sfarber

That’s right; the first post is dated September 18, 2001, with the World Trade Center then still smoldering. Indeed, this blog is so old, its beginnings pre-date the general use of the term “blog”; indeed, it is arguably the oldest “liberal” blog… assuming anyone accepts that it even is a liberal blog… TTD has even become a source of material for the regular media (at least, if you call NPR “regular media”.) As to the world at large… things seem to have changed a great deal over the last five years… or have they? I’m still happily married to the...

There’s no other way to describe what the President is proposing with respect to the abominable plans he has to ratify his heretofore unlawful military commission scheme, and to “clarify” American law vis a vis the Geneva Conventions. With less than two weeks to go, we have a Congress that hasn’t passed so much as a single budget appropriation bill, and yet, has time to spend over this wedge issue. Naturally, most Americans will not be told, for example, that prior to the Abu Ghraib photos being published in April, 2004, all American troops captured in Iraq were returned alive;...

In the brief window of time before the mid-term elections during which the Republican Congress is back in session to try to pass a few more wedge bills into wedge laws, one of the doozies was approved today in the Senate Judiciary Committee: legislation ostensibly ratifying the President’s (heretofore felonious) warrantless eavesdropping. Arlen Spector is proving to be an even more impressive poodle to the President than Tony Blair is; his prior “outrage” over the lawlessness of the Bush Administration at the expense of Americans’ constitutional rights has now given way to rubber stamping yon lawlessness. Further, Spector has all...

I had been hoping to tie Connecticut “insurgent” Democrat Ned Lamont and Rhode Island “insurgent” Republican Steve Laffey, who happens to be the mayor of Cranston, R.I., together thematically, by asking “Who knows what evil lies in the hearts of the voters of New England?” The line, of course, from 1930’s radio, is “The Shadow Knows.” The Shadow was the alter ego of a character named… Lamont Cranston. Any set up of a punch line that takes that long is obviously a problem! So never mind: just know that with 70% of precincts in, incumbent GOP Senator Lincoln Chafee is...

I write this almost to the second that the first plane hit the North Tower over my left shoulder that fateful morning five years ago. As most of you know, I was then sitting at my desk on the 16th floor of 100 Church Street, with the post office building at 90 Church Street just below my window and the World Trade Center complex right past that. At that time, of course, I heard a sonic boom, a large pop, and an explosion, sat perplexed a second, and then looked over to see flames shooting out, and glass and paper...

Just a brief snippet on the topic at hand, two of them actually. The first comes from Kevin Drum (via the hot-hot-hot Bruce the Veep) and concerns a recent interview with General Scheid in the run up to the Iraq war when military logistics planner were trying to organize a “phase 4” (i.e. post war occupation) and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld threatened to fire any military officer who even suggested the need for post-war planning. Kevin (who supported the war, IIRC) now concludes that the subsequent occupation was little more than a cover to “democratize Iraq” after plan A (find the...

Bruce the Veep has sent us a number of items of late that are of extreme relevance, and seem unrelated… but as you know, having come here to “connect the dots” central… that’s only what Karl wants you to think. He doesn’t mind that we’ll be connecting the dots for you, btw. Karl is not ashamed of his handiwork, except when he wants to deny it. Anyway, we’ll start with the most interesting: this from Asia Times discussing the deal made by the Pakistani central government with the regional Pashtun tribal factions in the North Waziristan region, home to, among...

While Democrats everywhere are taking delight that the President’s unpopularity on the Iraq war may well cost his party its majorities in the House and/or Senate (btw… screw multi-millionaire Ned Lamont who doesn’t need your money… send a few bucks, if you can and believe that Democrats should run against Republicans in the Senate instead of other Democrats, to Claire McCaskill in Missouri, or perhaps to Jon Tester in Montana or Jack Carter in Nevada… they need your money, and we need their seats)… the Republicans have their own counter-attack planned. While we approach 9-11 (9-11, 9-11, 9-11) with its...

Well, usually the program would now call for the capture of a high ranking Al Qaeda official, usually in Pakistan, and usually with the rank of “number three.” Standing in for the capture of World Al Qaeda Number Three TM, we will instead have someone billed as “Al Qaeda in Iraq Number Two.” That’s right, the number two man in Al Qaeda in Iraq. Some American sources conservatively rank Hamed Jumaa Faris Juri al-Saeidi (I know, I know… he may be the most important terrorist you never heard of…) until the next one is captured… as merely among the top...