Archived
articles that appeared in Sounding Off on our Home page
from January 5, 2009-present that were linked to from outside sources.
Current archive 2009-2012 (from most recent ): / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 /
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Older archived articles pre-2009 can be found using the below links:
Archived
by date: / Apr. 10, 2003-October 15, 2003
/ October 16, 2003-December 31, 2003
/ January 1, 2004-February 29, 2004 / March
1, 2004-April 30, 2004 / May 1-May 31, 2004
/ June 1, 2004-June 30, 2004 / July
1 - August 19, 2004 / August 20 - September
30, 2004 /
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On the government's owners
by Glenn Greenwald
"And the single most insightful article on the financial crisis was written by former IMF Chief Economist and current MIT Professor Simon Johnson in the May, 2009 issue of The Atlantic, when he argued that "the finance industry has effectively captured our government" and detailed how the U.S. has become very similar to failed emerging-market nations in both its political and economic culture." |
Accusing Obama critics of "standing with the terrorists"
by Glenn Greenwald |
Why Obama shouldn't have received the Peace Prize -- yet
The president may be an inspirational figure, and he's not George Bush, but that's not enough. He needs to deliver
by Robert Reich |
McChrystal Must Testify
by By David Swanson |
A Truly Shocking Gitmo Story
by Andy Worthington
"In four years of researching and writing about Guantánamo, I have become used to uncovering shocking information, but for sheer cynicism, I am struggling to think of anything that compares to the revelations contained in the unclassified ruling in the habeas corpus petition of Fouad al-Rabiah, a Kuwaiti prisoner whose release was ordered last week by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. |
Exit Afghanistan and Leave Iran Alone
by Sheldon Richman |
Victory: Chicago Loses the Olympics
by Dave Zirin |
Break the Banks
Why don't any of the Obama administration's financial reforms help middle-class Americans?
by Eliot Spitzer
"The Obama administration, which has spent much of the past year bailing out banks and protecting the markets, has done shockingly little to help the middle class that has borne the brunt of the financial meltdown." |
Washington Doesn't Get It: We Need More Jobs
by Dan Froomkin
"Nowhere is the massive disconnect between Washington D.C. and the rest of the country more striking than when it comes to the issue of jobs." |
Commentary: Now's the time for Obama to just say 'no'
by Joseph L. Galloway
"There are times when less is more and more is the wrong answer, and right now in Afghanistan would seem to be one of those times." |
The vast right-wing conspiracy is back
Some of Bill Clinton's most unhinged foes are flinging wild charges at Obama. This time, they're better organized
by Joe Conason
"What Obama should anticipate -- indeed, what he is already encountering -- is a cascade of slurs, threats and rhetorical violence that reanimates all of the worst themes of the bad old days." |
A Voice Worth Heeding on Afghanistan
by ALBERT R. HUNT
"Zbigniew Brzezinski says that a central consideration for President Barack Obama, as he faces an agonizing choice over Afghanistan, is what happened to the Russians in the 1980s and after they were driven out in 1989." |
The joint Post/Obama defense of the Patriot Act and FISA
by Glenn Greenwald
"...the administration wanted to issue a Press Release exploiting the fear surrounding the Zazi case to justify Obama's Bush-copying civil liberties policies (including its current demands for full Bush-era Patriot Act renewal and FISA continuation) while depicting Obama as our careful yet forceful protector." |
What else could our bailout money have bought?
For $4 trillion, we could've wiped out any number of diseases worldwide
by Matt Bivens |
What should be done about unemployment?
Four things Obama can do to stem further job losses in the worst labor market in 70 years
by Robert Reich |
The suffocatingly narrow Afghanistan "debate"
by Glenn Greenwald |
Re: Obama's Email Problem
by Nick Baumann
"An old problem is back in Barack Obama's inbox: What to do about millions of missing Bush-era emails?" |
Defining Victory to Win a War
by Malou Innocent
"After nearly a decade at war in Afghanistan, the United States still has not defined the terms of the conflict." |
Obama's Mideast Peace Dilemma
by Robert Parry
"President Barack Obama’s quest for Middle East peace must navigate very tricky geopolitical straits, with some traditional American enemies emerging as possibly his best allies and usual U.S. allies arrayed as adversaries." |
A War of Absurdity
by Robert Scheer
"...al-Qaida, for all practical purposes, does not exist in Afghanistan--so why are we having a big debate about sending even more troops to fight an enemy that has relocated elsewhere?" |
'Rethink Afghanistan'
Destroys Failed Logic of War
by Jeremy Scahill |
The still-missing central fact in the Iran drama
by Glenn Greenwald
"After all, if Iran voluntarily notified the IAEA of the Qom facility before it was even operational and thus agreed to have the facility inspected, it's impossible to maintain the melodramatic storyline that Iran was planning something deeply nefarious here and got 'caught red-handed.'" |
Wet Worlds
...and not a drop to drink
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson |
The Golden State
Yes, despite what mineralogists say, gold can rust
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson |
Is the media exaggerating the Iranian nuke threat?
If Iran is open to U.N. inspections, it's probably not constructing nuclear weapons
by Juan Cole
"If Iran really does permit full, ongoing IAEA inspections of the facility, then it cannot be used for weapons production. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted Sunday that Iran cannot use the Natanz plant for bomb-making because it is being regularly inspected by the UN." |
How similar are the cases against Iran and Iraq?
by Glenn Greenwald
"It's not surprising that media coverage of this matter is similar (though not identical) to what happened in 2002 with Iraq, given that media organizations and establishment journalists (with some exceptions) never examined what they did wrong in the run-up to the Iraq War and, indeed, don't think they did anything fundamentally wrong." |
U.S. Story on Iran Nuke Facility Doesn't Add Up
by Gareth Porter
"A major question surrounding the official story is why the Barack Obama administration had not done anything – and apparently had no plans to do anything - with its intelligence on the Iranian facility at Qom prior to the Iranian letter to the IAEA." |
Gore Vidal: 'We'll have a dictatorship soon in the US'
The grand old man of letters Gore Vidal claims America is 'rotting away' -- and don't expect Barack Obama to save it
from a conversation with GoreVidal by Tim Teeman |
Why Afghanistan Really Fell Apart
by Bruce P. Cameron
"Much of the U.S. conventional wisdom about how the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 led to the rise of the Taliban and the creation of al-Qaeda safe havens before 2001 comes from the popular movie, “Charlie Wilson’s War.” But that represents a dangerous misperception." |
Georgia/Russia: how our political discourse works
by Glenn Greenwald
"...a timely reminder of the deceitful methods that permeate our political discourse, especially when it comes to demonizing America's Enemy du jour." |
Post editors should read their own columnists
by Glenn Greenwald
"But more broadly, just look at the sort of things that are routinely defended by the Post Op-Ed team -- everything from torture, illegal eavesdropping and imprisonment with no trials to brutal Latin American dictators and unprovoked, devastating American military attacks on countries that haven't attacked us and aren't close to doing so." |
Dry Heaves and Sucker Ploys: The Great New Iran "Crisis"
by Chris Floyd
"Iran was building a new nuclear enrichment facility, as it is allowed to do by international treaty. The United States and several other Western countries knew about the facility for years. The facility, which is still months away from completion, is not designed to enrich uranium to weapons grade. Iran is not required to inform the IAEA about any new enrichment plant until six months before the plant goes into operation. |
All The President's Values
by Drew Weston
"No one seems to notice that the president who believes social issues are so "90's," "retro," and "distracting" that he can just avoid them until the "real" issues have been settled (by which point he will likely have lost his super-majorities in one or both houses of Congress) has actually been steadily reinforcing the conservative position on every one of them." |
Iran: More accomplished in one day of negotiations than in 8 years of threats
by Glenn Greenwald |
The Lying Game
by John Pilger
"Something similar is happening over Iran: the same syncopation of government and media “revelations”, the same manufacture of a sense of crisis." |
Congress Gets Paid, Veterans Get Shafted
by Paul Rieckhoff
"Despite repeated assurances that the VA budget would be passed on time this year, the September 30th deadline has come and gone." |
The War on Language
by Chris Hedges
"Those who seek to dominate our behavior first seek to dominate our speech. They seek to obscure meaning. They make war on language." |
Congressman Grayson Has Just Begun to Fight
by John Nichols
"The tough kid from the Bronx (and Harvard Law School) who represents an until recently Republican Orlando-area district pulled no punches Tuesday, when he declared on the House floor: 'The Republican health care plan is this: Don't get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.'" |
Jumpin' Jack Verdi, It's a Gas, Gas, Gas: Iran and the Pipelineistan Opera
by Tom Englehardt
"The New Great Game of the twenty-first century is always over energy and it's taking place on an immense chessboard called Eurasia." |
The top ten things you didn't know about Iran
The assumptions most Americans hold about Iran and its policies are wrong
by Juan Cole |
The truth about jobs that no one wants to tell
If the feds don't spend money to put people back to work, the economy won't recover and politics will get uglier
by Robert Reich |
Who are "the deciders"?
