Month: October 2006

Presidential approval polling figures, so ripe and upward moving in September, are as off-a-cliff-steeply in the first half of October. The likes of the polling gap between Americans likely to cast a generic Democratic and a generic Republican vote in the upcoming midterm elections hasn’t been seen since 1994 – and then in reverse, of … Continue reading “Snatching Defeat
From Victory’s Jaws”

Updated at 12:40 p.m. EDT, Oct. 19, 2006 In a relatively quiet day for Iraqi citizens, 78 Iraqis are known dead and another 44 have suffered injuries due to ongoing violence in the country. The U.S. military announced that one American soldier died today and 10 American servicemen were killed on Tuesday. Also, the death … Continue reading “Wednesday: 78 Iraqis Killed, 46 Injured”

If Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki were inclined to bet his life on President George W. Bush’s latest assurances that there will be no timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, he should probably give it a second thought. While Bush, true to his self-image as an uncommonly firm leader in the mold of … Continue reading “Iraqi Endgame Approaching, Bush Ready or Not”

The death of Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist and avowed foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was the occasion for a veritable orgy of Russia-bashing, one that the Western media and their Russian teachers’ pets lingered over with voluptuous abandon. Amid elegies praising Politkovskaya as a veritable saint and valorizing her opposition to the Chechen … Continue reading “The Frame-Up of
Vladimir Putin”

As the “failure” or “partial success” of an apparent atomic bomb by North Korea reverberates around the world, with many automatically judging the test a failure, ignored is the Bush administration’s concept of “usable nukes,” or “mini-nukes." The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea may have just tested its own mini-nuke, which would be the ultimate … Continue reading “North Korea’s Mini-Nuke?”

Well, that tears it. I read the Military Commissions Act of 2006 on my sh*tty little dial-up connection here in the cabin, and immediately went to the pawn shop in Moab and bought another rifle. Five of them now in the stash, plus a couple pistols. Ready enough to arm seven people altogether. Have you … Continue reading “Anti-US but Pro-American”

Updated at 11:55 p.m. EDT, Oct. 17, 2006 In today’s developments, at least 77 Iraqis have died and 49 more were injured. The Department of Defense today announced the death of an American soldier in Iraq; he died of non-combat related injuries on Saturday. According to a news report also released today, the family of … Continue reading “Tuesday: 77 Killed, 49 Injured Across Iraq”

Between Sept. 11, 2001, and his State of the Union Address in 2002, George W. Bush had America in the palm of his hand. But in that speech, Bush blew it. Singling out Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as state sponsors of terror seeking weapons of mass destruction, Bush yoked them together in an “axis … Continue reading “Is the Bush Doctrine Dead?”

As the violence in Iraq mounts and the U.S. military experiences a spike in deaths and casualties, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shia, has refused to begin disarming Shi’ite militias, which have infiltrated the government security forces. Maliki has also resisted allowing the U.S. military to conduct large-scale operations in Sadr City against the … Continue reading “Stop Training Iraqis
for Civil War”

The war on terror is a false metaphor that has led to counterproductive and self-defeating policies. Five years after 9/11, a misleading figure of speech applied literally has unleashed a real war fought on several fronts – Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Somalia – a war that has killed thousands of innocent civilians and enraged millions … Continue reading “A Self-Defeating War”