I’m not sure what to make of the Senate’s “reverse filibuster” (where the majority does all the talking and suffering, in a very strange bit of political theater) over the Iraq war… but I’m quite sure that WaPo gets it right in this analysis of the recent National Intelligence Assessment which indicates that Al Qaeda appears stronger than at any point since 9-11 to tell us that this is the case precisely because we invaded Iraq and bungled efforts at dealing with Qaeda directly, allowing its leadership to regroup and form a new safe-haven in a new failed state (North...

Care of Julia, we get this Nebraska version of The Handmaid’s Tale not from some fictional world, but from the United States, circa 2007 (the same year when a Supreme Court justice finds the need to tell you little ladies that because you might regret some of your decisions, we won’t let you make them). Anyway, submitted for your approval (or disapproval) is a case of a 24-year old woman contending she met a man at a party, and seemed to lose consciousness only to find herself waking up, apparently having had sex that she clearly doesn’t remember consenting to,...

Not much to say about the emergence of a new al-Qaeda video, featuring apparently spliced in old clips of OBL himself for about a minute. Coming as it does on the heels of a new American Intelligence Estimate to the effect that al-Qaeda is stronger than it has been at any time since September 11th, and the Administration’s sudden determination to call “our enemy” in Iraq not “insurgents” or even “terrorists”… but all al Qaeda all the time… and of course Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff’s “hunch” that something bad was in the offing (replacing, I suppose, a chartreuse alert...

The Grey Lady takes a break from its usual round of Imperial StenographyTM (or does it?) to give us this look back at a platform and memo sent by good old Karl Rove to a senior White House aide in 1973 (the aide was one Anne Armstrong, who, as set forth here in “Meet the cast of When Harry Met Birdshot“, owned the ranch where Vice President Cheney shot Harry Whittington last year; Ms. Armstrong eventually went on to be U.S. Ambassador to Britain, and was considered as Ford’s Vice-Presidential running mate)… It’s nothing Earth shattering– just general broad-brush strategies...

WaPo treats us to this story on the alamring (to some… i.e., those not brain-dead) trend to “outsource” key intelligence functions to “green-badges”, i.e. private contractors, rather than “blue-badges”, i.e., official governmental employees. This is the essence of privatization, boys and girls. The premise sold to the rubes is that the private sector is cheaper, more efficient and accountable than the bloated, non-responsive government. Of course, in the areas where the two have competed head to head, such as in education, we found this to be nonsense… the disastrous “Edison project” went nowhere, because it turns out, while the private...

After having done all it could to pour combustible fuel on the national bonfire and amplification to the pre-Iraq drumbeat for war… the Grey Lady insists that it now has religion, and hence, gives us this long jeremiad on why the United States should immediately get out of Iraq. Well well. The esteemed “news” institution that employed Saddam-WMD-confabulator Judith Miller and still employs court stenographer Michael Gordon, and who deliberately understated the extent of opposition to the Iraq War in order to hype that war with the twin goals of (1) getting a seat at the tough guys’ table and,...

Such was at one time an advertising slogan for AT&T… it seems an encouragement from a party-line ruling in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals (i.e. 2 Republican appointed judges outvoting 1 Democratic appointed judge) in the NSA warrantless eavesdropping case, reversing the Michigan District Court’s ruling that the program violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). [In some sense, though I am not a plaintiff, perhaps I should take this personally, given who I have called from time to time to interview… but I digress…] On grounds eerily similar to the bogus reason used by the Supreme Court to...

A cautionary tale this 4th of July (the first time this holiday has come on a Wednesday (IIRC) since I began blogging a week after 9-11… or perhaps not). We bring you this WaPo essay by historian John Fabian Witt (a prof at the alma mater I share with Senator and future President Barack Obama)… also available by clicking on the picture of the American flag, as seen by most of the rest of the world these days. The subject of the essay concerns the rule of law as applicable to war, the spearhead of our President’s agenda to rule...

Our friend Lindsay Beyerstein just lost her father, Dr. Barry Beyerstein; her moving note on his passing is here. My heartfelt condolences go out to Lindsay and to her family on their loss. Here is a post entitled “Al Gore and the Alpha Girls,” from November 2002, one of the best blog posts you will ever read. Its author was Jim Capozzola of the Rittenhouse Review, who, I have had the privilege of meeting and corresponding with. I am sad to say that Jim passed away yesterday. Dr. Beyerstein was 60. Jim was 45. Rest in peace, gentlemen. Rest in...

The other possible headline is “Bush to rule of law: drop dead.” Either applies to the politically craven but desired by the Beltway Courtier class (and GOP-lock Fred Thompson)result… to wit, Bush commuted Scooter Libby’s 30-month sentence to zero— no time– thereby undoing years of work by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, and telling a jury and a federal judge (and indeed, a federal court of appeals) to go screw themselves. Well, why not? Poppy Bush pardoned a number of players implicated in Iran-Contra. Ford pardoned Nixon. Clinton pardoned Mark Rich (who was then represented by none other than Scooter Libby)....