It's upside-down for political leaders to defer to military decisions
by David Sirota |
Should any Iraq lessons be applied to Iran?
by Glenn Greenwald
"Still, the accusations issuing about Iran are unaccompanied by evidence and raise at least as many question as they answer." |
Obama crushes Democratic dissent
The president is obstructing his own agenda by shielding incumbent senators from primary challengers
by David Sirota |
Happy Junta Grounds: Militarist Machiavellis Maneuver for More War
by Chris Floyd
"These days, the always noxious air of the Beltway is astir with the machinations of the military junta that now dominates the gutted and looted ruins of the American republic." |
Where is the Defund Blackwater Act?
Democrats joined Republicans in voting to “Defund ACORN,” yet have done nothing to stop Blackwater’s ongoing taxpayer funded crusade in Iraq and Afghanistan.
by Jeremy Scahill
"Perhaps one of the most jarring comparisons here is the fact that ACORN is now being attacked while the Obama administration continues to contract with Blackwater, the favorite mercenary company of the Bush administration, which is headed by Erik Prince, who was a major donor to Republican causes and campaigns, including those of some of the Defund ACORN bill’s sponsors, including Indiana Republican Mike Pence, one of the key figures in hunting down Van Jones." |
How to talk to complete idiots
Three basic options. Choose wisely, lest you go totally insane
by Mark Morford |
New Rule: If America Can't Get it Together, We Lose the Bald Eagle
by Bill Maher |
Obama will bypass Congress to detain suspects indefinitely
by John Byrne
"Rather than seek approval from Congress to hold some 50 Guantanamo detainees indefinitely, the administration has decided that it has the authority to hold the prisoners under broad-ranging legislation passed in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001." |
The Impeachment of President Obama
by Bob Cesca
"I've been following the Republican descent into the realms of the bizarre for some time now, and it wasn't until the "czars" thing broke that I became convinced that if they retook Congress the Republicans might try to impeach the president. The grounds for both the impeachment and the language used to sell it will likely be fabricated by either Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh." |
Keeping Iran honest
Iran's secret nuclear plant will spark a new round of IAEA inspections and lead to a period of even greater transparency
from the Guardian-UK |
A glossary of terms in foreign affairs
by Glenn Greenwald |
Obama's Shrewd Iran Policy
by Jacob Heilbrunn |
Obama follows Bush’s modus operandi on Iran
by Peter Symonds
"In a manner chillingly reminiscent of the Bush administration’s buildup to the Iraq war, top White House officials yesterday intensified the US propaganda offensive against Iran, threatening heavy sanctions if Tehran does not provide unrestricted access to its newly revealed uranium enrichment plant near the city of Qom and other nuclear facilities and personnel." |
"Afghanistan is Mr. Obama's war of choice"
Foreign relations expert Richard Haass says in an interview that Afghanistan is no longer a necessary war
By Gregor Peter Schmitz and Gabor Steingart |
Debate over Afghanistan is deja vu all over again
by Gabriel Winant |
Fmr. UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter Warns Against “Politically Motivated Hype” on Iran Nuke Program
Democracy Now interview |
America Is Led And Informed By Liars
by Paul Craig Roberts
"The weapons inspectors did an honest job in Iraq and told the truth, but the mainstream media did not emphasize their findings. Instead, the media served as a Ministry of Propaganda, beating the war drums for the US government. Now the whole process is repeating itself. This time the target is Iran. |
Intelligence Vets Back Torture Probe
by Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity |
"Sit!"
Who says right wingers can't be trained?
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson |
TIME TO CHANGE BERNANKE'S MEDICATION?
Secret White House letter to G-20
by Greg Palast |
Neocon Judge's History of Cover-ups
by Robert Parry
"On Sept. 11, the eighth anniversary of the terror attacks on New York and Washington, Silberman issued a 2-to-1 opinion dismissing a lawsuit against the private security firm, CACI International, brought by Iraqi victims of torture and other abuse at Abu Ghraib prison." |
More Than a Numbers Game in Afghanistan
by Eugene Robinson
"It's hard to read Gen. Stanley McChrystal's assessment of the Afghanistan war without hearing one of those horror-movie voices that seem to come from everywhere and nowhere, a voice that grows louder and more insistent with every page: 'Get out. Get out. Get out.'" |
Waking up to discover the mortgage market was a giant criminal enterprise
by Matt Taibbi
"A landmark ruling in a recent Kansas Supreme Court case may have given millions of distressed homeowners the legal wedge they need to avoid foreclosure." |
Victory on preventive detention law: in context
by Glenn Greenwald
"So all one can really say about all of this is that while no improvements have been made, something that would have been extremely bad has been averted, at least for now." |
Obama Echoes Bush on State Secrets?
by Nick Baumann
"But the new rules are weak reforms to the way the doctrine was used during the Bush years, when it was invoked to shield government torture, detention, and rendition policies from outside scrutiny and frequently used to dismiss entire cases." |
This is a difficult letter to write
Of course it will never happen to you. Until it does
by Mark Morford
"Verily, it was a shock to my system for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that I, after all these years and like millions of Americans of all genders, races and political affiliations, will soon find myself face to face with the very same merciless, unaffordable health insurance industry my president is attempting to make slightly less merciless and unaffordable, right this minute." |
Bold Feingold could lead the way out of Afghanistan
by Tom Hayden |
Fighting against ourselves in Afghanistan
The U.S. trains forces in Afghanistan that then go to work for the Taliban
by Ann Jones
"The big Afghanistan debate in Washington is not over whether more troops are needed, but just who they should be: Americans or Afghans -- Us or Them. Having just spent time in Afghanistan seeing how things stand, I wouldn't bet on Them. Frankly, I wouldn't bet on Us either. In eight years, American troops have worn out their welcome." |
GOP Favors Public Option for Property, Not People
by David Cay Johnston |
Will McChrystal Quit?
by ROBERT DREYFUSS
"Yesterday morning, at a meeting of the neoconservative Foreign Policy Initiative, a former top US military officer suggested that General Stanley McChrystal might resign from his post if President Obama doesn't go along with his pending request for more troops for Afghanistan." |
Court Allows Return of Guantánamo Prisoners to Torture
by Andy Worthington |
Your electronic vote in the 2010 election has just been bought
by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"Unless US Attorney General Eric Holder intervenes, your electronic vote in 2010 will probably be owned by the Republican-connected ES&S Corporation. With 80% ownership of America's electronic voting machines, ES&S could have the power to shape America's future with a few proprietary keystrokes." |
David Brooks: our nation's premiere expert warrior
by Glenn Greenwald
"In today's New York Times, the grizzled warrior David Brooks performs a chest-beating war dance over Afghanistan of the type he and his tough guy comrades perfected in the run-up to the Iraq War." |
Jim Cooper primary challenge, TV episode on torture prosecutions, and various other matters
by Glenn Greenwald |
Afghanistan
On the shores of the Big Muddy
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson
"There are two things that can lead Obama to destroy his own presidency. The first, of course, would be if he capitulates to the insurance industry and health care reform either dies, or he signs a bill that maintains the status quo or makes it even worse.The second thing is Afghanistan." |
The Recession is Over! (Now get off your lazy asses and spend some MONEY, dammit!)
by Daniel Patrick Welch |
In defense of ACORN
The right-wing crusade against ACORN is a far bigger fraud than any misdeeds a few employees might have committed
by Joe Conason |
Why Is Obama Still Using Blackwater?
by JEREMY SCAHILL |
Can America Be Salvaged?
