Tag: george w. bush

Need for Presidents to ‘Look Tough’ Isn’t Getting US Anywhere

President Barack Obama is said to feel he is in trouble politically because his enemies in Congress and among the Washington journalists who decide what the "mood" of Washington is on any given day say he is not tough enough. This is the kind of mind reading about what the public thinks that got him … Continue reading “Need for Presidents to ‘Look Tough’ Isn’t Getting US Anywhere”

O=W

"O=W" is a bumper sticker beginning to show up on liberals’ cars. After the president’s speech Tuesday night at West Point, I suspect it will spread rapidly. For eight years, conservatives endured the agony of watching President George W. Bush attach the label "conservative" to a host of policies that were anti-conservative: Wilsonian wars, American … Continue reading “O=W”

Mission Creepy: The Rise of the ‘Daddy State’

Will recession-induced budget cuts result in the National Guard being deputized as lawmen in Jefferson County, Ala.? While he may be bluffing for effect, Jefferson County Sheriff Randy Christian didn’t seem to be altogether unserious when he suggested that soldiers might be brought in to supplement policing gaps supposedly left by a $4 million budget … Continue reading “Mission Creepy: The Rise of the ‘Daddy State’”

The More Things Change

A presidential candidate opposed to the Iraq War is elected and enters the Oval Office. Yet six months later, there are still essentially the same number of troops in Iraq as were there when his predecessor left, the same number, in fact, used in the original invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Moreover, the new … Continue reading “The More Things Change”

Guantánamo: You Can Check Out Any Time You Like, but You Can Never Leave

Imagine if you were imprisoned for seven years without charge or trial, and then a judge ruled that the government’s case against you consisted solely of unreliable allegations made by other prisoners (who were tortured, coerced, bribed, or suffering from mental health issues) and a "mosaic" of intelligence, purporting to rise to the level of … Continue reading “Guantánamo: You Can Check Out Any Time You Like, but You Can Never Leave”

Obama Maintains Bush Policies on Gitmo Uighurs

Last Thursday, while most U.S. media outlets were focused relentlessly on the marathon endurance test that was Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing, the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight held a hearing to investigate why the Bush administration had allowed Chinese interrogators to visit Guantánamo to interrogate the … Continue reading “Obama Maintains Bush Policies on Gitmo Uighurs”