On Tuesday, Clayton Lockett died of a heart attack more than an hour after his botched lethal injection began. Things went so wrong that the state of Oklahoma’s second scheduled execution for that night was stayed for 14 days. A notable thing about Lockett’s slow...
Paul Ryan’s Phony Budget – Taxes Today for Promises Tomorrow
We now know that despite all the smoke and mirrors Paul Ryan’s budget was primarily a way to reinstate defense sequester cuts. For all its posturing about what future congresses should do, e.g. reforming Medicare and social security, his real budget proposes to take...
Kerry’s Propaganda War on Russia’s RT
When specialists with a good sense of history insist that war with Russia is “not unthinkable” precipitated by events in Ukraine, one should take careful note. The “not unthinkable” quote is from pre-eminent American historian of Russia, Stephen F. Cohen, who recently...
34 Killed, 88 Wounded Under Heavy Security as Iraqis Went To Polls
Kerry Draws Israel Hawks’ Ire Amid Failed Talks
In the wake of the collapse of U.S.-led peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the angry rhetoric around this conflict has only escalated. After days of mutual recriminations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, U.S. Secretary of State John...
A Neocon’s Lament
I’m old enough to remember when there was no such creature as a neocon: we knew that because Jonah Goldberg told us so. So did this writer for Commentary magazine, who suggested that to even form the word on one’s lips was the equivalent of favorably citing the...
How To Lose a War That Wasn’t There
Originally posted at TomDispatch. You might think that 12-and-a-half years after it began, Washington would have learned something useful about its war on terror, but no such luck. If you remember, back in the distant days just after 9/11 when that war was launched...
Accelerating the Counterproductive Drone War in Yemen
Although President Barack Obama pledged to curtail U.S. drone attacks in the war on terror, recently in Yemen, he has done just the opposite. Three such attacks whacked more than 40 alleged Islamist militants. It seems that three civilians were accidentally killed in...
Massachusetts Pays $177 Million in State Taxes to the Pentagon
Just weeks before Tax Day, April 15, Governor Deval Patrick, Obama’s "close friend," signed into law a bond bill that dispenses $177 million in Massachusetts State Taxes to the Pentagon for construction and "upgrades" of U.S. military bases in the...