by David Michael Green
"I really don't know what to say anymore, about a country in which proposing a new and better version of corporate-plunder masquerading as national healthcare gets you burned in effigy for being a socialist stooge by gun-toting angry mobs." |
Washington's selective deficit disorder
They blew billions on wars and bailouts, but spending cash that actually helps people seems to bother politicians
by David Sirota |
CIA Directors conclude CIA shouldn't be investigated for murder
by Glenn Greenwald
"In a truly shocking development being treated as major news, seven former CIA Directors -- including all three who served under George W. Bush -- jointly concluded that the CIA should not be criminally investigated for torture deaths, and they have written a letter to President Obama (.pdf) expressing that view." |
Conservatives use liberal playbook
by ANDIE COLLER & DANIEL LIBIT
"Yes, the same folks who brought you Obama the socialist have been appropriating the words and ways of leftists past — and generally letting their freak flags fly." |
What to talk about instead of talking about race
The media would rather debate whether right-wing Obama critics are racist than rebut their lies about his policies
by Darren Hutchinson |
Is America Hooked on War?
by Tom Engelhardt
"Think of this as the line in the sand within the Democratic Party, and be assured that the debates within the halls of power over McChrystal's troop requests and Levin's proposal are likely to be fierce this fall. Thought about for a moment, however, both positions can be summed up with the same word: More." |
Where Was Joe Wilson For Bush’s 935 Lies?
by Casey Gane-McCalla |
Israel Struggles to Wriggle Out of the Dock
by Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
"The Goldstone Commission has delivered an unremittingly scathing report on Israel's 22-day war against Hamas in Gaza last December and January." |
Is Bagram Obama’s New Secret Prison?
by Andy Worthington |
Where Is That Online-Powered "Movement" Now?
by Chris Hughes
"But contrary to what a lot of people may think, it wasn't the technology that made the Obama movement possible. What went hand in hand with the technology was a resolute and unyielding focus on good-old-fashioned political organizing." |
Everyone seems to be agreeing with Bin Laden these days
Only Obama, it seems, fails to get the message that we’re losing Afghanistan
by Robert Fisk |
Our war-loving Foreign Policy Community hasn't gone anywhere
by Glenn Greenwald |
National Security Court: Reinventing the Wheel, Poorly
by DAVID RITTGERS
"One of the side effects of the Guantanamo detainee dilemma is a cottage industry of law professors and national security buffs proposing a national security court, a new federal court designed to deal specifically with terrorist cases. The idea is that just as we have specialized courts for immigration and bankruptcy, we ought to have one for terrorists." |
Globalization Goes Bankrupt
by Chris Hedges
"The rage of the disposed is fracturing the country, dividing it into camps that are unmoored from the political mainstream. Movements are building on the ends of the political spectrum that have lost faith in the mechanisms of democratic change. You can't blame them. But unless we on the left move quickly, this rage will be captured by a virulent and racist right wing, one that seeks a disturbing proto-fascism." |
Prisoner Abuse Continues at Bagram Prison in Afghanistan
by Matthias Gebauer, John Goetz and Britta Sandberg |
No downturn for greed
A year after Lehman's collapse, Wall Street is more corrupt than ever
by Robert Reich |
On Racism, Death Threats & The Blindness of Those Who Will Not See
by David Sirota |
Tears of Fire: Mourning in the Macabre Killing Fields of Afghanistan
by Chris Floyd |
Stop Begging Obama and Get Mad
by Chris Hedges
"If we do not tap into the justifiable anger sweeping across the nation, if we do not militantly push back against corporate fraud and imperial wars that we cannot win or afford, the political vacuum we have created will be filled with right-wing lunatics and proto-fascists." |
Closing The Book On The Bush Legacy
by Ronald Brownstein
"On every major measurement, the Census Bureau report shows that the country lost ground during Bush's two terms." |
Death squads, disappearances and torture in Pakistan
by Bill Van Auken
"As the Obama administration prepares a major escalation of the so-called AfPak war, reports from Pakistan’s Swat Valley, near Afghanistan’s eastern border, provide a gruesome indication of the kind of war that the Pentagon and its local allies are waging." |
Cheney and Rumsfeld's "Close Friend" Throws Out Suit Against Alleged Abu Ghraib Torturers
by Jeremy Scahill |
Bush Mishandled Threat Leading up to 9/11 Disaster
by Burt Hall
"For months President Bush and key members of his national security team ignored top expert advice and urgent warnings of an imminent attack, including the use of hijacked aircraft as weapons." |
Carter's Courage
by Marc Lamont Hill
"By identifying the racial dimensions of the current political moment, President Carter has pointed out a huge elephant in the room. Until the rest of the Democratic Party musters the courage to do the same on a regular basis, President Obama will continue to take unnecessary hits." |
A Bad Vietnam Lesson for Afghanistan
by Douglas Valentine |
Challenging Americans on Torture
by Ray McGovern |
Realignment dead, dealignment now
by Brent Budowsky
"The difference between realignment, which is dead, and dealignment, which has arrived, is that many Americans remember life under the most unpopular Republican president in a generation and compare it to life under a Democratic president with large majorities in Congress — and for them, life has not gotten better, and for some, it has gotten worse." |
Top Five Reasons the Baucus Bill Is Really, Really Bad
by RJ Eskow |
The distracting benefits of ACORN hysteria
by Glenn Greenwald
"So with this massive pillaging of America's economic security and the control of American government by its richest and most powerful factions growing by the day, to whom is America's intense economic anxiety being directed? To a non-profit group that devotes itself to providing minute benefits to people who live under America's poverty line, and which is so powerless in Washington that virtually the entire U.S. Senate just voted to cut off its funding at the first sign of real controversy -- could anyone imagine that happening to a key player in the banking or defense industry?" |
Time Magazine: the liberal bias of facts
by Glenn Greenwald |
The Favor Jimmy Carter Did Us All
by Eugene Robinson
"It seems clear to me that some -- but not 'an overwhelming portion,' as Carter claimed -- of the 'intensely demonstrated animosity' toward Obama is indeed 'based on the fact that he is a black man.'" |
Greenspan admits Iraq was about oil, as deaths put at 1.2m
by Peter Beaumont and Joanna Walters |
The "culture of impunity" -- in Iraq and Kenya
by Glenn Greenwald |
Norman Podhoretz's false accusations of "dual loyalty"
by Glenn Greenwald
"Apparently, The Godfather of Neoconservatism believes that American Jews do -- and should -- base their political beliefs not on what is best for their own country, but on what is best for a foreign country (Israel)." |
The Real Lessons of 9/11
by Robert Parry
"On this eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, it’s worth reflecting on how even a mildly competent U.S. President might have prevented the terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and drove the United States into a spasm of revenge that has wasted untold blood and treasure." |
A Turning Point For Obama
by Dan Froomkin |
Republican politicians have no empathy
They only want government to intervene when they suffer personally -- so let's yank their federal health insurance
by Joe Conason |
Veteran CIA analyst says Obama may be threatened by CIA
by Brad Friedman |
Remember 9/11, remember Guantánamo
Eight years on, justice is still denied to 225 men who remain imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay
from Guardian-UK |
Afghanistan Election Fraud and the High Price of Empire
by John Nichols
"It is amusing, if remarkable, that there are still some players in Washington who try to maintain the fantasy that Afghan President Hamid Karzai governs with anything akin to legitimacy." |
High Court Urged to Reject White House Appeal to Keep Abuse Photos Secret
report by Jason Leopold |
Is the Right's attack on Obama's legitimacy new or unprecedented?
by Glenn Greenwald |
More Troops to Afghanistan?
by Richard A. Clarke and Steven Simon
" It is likely that President Obama will soon face a decision whether to increase US forces in Afghanistan above the 70,000 he has already authorized. When he does, what questions should he ask, what decision criteria should he use?" |
Bush's Interrogators Stressed Nudity
by Robert Parry
"The CIA shared with George W. Bush’s Justice Department the details of how an interrogation strategy – with an emphasis on forced nudity and physical abuse – could train prisoners in 'learned helplessness' and demonstrate 'the complete control of Americans.'" |
Afghanistan by the numbers
Is the war worth it? The cost in dollars, years, public opinion and lives
by Tom Engelhardt |
Glenn Beck and The 9/12 Marchers: Subversives From Within
by Frank Schaeffer
"Ordinary Americans might wonder why anyone would stoop so low as to follow Glenn Beck, Fox News and Dick Armey (and their corporate sponsors masquerading as 'FreedomWorks') as they organize their '9/12 March On Washington' to cynically exploit the 9/11 attack." |
Who are the undeserving "others" benefiting from expanded government actions?
