enterprise as it enters its tenth year with the threadbare façade of strategic coherence crumbling? As the President goes to Lisbon this week to "confront" Hamid Karzai right after he enraged Gen. Petraeus by publicly demanding the US scale back its operations, reality calls for more than the … [Read more...] about Ending the Afghan Charade
Could This Be The Independent Ticket in 2012?
Could it be that in 2012 we'll see an independent ticket consisting of Michael Bloomberg for President and his running mate Joe Scarborough? Details here from The Huffington Post's Howard Fineman -- who is not known for wild stories. … [Read more...] about Could This Be The Independent Ticket in 2012?
Aggressive Patdowns
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Calling A Spade A Spade: Time To End TSA Theatre And Corporate Profiteering
If you are planning to fly over the Thankgiving holiday, be sure to figure out if yours are part of the 70-or-so airports that have whole body imaging (WBI) machines. These are your stimulus dollars at work: in March, TSA began deploying 450 advanced imaging technology units which were purchased with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds; they expect to have … [Read more...] about Calling A Spade A Spade: Time To End TSA Theatre And Corporate Profiteering
The Conspiracy to Make Amtrak Profitable
I am not generally given to positing conspiracies of any kind but the actions of the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) in their use of full body scanners and pat downs of airline passengers got me thinking. Sherlock Holmes said, "[W]hen all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Of course, in my youth, it was a neck and … [Read more...] about The Conspiracy to Make Amtrak Profitable
American Arrogance Will End Dollar’s Dominance
In the past 24 hours, we've posted two very hard-hitting articles from China's state-run Global Times that bear attention. The first article, an editorial headlined American Arrogance Will End Dollar's Dominance, is Beijing's reaction to the FED's "QEII" - the second round of U.S. quantitative easing now underway that involves the FED buying $600 billion on U.S. Treasury … [Read more...] about American Arrogance Will End Dollar’s Dominance
Medal Of Honor Awarded
I'd write more about this brave soldier but the WSJ did a fine job on it's own. … [Read more...] about Medal Of Honor Awarded
Putting The Rangel Ethics Conviction In Ethical Perspective
One would think after 50 years of public service Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-New York) might have gamed the system for more than what the House Ethics Committee convicted him. Rangel, the gravel-voiced nattily dressed Harlem congressman, was not a crook in the criminal sense. Rather, Blake Chisam, the committee prosecutor, suggested, the congressman was “overzealous” and “sloppy … [Read more...] about Putting The Rangel Ethics Conviction In Ethical Perspective
Rangel Guilty
A House Ethics committee has found veteran Congresscritter Charles Rangel guilty of 11 ethics charges. The committee will now decide what punishment to commend to the full House with most expecting a reprimand or censure instead of expulsion. Readers are cautioned to wear sunglasses before clicking the link as the blindingly obvious can be dangerous to view without proper … [Read more...] about Rangel Guilty
Democrat: Party Responded “Like Hoover” When Should Have Responded Like FDR
A Democratic leader has criticized his own party for responding like Herbert Hoover to the unemployment crisis when it should have responded like FDR -- signalling again that a major soul searching is going on within the Democratic part on how they managed to blow the significant support it got from voters in 2008 in just two short years: The Democratic Party's Herbert … [Read more...] about Democrat: Party Responded “Like Hoover” When Should Have Responded Like FDR
Sympathy for Jim DeMint and David Axelrod
Poor Jim DeMint. The Republican senator from South Carolina, the financial godfather of the Tea Party movement, the other day had to explain on TV the "compromise" being worked out between his party and the Democrats over extending tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of American earners. And he had to do so while being so deliriously and deliciously bemused about what he and … [Read more...] about Sympathy for Jim DeMint and David Axelrod
Just What We Need: Another Celebrity Food Business
Pat Boone has launched a mail-order steak business. Shouldn't it be ham -- or baloney? … [Read more...] about Just What We Need: Another Celebrity Food Business
Asia and Back
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Tea Party Going Rogue
They haven't packed the moving vans yet, but new members of Congress are starting to feel pressure to split the GOP apart. This weekend they found a flood of email and voice mail messages to attend a Tea Party meeting in Washington rather than the traditional orientation for freshmen lawmakers at the conservative Claremont Institute, leading to complaints about "an … [Read more...] about Tea Party Going Rogue
Facebook Aims to Change the Email Game
To begin with, what Facebook announced yesterday is not email. The new offering has three main features: 1) Seamless Messaging, 2) Conversation History, and 3) Social Inbox. Zuckerberg at 10:07 PST, "It is not email." And it's not a Gmail Killer. Zuckerberg at 10:33, "Gmail is a great product [and] email is still really important to a lot of people." So what is … [Read more...] about Facebook Aims to Change the Email Game
The Dangers of the Partisan News Media
CNN's John Avlon looks at the dangers of the partisan news media in this MUST READ here. May I say: "Ditto"? … [Read more...] about The Dangers of the Partisan News Media
Carnival Economy
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Incentivizing Israel to Negotiate in Bad Faith
I have a new post up at Comments from Left Field on Israel's agreement to freeze new settlement construction in the West Bank in exchange (among other things) for the United States never asking Israel to do it again. … [Read more...] about Incentivizing Israel to Negotiate in Bad Faith
Book Review by Globe and Mail Ottawa Bureau chief John Ibbitson: GW Bush’s Legacy In Seven Words: ‘Nobody Lied. We Were All Wrong’
George W. Bush is asking the impossible of us: to consider his legacy without passion. In Decision Points, a plainly written tale of key moments during Bush’s presidency, we are offered an uncomplicated account of an uncomplicated man devoid of Oedipal issues with his father, a devout Christian who gave up alcohol when he realized it was starting to control his life, a loyal … [Read more...] about Book Review by Globe and Mail Ottawa Bureau chief John Ibbitson: GW Bush’s Legacy In Seven Words: ‘Nobody Lied. We Were All Wrong’
On George Bush’s Animus: “A Small Fraction of a Man” by William Rivers Pitt/ (Op Ed from Truthout)
A Small Fraction of a Man Saturday 13 November 2010 by: William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed George W. Bush was all over my television this past week, all over the newspapers, and the feelings inspired by his sudden reappearance are almost beyond my capacity to describe. There was the story about his hearty approval of waterboarding. There was the story that had … [Read more...] about On George Bush’s Animus: “A Small Fraction of a Man” by William Rivers Pitt/ (Op Ed from Truthout)