My day (a 5:12 finish in the ING New York City Marathon, respectable by my standards, though a little disappointing after a 2:16, 2:17 first half, though still better than last week by 15 or 16 minutes)… was, regardless of aches, pains and blisters… still quite better than Saddam Hussein’s. In the most unsurprising verdict in the history of unsurprising verdicts, the former Iraqi dictator was sentenced to death by hanging for his role in the crackdown of the Shiite town of Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt on him. The trial was marked with replacing judges for expressions of...

It keeps going… and going… and going… Fresh (!) from last week’s triumph finish in the Marine Corps Marathon in our nation’s capital, we cap our cross-country season in the home town, with this weekend’s ING New York City Marathon, where I’ll be joining a few dozen thousand friends (I’ll be wearing number 43 thousand something or other…) I’ll be the one in the white baseball cap… Alas, work commitments and other issues (see, e.g. above) have reduced blogging to… less than usual… but not to worry dear readers (those of you left…) there are more great interviews and other...

Allegedly wins the race. Hopefully, in the case of the Democratic Party seeking to recapture control of both houses of Congress, that will prove the case. I’m going to sit back, and not say much… that seems to be the most help I can provide! (The President, of course, tells us that if the Democrats win, then America loses… because, you know… it’s all a big sporting event.) Or in my case… slow and steady finishes around 17,000th and some-odd in a time of something under 5 and a half hours at the 31st Marine Corps Marathon, in and around...

To Hillary Clinton, Jaclyn Smith, Pat Sajak, Pat Conroy, Leon Trotsky… and to your talking dog…

It seems that “staying the course” was somewhat misunderstood. Discussing a strategic timetable for withdrawal is now no longer treason. Hopefully, we’re still at war with Eurasia Eastasia. And what was ignorance again?

The much vaunted meeting with policy advisers did not manifest itself in any kind of announced policy or strategy change as mentioned in the President’s weekly radio address, according to this from WaPo. The President did make it clear that a withdrawal will only embolden terrorists and provide them with a safe haven from which to attack the United States. In short: he’s got nothin’. Meanwhile, the U.S.S. Eisenhower should be in the Straits of Hormuz by now, possibly preparing to attack Iran… when you’re losing left and right on everything, from Mark Foley to Jack Abramoff to al-Maliki to...

Could be either, as the Grey Lady gives us this discussion of the spanking new electronic (i.e. paper-trail-less) voting machines that will be rolled out in districts and precincts all over the country (though not here in the Big Apple, where our Eisenhower Administration era voting machines are still held together with bubble gum and rubber bands). Also likely to cause lines: voter identification requirements, that are being found unconstitutional and otherwise unlawful left and right… though poll workers aren’t being trained in any of this! The article notes, helpfully, that though many are duly… concerned… about possible big-time fraud...

Not much else to say on that subject; among other things provided for besides the due-process-less “military commissions” and the “aggressive interrogation methods” contained in the abomination of a bill signed into law by the President are ex post facto exoneration of the President and himself and his minions for deliberate violations of international law. My suggestion is that the President, Vice-President, the Secretaries of Defense and State and some other high level officials should consider doing their international traveling now, before they become mere private citizens subject to the whims of other countries who, you know, might actually willing...

In its continuing war against prominent women named “Stewart”, criminal defense attorney Lynne Stewart was sentenced to28 months in prison in federal court in Manhattan yesterday. The Bush Administration was still hoping for the 9-11 mojo and a 30-year (or life) sentence for the 67 year old breast-cancer surviving Stewart, former counsel to poor schmuck criminals as well as those with a political angle to their crimes, most notably, ’93 WTC bombing mastermind Sheik Abdul Rahman (“the blind cleric”), for whom Stewart was convicted of smuggling messages. Judge John Koeltl wasn’t drinking the Bushmen’s kool-aid, and found that while Stewart...