by Glenn Greenwald
"Washington politicians are in thrall to special interests and are, in essence, corruptly stealing the country's economic security in order to provide increasing benefits to a small and undeserving minority. But the 'minority' here isn't what Fox News means by that term, but is the tiny sliver of corporate power which literally writes our laws and, in every case, ends up benefiting." |
DoJ Attack On Siegelman's Rights Threatens Election Rights For All
by Andrew Kreig
"By seeking to imprison Siegelman for 20 additional years, DoJ clearly seeks to end public debate about Alabama’s most prominent Democrat." |
The extreme Republican Party
by Neal Gabler
"Let’s not mince words here: We now have an entire political party that is not only dedicated to the mediocre. It is dedicated to the nearly deranged." |
PhRMA’s Big Bribe Comes In
The drug industry’s trade group plans to roll out a series of television advertisements in coming weeks specifically to support Senator Max Baucus’s health care overhaul proposal, according to an industry official involved in the planning.
by Matt Taibbi |
The Wall Street Casino, Back in Business
by Eugene Robinson
"It's been a year since the financial system collapsed like a botched souffle, and the sense of acute crisis has eased. The wizards of Wall Street are raring to get back to business as usual -- and if we let them, we'll have only ourselves to blame when the next meltdown comes." |
Obama Stands Firm for Public Option
Throws down gauntlet to professional liars among Republicans and lobbyists
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson |
The Pangloss Economy
Oh joy! Productivity has returned!
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson |
Obama’s last chance to save his presidency from failure
After his surrender on healthcare and banking, the only way Obama can save his presidency is to put Bush and Cheney behind bars
by Alexander Cockburn |
Why the President Has Been Losing on Health Care, and What He Needs to Say
by Drew Westen
"The White House didn't stay on message because it didn't really have one." |
Making Sure America Sees the Human Cost of War
by David Sirota
"Over the last few days, the country has learned that Robert Gates, the Bush and now Obama Defense Secretary, tried to stop the Associated Press from distributing a single photo of a typical - and typically bloody - battle scene in Afghanistan." |
Food Is Power and the Powerful Are Poisoning Us
by Chris Hedges
"If we take back our agriculture, if we buy and raise produce locally, we can begin to break the grip of corporations that control a food system as fragile, unsafe and destined for collapse as our financial system." |
"Glenn Beck Counts For More At the Obama White House" Than the Progressive Movement
by David Sirota
"..today's White House officials answer more to Glenn Beck, Blue Dogs and Republicans than it does to progressive members of Congress and the progressive base of the Democratic Party that got them into the White House in the first place." |
Europe's Complicity in Evil
by Paul Craig Roberts
"The claim of American exceptionalism produces a form of patriotism that blinds the US population to the immorality of America's wars of aggression." |
Where's Your Homework, Mr. President?
by Greg Palast
"While I'm disturbed that Obama has adopted George Bush's war on Afghanistan, Super-teacher Roney is concerned that Obama has, weirdly, inexplicably, adopted Bush's war on educators, a program best described as No Child's Behind Left." |
Political Manipulation of the Threat Level: Is Ridge's Charge a Federal Crime?
by JOHN W. DEAN |
Was the Deal Capping Drug Cost Savings Inappropriate?
by MICHAEL C. DORF |
Sick and Wrong
anatomy of a well-crafted disaster
How Washington is screwing up health care reform – and why it may take a revolt to fix it
by Matt Taibbi |
Why I Loved Obama's Health Care Speech
by Paul Begala
"It rallied dispirited Democrats, reassured disenchanted independents and intimidated Republicans." |
Reviewing President Rahm Emanuel’s Health Care Speech: Despite the oratory, a signally cowardly speech, equating progressives with his tormentors on the right.
by David Sirota |
Obama appointee previews the imminent preventive detention debate
by Glenn Greenwald
"By all accounts, the White House is going to unveil its proposal for indefinite detention within the next four to eight weeks, and it has begun dispatching proponents of that scheme to lay the rhetorical groundwork." |
The "trigger mechanism"
by David Sirota |
How one becomes "crazy" in Washington culture
by Glenn Greenwald |
Afghanistan may already be lost
President Obama wants to try a new approach to beat back the Taliban, but some analysts think the war can't be won
by Susanne Koelbl |
Countdown: Special Comment About the Shout of "You Lie"
Transcript of Keith Olbermann Special Comment |
Go to Pittsburgh, Young Man, and Defy Your Empire
by Chris Hedges
"The voices of change, those who speak in powerful and yet unfamiliar words, will cry out Sept. 25 and 26 in Pittsburgh when protesters from around the country gather to defy the heads of state, bankers and finance ministers from the world’s 22 largest economies who are convening for a meeting of the G-20." |
Go to Pittsburgh, Young Man, and Defy Your Empire
by Chris Hedges
"The voices of change, those who speak in powerful and yet unfamiliar words, will cry out Sept. 25 and 26 in Pittsburgh when protesters from around the country gather to defy the heads of state, bankers and finance ministers from the world’s 22 largest economies who are convening for a meeting of the G-20." |
Don’t Be Fooled by the Public Option
by Bill Boyarsky
"The fight over the public option has occupied much of the media coverage, but left unsaid is the fact that weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations have weakened the public option proposal to the point that it is hardly an option at all." |
Various matters
by Glenn Greenwald |
First They Did Harm
by Eugene Robinson
"For the Bush administration, torture was a delicate business. The aim was to injure but not incapacitate -- to inflict precisely enough pain and terror to break a subject's will, but no more." |
A party is not a movement
In 2008, progressive groups subverted their own agendas in the name of electoral unity. Where does that leave them?
by David Sirota
"The difference between parties and movements is simple: Parties are loyal to their own power regardless of policy agenda; movements are loyal to their own policy agenda regardless of which party champions it." |
Major ruling against Ashcroft highlights evils of preventive detention
by Glenn Greenwald
"...the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals allowed a lawsuit to proceed that was brought against John Ashcroft for the illegal and unconstitutional detention of American Muslims. |
Outrageous Behavior: Bogus Bluster From Bigwigs Hides Lockerbie Truth
by CHRIS FLOYD |
Water, Water—Not Everywhere
by Olga Bonfiglio |
Shadow Army Now Outnumbers U.S. Troops in Afghanistan
by Kevin Gosztola |
Colin Powell and Lessons of My Lai
by Robert Parry
"But neither the Times nor any other leading U.S. news outlet has ever suggested that remorse might also be due from Colin Powell, who as a young Army major helped cover up the crime." |
Afghanistan looking more like Vietnam
by Robert Scheer
"Meaningless is the right term for the Afghanistan war, too, because our bloody attempt to conquer this foreign land has nothing to do with its stated purpose of enhancing our national security." |
Obama's Afghanistan Contradiction
by David Corn
"With the war in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama faces a contradiction. He says he wants to win the war but he will not commit to fighting for as long as that might take." |
Hard Labor
by Robert Kuttner
"On this Labor Day, about the best the Obama Administration can say (over and over again) is that the unemployment picture would be a lot worse without the Recovery Act. Sorry, that's not good enough." |
Taking the Movement Out of the Obama White House
by David Sirota |
What is the CIA still hiding about interrogations?
by Nat Hentoff |
Meet the Press's idea of a "debate"
by Glenn Greenwald |
Van Jones: A Moment of Truth For Liberal Institutions in the Veal Pen
by Jane Hamsher |
A Dragon over Congress
Why the GOP needs to fear mythological beasts
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson |
The Devil and Paul Krugman
Neo-classicist vs. Keynesian
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson |
Animal House in Afghanistan
by Daniel Schulman
"Drunken brawls, prostitutes, hazing and humiliation, taking vodka shots out of buttcracks— no, the perpetrators of these Animal House-like antics aren't some depraved frat brothers. They are the private security contractors guarding Camp Sullivan, otherwise known as the US Embassy in Kabul." |
CIA's black sites, illuminated
The facilities were never meant to be 'ordinary prisons,' recently released documents reveal in meticulous detail.
by Greg Miller |
Podesta: ‘We Just Can’t Settle’ For Excuses From The Democratic Leadership
by Amanda Terkel |
Deleting the Bush Personality Cult from history
by Glenn Greenwald |
Hell hasn't broken out in Iraq
Despite a recent uptick of deaths, the withdrawal of U.S. troops needs to go on
by Juan Cole |
A cake knife is useless in a gunfight
President Obama has only himself to blame for the healthcare reform quagmire
by Gene Lyons |
How I got well in India for $50
My cheap, fast and effective treatment in New Delhi reminded me of everything wrong with American healthcare
by Aruna Viswanatha |
WINNABLE VS UNWINNABLE WARS (Why the US has already lost in Afghanistan and Iraq)
by John Little |
Afghanistan for Dummies
by Ray McGovern
"It should come as no surprise, then, if Holbrooke ends up playing a role in deepening the Af-Pak quagmire, if only by adopting a belligerent attitude towards the Pashtuns and also the Pakistani government — not to mention rival U.S. officials." |
Bush's Third Term?
You're Living It
by David Swanson |
Employer health care mandate would make a terrible system worse
by GRACE-MARIE TURNER |
Seven Points on the CIA Report
by Scott Horton
"But context and placement suggest that the material that remains concealed contains some of the worst discussion of abuse in the report." |
Who Are the Two Syrians Released From Guantanamo to Portugal?
by Andy Worthington |
Who are Broderian anti-investigation journalists really protecting?
by Glenn Greenwald
"In one of the most drearily predictable media developments ever, David Broder today -- yet again -- joins in with an endless string of establishment pundits to demand that there be no investigations by the DOJ of war crimes and other felonies committed by the Bush administration." |
The looming political war over Afghanistan
by Glenn Greenwald
"History will have no choice but to view the U.S. -- particularly in its late imperial stages -- as a war-fighting state." |
Myth v. Fact: Afghanistan
by Malou Innocent
"Americans must be told the truth about the war in Afghanistan. To understand the disadvantages of pursuing present policies, we must unpack the myths that war proponents use to justify staying the course." |
The Real Town Hall Story
by E.J. Dionne Jr.
"There is an overwhelming case that the electronic media went out of their way to cover the noise and ignored the calmer (and from television's point of view "boring") encounters between elected representatives and their constituents." |
We Need a Special Prosecutor for Blackwater and Other CIA "Contractors"
by Jeremy Scahill
"Now we learn (unsurprisingly) that Blackwater offered 'foreign' operatives to work on the CIA assassination program." |
Ted Kennedy wanted the public option
His list of achievements is epic, but he worked to fix healthcare for 40 years. Let's finish the job in his name
by Joe Conason |
Beware "inside sources" who say the public option is dead
When people inside the Beltway want to feel important, they repeat rumors. And rumors can become self-fulfilling
by Robert Reich |
The Washington Post's Cheney-ite defense of torture
by Glenn Greenwald |
Bill Moyers on the health care debate, Democrats, and Afghanistan
by Glenn Greenwald
"Bill Moyers was on Bill Maher's show last night and spoke about the core failures of Democratic Party in the context of both the health care debate and the ongoing escalation in Afghanistan." |
Torture Memos in a Book
by David Swanson
"The New Press has just published seven of the torture memos with a 40-page introduction by David Cole and a 3-page forward by Phillipe Sands. For those who prefer books to lengthy PDFs or printouts thereof, this is a real service." |
Secret camps and guillotines? Groups make birthers look sane
by Steven Thomma
"However, the accusations are out there, a series of fantastic claims fed by paranoia about the government. They're spread and sometimes cross-pollinated via the Internet. They feed a fringe subset of the anger at the government percolating through the country, one that ignites passion, but also helps Obama's allies to discount broader anger at the president's agenda." |
War is not a video game
The military's marketing machine gives potential recruits science fiction instead of the bloody reality of war
by David Sirota |
Majority Rule on Health Care Reform
NYT editorial
"If the Democrats want to enact health care reform this year, they appear to have little choice but to adopt a high-risk, go-it-alone, majority-rules strategy." |
What the Inspector General Found
by JOANNE MARINER
"The Inspector General's report described, in unprecedented detail, a range of serious interrogation abuses that violate US federal law. In announcing the preliminary investigation, Holder specifically cited the report, and news reports had previously indicated that Holder's decision to open the investigation was strongly influenced by his repulsion at the abuses the report described." |
How Should Senator Kennedy's Seat Be Filled? Constitutional Considerations
by VIKRAM DAVID AMAR |
Innocent, but Executed
by Barry Scheck
"In his final hours on death row, Cameron Todd Willingham and his attorneys tried frantically to show the governor of Texas a new scientific report proving his innocence. The evidence was apparently ignored, and Willingham was executed on February 17, 2004." |
After a Year of Sarah Palin, Alaska Wonders, "What the Hell Were We Thinking?"
by AKMuckraker |
In Afghanistan, We Know Failure When We See It
by Derrick Crowe
"The administration was counting on the election to draw the Pashtuns into the political process. The widespread fraud and the refusal of huge numbers of Pashtuns to head to the polls, however, shows that the strategy failed." |
Media Ape Goebbels in Defending CIA Abuses
by Ray McGovern
"It seems coverage of the Bush administration's “war on terror” has been put back on track by the editors of the Washington Post and their “sources,” who appear determined to highlight the supposed successes of waterboarding and other forms of torture." |
New CIA Docs Detail Brutal "Extraordinary Rendition" Process
by Scott Horton |
Beltway culture, checks on journalists and secrecy obligations
by Glenn Greenwald |
Time to Get Out of Afghanistan
by George Will |
Teddy
The passing of an American Legend
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson |
The Thousands Yet Unborn
a farewell to Senator Edward Moore Kennedy
by Daniel Patrick Welch |
Greatest Tribute to Kennedy: Pass Health Care for All
by Robert Creamer |
Obama's Real Reform
The president is on the verge of shutting down the loan sharks who prey on college students - freeing up billions in federal aid
by TIM DICKINSON |
Health Care and the Democratic Soul
It's time for Obama to channel Harry Truman.
by Thomas Frank
"What is at stake in the debate over health care is more than the mere crafting of policy. The issue is now the identity of the Democratic Party." |
The Political Phase and the Death of Nations
by Bill Bonner
"The United States is in the third and fatal stage of a great country’s life-cycle – the political stage. In this stage, money and power migrate from the financial community to the political community. The politicians get away with taking trillions out of the productive economy and spending them on their pet projects and private corruptions." |
The Beltway consensus: the Left is to blame for health care battle
by Glenn Greenwald
"The prevailing Beltway wisdom has now ossified that the problem with the health care debate is that those hardened Leftist ideologues cling childishly and petulantly to their little "public option" fetish and their refusal to give it up is jeopardizing enactment of a reform bill." |
Playing the Inside Game -- A Cautionary Tale
by Harry Shearer
"Obama's remarks about New Orleans during the campaign were anodyne boilerplate, and what he's giving us now is more of the same." |
What every American should be made to learn about the IG Torture Report
by Glenn Greenwald
"...it underscores how unjust it would be to prosecute only low-level interrogators rather than the high-level officials who implemented the torture regime." |
Eric Holder announces investigation based on Abu Ghraib model
by Glenn Greenwald |
"'We're going to kill your children'
Mock executions and a favored Saddam technique, all endorsed by Cheney. Highlights of the CIA interrogation report"
by Mark Benjamin |
Investigate Top Officials, not Just CIA Interrogators
by Doug Bandow
"Attorney General Eric Holder is appointing a special prosecutor to review CIA interrogations of terrorist suspects. However, the investigation shouldn't stop at the agency. No one should be above the law, especially top policymakers." |
This Isn't Reform, It's Robbery
by Chris Hedges
"The current health care debate in Congress has nothing to do with death panels or public options or socialized medicine. The real debate, the only one that counts, is how much money our blood-sucking insurance, pharmaceutical and for-profit health services are going to be able to siphon off from new health care legislation." |
History That Obama Can't Ignore
by Eugene Robinson
"The Obama administration has a legal and moral duty to determine whether crimes were committed in the Bush-era detention and interrogation of "war on terror" prisoners -- and, if so, to prosecute those responsible." |
True Health Care Reform: 10 Missing Pieces
by Dr. Frank Lipman
"But I think Washington is barking up the wrong tree. They're busy arguing about what amounts to health insurance reform, while what this country needs is true health care reform." |
Thomas Paine v. the Right's torture defenders
by Glenn Greenwald
"Few things are more repellent than watching the contemporary Right in America invoke the principles of the Founders -- in general -- to justify their warped and lawless authoritarianism. But nothing is more repulsive than watching them pretend that Thomas Paine -- of all people -- has anything to do with them..." |
Our laws condone torture
by Juan Cole |
Holder’s Modified, Limited Hangout
by Scott Horton
"Yes, some of those involved in the program will be exposed to the possibility of prosecution–but right now it seems that the torture program’s true authors could escape any serious scrutiny. That would be a travesty" |
Flu the Coop
Sick people, sick culture
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson |
Now more than ever, bipartisanship is for suckers
Republicans want Obama to fail. He needs to stop seeking consensus, because it makes him look weak
by Joe Conason |
Blackwater: CIA Assassins?
by JEREMY SCAHILL |
The Obama Double Standard
by David Sirota
"It is a White House that ignores its president's own progressive campaign rhetoric, treats congressional progressives as second-class citizens, and treats corporate shills as the most important players of all." |
The lion's roar: Ted Kennedy moves to save healthcare
by Brent Budowsky
"It is astonishing and laughable that any pundit can call a negative rating of over 60 percent on healthcare anything but a debacle for the Republicans." |
The Health Care Cost Saving Myth: There Will Be No Cost Savings. There's No Sense In Pretending Otherwise.
by Dan McLaughlin |
Common Sense 2009
by Larry Flynt
"The American government -- which we once called our government -- has been taken over by Wall Street, the mega-corporations and the super-rich. They are the ones who decide our fate." |
Karl Rove, Rupert Murdoch and Media Bias
by Rep. John Conyers |
New Rule: No Shame in Being the Sorry Party
by BIll Maher
"New Rule: If Mitt Romney, Karl Rove and Sarah Palin all think America has never done anything wrong, we must be doing something wrong." |
What it means to wear a gun in public
Bringing a weapon to a rally isn't about exercising your own rights -- it's about threatening other people's rights
by David Sirota |
Has Obama lost the trust of progressives, as Krugman says?
by Glenn Greenwald
"More than any betrayal on a specific issue, it is Obama's seeming eagerness to serve the interests of those who have 'run Washington for far too long' -- not as a result of what he has failed to accomplish, but as a result of what he has affirmatively embraced -- that is causing what Krugman today describes as a loss of trust in Obama from those who once trusted him most." |
Sadly, the other "N" word, Nazi, invades American political rhetoric
by Leonard Pitts Jr.
"You would think people would tread carefully, not because of the potential insult to a given politician (they are big boys and girls) but because to do otherwise profanes the profound and renders trivial that which ought to be held sacred by anyone who regards himself as a truly human being." |
And Why Are We in Afghanistan?
by Digby
"Actually, we have morphed our goals in Afghanistan, from counter-terrorism to counter-insurgency, without anyone really challenging it. The commanders on the ground have decided that making America safe from potential safe havens in Afghanistan means ensuring the legitimacy of the government at every level, as if we can replicate this in every unstable government in the world or even in Afghanistan, a tribal society that has not really known centralized leadership." |
More at Stake in Gitmo Court Orders Than Detainees’ Fates
by Chisun Lee
"The federal judges who are reviewing lawsuits filed by Guantanamo inmates have found that 29 of the 35 men whose cases they’ve completed have been unlawfully detained. For ordinary convicted criminals, that would mean that the authorities who imprisoned them would have to let them go. But the jailer at Guantanamo – the executive branch – is still holding 20 detainees the judges have cleared for release." |
Bush critics: still evil, crazy extremists
by Glenn Greenwald
"There's little question that when people look back at this period in American history, it will be difficult to comprehend what happened in the Bush era -- and especially how we blithely started a devastating war over complete fiction, while simultaneously instituting a criminal torture regime and breaking whatever laws we wanted. But far more remarkable still will be the fact that, other than a handful of low-level sacrificial lambs, those responsible -- both in politics and the establishment media -- not only suffered no consequences, but continued to wield exactly the same power, with exactly the same level of pompous self-regard, as they did before all of that happened." |
Nadler: Obama Violating Law By Not Investigating Bush
by Sam Stein |
Obama DoJ Continues to Assert BushCo's "State Secrets" Argument
by GottaLaff |
What went wrong?
It's almost Labor Day. Healthcare reform is struggling, the public option is near dead. Why couldn't Obama deliver?
by Thomas Schaller |
Cash For Clunkers
Wildly successful program leaves right wingers seething
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson |
WALRUS BULLS BELLOWING ON A BEACH
by John Chuckman
"Mercy is never misplaced, and I think Scottish justice has reached an admirable decision despite the bellowing of the unthinking American families we have heard from for years." |
Why White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs is Dead Wrong about Wall Street Pay
by Les Leopold |
The Lanny Davis disease and America's health care debate
by Glenn Greenwald |
President Obama, Where Are Those C-SPAN Cameras?
by David Corn
"Where were the television cameras when White House aides were working out this agreement with the lobbyists?" |
"It is pointless to talk to al-Qaida"
Joseph Nye talks about Obama's use of hard and soft power in Afghanistan, and what he learned from Henry Kissinger
by Gabor Steingart and Gregor Peter Schmitz |
Where's Mr. Transformer?
by Eugene Robinson
"Barack Obama took office pledging to be a transformational president. The fate of a government-run public health insurance option will be an early test of his ability to end the way Washington's big-money, special-interest politics suffocates true reform." |
Three Reasons Why a Strong Public Option is Likely to be Part of Health Insurance Reform
by Robert Creamer |
Obama Administration Attempts to Weaken Constitutional Protections for LGBT Americans
by Emma Ruby-Sachs |
Our Last Chance to Preserve Life On Earth Is Slipping Away
by Larry Schweiger
"Shallow news coverage causes most Americans to underestimate the urgency of the threat of global warming." |
Why Holder and Obama have not fired the Bush Appointed, Rove-Vetted DOJ Attorneys
by Rob Kall
"There are scores of attorneys-- partisan, engaging in serial prosecutorial misconduct, like the cases of Gov. Don Siegelman and Cyril Wecht, and these Bush-appointees are still on the job, doing damage to the US, to justice and innocent victims." |
Why the Right's Propaganda Works
by Robert Parry
"For three decades now, the Left has sat back and done next to nothing to build a media infrastructure while the Right has put together a truly powerful media machine." |
The Republican Party Is Turning Into A Cult
by Johann Hari
"Since Obama's rise, the US right has been skipping frantically from one fantasy to another, like a person in the throes of a mental breakdown." |
Blackwater Still Armed in Iraq
by JEREMY SCAHILL
"Despite the Iraqi government's announcement earlier this year that it had canceled Blackwater's operating license, the US State Department continues to allow Blackwater operatives in Iraq to remain armed." |
What is Obama defending in Afghanistan?
Obama has to be more specific and systematic about his goals in Afghanistan before we can judge his strategy there
by Juan Cole |
Why Senate Democrats are giving up so easily
Jeff Bingaman's state needs healthcare reform, yet he is joining Baucus and Conrad to punt on the public option
by Mike Madden |
Why the health care debate is so important regardless of one's view of the "public option"
by Glenn Greenwald
"Over the past decade, the Democratic Party has specialized in offering up one excuse after the next for its collective failures." |
The PolicySpeak Disaster for Health Care
by George Lakoff
"How is it possible that the same people who did so well in the campaign have done so badly on health care?" |
Americans: Serfs Ruled by Oligarchs
by Paul Craig Roberts
"Americans think that they have "freedom and democracy" and that politicians are held accountable by elections. The fact of the matter is that the US is ruled by powerful interest groups who control politicians with campaign contributions. Our real rulers are an oligarchy of financial and military/security interests and AIPAC, which influences US foreign policy for the benefit of Israel." |
A Thousand Little Gitmos
by Petra Bartosiewicz
"As one of his first official acts, President Obama issued an order to shutter Guantanamo and review all US terrorism detention policies. But no change is on the horizon for the dozens of terror cases cycling through the federal court system—some of which, thanks to a range of post-9/11 measures, have come to resemble the kind of jurisprudence practiced at Guantanamo." |
Fringe leftist losers: wrong even when they're right
by Glenn Greenwald
"As always: even when the dirty leftist hippies are proven right, they're still Shrill, unSerious Losers who every decent person and 'journalist' scorns." |
Grim early Indications for Wall Street reform
The banks want to stay huge and indulgent, and the administration may not be willing or able to stare them down
by Robert Reich |
Obama on Drugs: 98% Cheney?
by Greg Palast
"Here are the numbers they don't want you to see: Hospitals will be allowed to hike their prices and revenues by six trillion dollars ($5,853 billion) over the next ten years, only $155 billion less than they had projected before the Obama 'reform.'" |
Obama Faces Rising Anxiety on Afghanistan
Holbrooke Staff Announcements Overshadowed by Larger Questions About Eight-Year War
by SPENCER ACKERMAN |
Addicted to War: America's Brutal Pipe Dream in Afghanistan
by Chris Floyd
"Looks like the 'Good War' in Afghanistan is morphing even more directly into the "Drug War" that the U.S. government has been waging all over the world -- and especially against its own people -- for almost 40 years now, with all the attendant aggrandizement of authoritarian powers and degradation of civil liberties and human rights." |
Why We Need Health Care Reform
by Barack Obama |
Death by Torture, Ghost Detainees and the Disappeared
The global assault on decency & the rule of law
by Ernest A. Canning |
10 Awesome Things That Would Happen If Health Reform Passes
by Joshua Holland |
10 Good Questions for Obama or your Local Congressperson Should You Find Yourself at the Mic at a 'Town Meeting'
by Dave Lindorff |
New Rule: A-hole in One Shouldn't Be Obama's Game
by Bill Maher
"But Democrats have this bad habit of letting the Republicans scare them into acting more 'regular guy' than they really are, and then they look inauthentic." |
The Zombies are right, but for the wrong reasons
Progressives Should be Shutting Down These So-Called ‘Health Care Town Meetings’ Too
by Dave Lindorff
"These “town meetings” are really nothing but propaganda sessions run by members of Congress who are trying to burnish their fraudulent credentials as public servants, and trying to perpetrate a huge fraud of a health care bill that purports to be a progressive “reform” of the US health care system, but that actually further entrenches the control of that system by the insurance industry, and to a lesser extent, the hospital and drug industry." |
Karl Rove's Convenient Memory Lapses
by Scott Horton
"Rove is now in the crosshairs of a special prosecutor's investigation into the firing of nine U.S. attorneys. The 6,000 pages of evidence released recently by the House Judiciary Committee make plain that he orchestrated the firings, and that in so doing he was driven by partisan political concerns." |
Nader Was Right: Liberals are Going Nowhere With Obama
by Chris Hedges
"The sad reality is that all the well-meaning groups and individuals who challenge our permanent war economy and the doctrine of preemptive war, who care about sustainable energy, fight for civil liberties and want corporate malfeasance to end, were once again suckered by the Democratic Party. They were had." |
Wag The Dog, Again
by Philip Giraldi
"Congress seems to be convinced that Iran threatens the United States and must be dealt with, a fiction no doubt generated by a barrage of "position papers" emanating from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). But the facts tell us otherwise." |
Mike Huckabee bashes America on foreign soil
by Glenn Greenwald
"Mike Huckabee this week traveled to a foreign country and, speaking on foreign soil, is now bashing America in front of a foreign audience: Former Arkansas governor and presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee says the US has taken too harsh a stance against Israel on the issue of settlements." |
The Great Recovery of '09
What? You didn't notice it?
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson |
Cultivating Fools
When stupidity is a strength, and ignorance a virtue
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson
"There hasn't been any time other than in the health care debate where it's been more evident that the GOP has been spending years in the
deliberate recruitment of fools." |
Governor Palin's Crazed Health Care Rant: Blame the Washington Post
by Dean Baker |
The Media's Treatment of Palin's Outrageous "Death Panel" Claims
by Howard Dean |
Palin's 'Death Panel' and GOP Lying
by Robert Parry
"False Republican claims about President Barack Obama’s health-care initiative, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s demagogic charge about a “death panel,” are part of a pattern of systematic lying that has marked the GOP’s political tactics at least since Ronald Reagan’s presidency in the 1980s" |
The cultural third rails of race and sexuality
by Pam Spaulding |
Obama's healthcare horror
Heads should roll -- beginning with Nancy Pelosi's!
by Camille Paglia |
Target Of Obama-Era Rendition Alleges Torture
by Scott Horton |
Don’t Dismiss Taibbi
What the mainstream press can learn from a Goldman takedown
by Dean Starkman |
Barack Obama So Far
Three leading political observers grade the President's first six months
by ERIC BATES |
This Time, We Can't Leave the Middle Class Behind
by Jared Bernstein |
Called out for telling the truth
Boston Globe editorial
"NADAV TAMIR was acting well within the rules of his position as Israel’s consul general in Boston when he offered his government some frank advice about how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies are alienating some Americans. Monitoring local opinion is part of what consuls do, and Tamir shouldn’t be punished for doing his job." |
Attorney General Holder: Look at the torture photos
by Daphne Eviatar
"On Friday, the Justice Department filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that releasing the photos of detainee abuse would so inflame public opinion against the United States abroad that it would endanger the lives of U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan." |
The opposite of the Nuremberg defense
by Daphne Eviatar
"But I don't think there's any real way for an independent prosecutor to ethically investigate the torture and sadistic abuses inflicted on detainees at Abu Ghraib, Bagram and elsewhere without that ultimately leading up the chain of command -- to who ordered what to happen and how." |
The hypocrisy of healthcare protestors
by Darren Hutchinson |
Change We Can Believe In: Feelings Toward the Administration by Those Who Elected It
by Drew Westen |
Time for the President to Take an Unequivocal Stand Against Torture Policies
by Barton Kunstler |
Use of drones in Pakistan and Afghanistan: deadly, but legal?
Unmanned aerial drones have become important weapons in the US counterterrorism effort. But questions are mounting about who controls the drones, and what laws govern their use.
by David Montero |
Obama tacitly backs military's takeover of Honduran democracy
by MARK WEISBROT
"President Obama is making a big mistake in coddling the dictatorship in Honduras, and putting his administration at odds with the rest of the hemisphere. It also looks terrible to the world that his government so easily abandons its professed commitment to democracy and the rule of law." |
Palin and Grassley, dumb and dumber
by Darren Hutchinson
"Sarah Palin and Senator Chuck Grassley are working together to spread lies regarding the substance of pending healthcare reform legislation." |
An Economic Time-Bomb Being Mishandled by the Obama Administration?
by David Corn
"This is all about those toxic assets--now euphemistically referred to by the US government as "legacy assets"--that were at the core of the economic meltdown." |
The Truth Will Not Out, on Its Own
by Robert Parry
"The right-wing fury at town hall meetings over health care and the Republican obstruction of any serious reform in Washington are not just symptoms of a complex debate on an issue packed with powerful special interests; it is a test of whether reality matters in the United States." |
Newt Gingrich Changes What’s Left of his Mind on End-of-life Care
by Matt Taibbi |
John Brennan's dangerous national security advice
by Marcy Wheeler
"There's something fundamentally wrong about the guy who pushed Obama to flip-flop on a campaign pledge now treating the program with this much false ambivalence." |
New Rule: Smart President (doesn't equal) Smart Country
by Bill Maher
"And before I go about demonstrating how, sadly, easy it is to prove the dumbness dragging down our country, let me just say that ignorance has life and death consequences." |
This country needs an outburst of common sense
by Joseph L. Galloway
"If ever there were a time for comprehensive health care reform, it's now, and yet the forces of darkness are lining up against this urgent need, buttressed by lies, mobs inflamed by those lies and millions of dollars changing hands and changing votes in Washington, D.C." |
You Do Not Have Health Insurance
by James Kwak
"If, like most people, your health coverage is through your employer or your spouse's employer, that is not what you have. At some point in the future, you will get sick and need expensive health care. What are some of the things that could happen between now and then?" |
The White House deal with Big Pharma undermines democracy
Obama's agreement with Big Pharma may help healthcare reform pass, but it may also mean higher drug prices for you
by Robert Reich |
The Wrong Diagnosis
by Dr. Andrew Weil
"The reason I'm worried is that the wrong diagnosis is being made." |
Are Democrats Determined to Become What They Most Despised About Bush?
by Peter Daou
"I don't get it. Why do Democratic leaders need to use the term "un-American" to characterize their political opponents in an op-ed about health care?" |
Let's talk about tasers
by Digby
"Tasers aren't benign however. They kill people. Nobody knows exactly why some people die from being tasered, and they certainly don't know how to tell in advance which ones are at risk. But there have been hundreds of deaths similar to the one below, which nobody can adequately explain." |
Tortured logic
by Digby
"We weren't sure he was going to even go this far, but according to news reports over the weekend, Attorney General Holder has decided on a "narrow" investigation into torture. In fact, it's so narrow that it won't investigate any of the torture that was authorized by DOJ functionary John Yoo at all. Using inverted pretzel logic, they are apparently going to go after those who failed to follow John Yoo's directives." |
What if your health insurance company says no?
by Pam Spaulding |
Mental Is As Mental Does
Life is like a box of magic mushrooms...
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson |
The scope -- and dangers -- of GE's control of NBC and MSNBC
by Glenn Greenwald |
The Constitution Says Obama Can't Be President. And Neither Could Reagan.
by Chris Kelly |
Sarah Palin, meet Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
You two right-wing populists have a surprising amount in common
by Juan Cole |
Taboo Alert: The Real - And Most Disturbing - News In the Olbermann-O'Reilly Feud
by David Sirota
"And yet the real story is the heavy-handed intervention by the CEO of General Electric effectively forcing MSNBC's news team off a crucially important set of stories - namely, Fox News' politicization/Republicanization of media." |
ACLU's Jonathan Hafetz on Mohamed Jawad
Transcript of interview of Hafetz by Glenn Greenwald regarding the latest Guantanamo detainee ordered released by a federal judge on the ground that there is insufficient evidence to substantiate the accusations against him. |
Legislators for sale
Members of Congress are failing to represent their constituents in the health care fight
by Keith Olbermann, special comment |
Obamacare is at war with itself over future costs
The clock ticks while different factions pull in multiple directions on paying for healthcare
by Robert Reich |
The Solution
by Sen. Fritz Hollings
"The administration now says it underestimated the severity of the economic downturn. But the truth is it overestimated the effect of stimulation." |
Canadians for US Health Care Reform
Maybe putting a moose on the quarter will help
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson |
More detainee victories and what a majority of Congress tried to do
by Glenn Greenwald
"Virtually all of those detainees were held for many years without charges and with no opportunity for judicial review. Once they finally got into a court, federal judges (including Bush-43 appointed judges) in the vast majority of cases concluded there was virtually no credible evidence ever to justify their detention. Just consider what that fact, standing alone, means about what our Government has been doing." |
13 in Congress control health care debate
by David Sirota
"For those still clinging to quaint notions of the American ideal, these have been a faith-shaking 10 years. Just as evolutionary science once got in the way of creationists' catechism, so has politics now undermined patriots' naive belief that the United States is a functioning democracy." |
GE's silencing of Olbermann and MSNBC's sleazy use of Richard Wolffe
by Glenn Greenwald |
Bush Era Horrors Will Haunt Us Until We Truly Face Them
by Tom Engelhardt
"The flaps, in other words, never add up to a single Imax Flap-o-rama of a spectacle. We seldom see the full scope of the legacy that we -- not just the Obama administration -- have inherited. Though we all know that terrible things happened in recent years, the fact is that, these days, they are seldom to be found in a single place, no less the same paragraph. Connecting the dots, or even simply putting everything in the same vicinity, just hasn't been part of the definitional role of the media in our era." |
British Foreign Secretary: Clinton threatened to cut-off intelligence-sharing if torture evidence is disclosed
by Glenn Greenwald
"At the center of Mohamed's efforts lie the claims of high British government officials that the Obama administration has repeatedly threatened to cut off intelligence-sharing programs with the U.K. if the British High Court discloses information which British intelligence officials learned from the CIA about how Mohamed was tortured." |
Guantánamo Bay: the inside story
by Naomi Wolf
"Six months ago this week President Obama, on his second day in office, promised to close the Guantánamo detention camp within a year, and to undo the secretive and coercive detention and interrogation policies of George W. Bush. But has Obama been as good as his word?" |
Obama, the Great Wealth Creator?
by Robert Parry
"Indeed, if one wanted to label Obama a "great wealth destroyer" for the stock market slide early in his presidency, it would only seem fair to call him now a "great wealth creator," because the Dow passed the 9,000 mark last week, representing almost a 40 percent rise from the March lows." |
The WaPo Takes The Next Step In Condoning Torture
by Andrew Sullivan
"The Washington press corps still refuses to call the Bush techniques torture, adopting the lies of the government as truth, allowed brazen defenses of torture on its op-ed pages, has one columnist, Charles Krauthammer, who has pioneered and championed the torture of prisoners, fired anti-torture columnists like Dan Froomkin, and now want to cast a blessing on the torture program by singling out just a few who went beyond it." |
Good Medicine: Why Not for Everyone?
by Dean Baker
"If the plan is to promote good medicine, why are we just doing it for the elderly receiving Medicare? Why don't we want good medicine for everyone?" |
Holder Joins Conyers in Demanding Action
by David Swanson
"House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has called on Attorney General Eric Holder to open a criminal investigation into the misdeeds of former president George W. Bush and former vice president Richard B. Cheney." |
The Washington Post endorses Abu Ghraib scapegoating for torture
by Glenn Greenwald |
The Day the President Turned Black
(But has he turned back?)
by Greg Palast |
The Bureaucracy
Citizen, are your papers in order?
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson |
Clinton derangement syndrome, North Korean strain
Sufferers of this incurable illness twist Bill Clinton's moving rescue of two journalists into something ugly
by Joe Conason |
The Incredible Shrinking Healthcare Reform
by Norman Solomon
"Notions of universal healthcare are fading in the power centers of politics -- while more and more attention focuses on the care and feeding of the insurance industry." |
The Health Insurers Have Already Won
How UnitedHealth and rival carriers, maneuvering behind the scenes in Washington, shaped health-care reform for their own benefit
by Chad Terhune and Keith Epstein |
So Much for the Promised Land
by Chris Hedges
"The most prominent faces of color, such as Obama and his attorney general, Eric Holder, mask an insidious new racism that, in essence, tells blacks they have enough, that progress has been made and that it is up to them to take advantage of what society offers them. And black politicians and intellectuals, including Obama and Gates, are the delivery systems for the message. We blame the victims, those for whom jobs and opportunities do not exist, while we orchestrate the largest transfer of wealth upward in American history." |
Hillary Clinton demands accountability for war crimes
by Glenn Greenwald |
Salon's handy-dandy guide to refuting the Birthers
Now you, too, can silence the annoying Birther in your life -- and in just eight easy steps!
by Alex Koppelman |
Five Reasons the Health Care Battle Is NOT the Presidential Campaign
by Peter Daou |
Should Advocates of Single-Payer Health Insurance Oppose the Public Option?
by NEIL H. BUCHANAN |
Let the military commissions die
A lawyer for Guantanamo detainees explains why Obama and Congress shouldn't try to revive the failed system
by David Frakt |
Holder Ponders Limited Torture Probe
by Jason Leopold
"...but if an investigation is narrowly focused on the CIA interrogators and outside contractors and does not include the Bush administration officials who implemented the policies, then the probe would likely amount to a whitewash, much like the Abu Ghraib case." |
10 Myths About Canadian Health Care, Busted
by Sara Robinson |
Bowing to US's 'naked political power'
Suppressing evidence of torture, as the US is asking Britain to do in the Binyam Mohamed case, is a criminal offence
report from The Guardian-UK |
Olbermann's Non-Denial and His Good Move
by David Sirota |
Humanizing Fayiz al-Kandari: A Guantanamo Prisoner Wrongfully Detained
by The Public Record Staff |
