The pointlessness of American detention policy in the fiasco formerly known as the war on terror is best exemplified by the peculiarly awful case of Omar Khadr, whose poorly conceived military commission trial appears to have been revivified this week, Khadr, you will recall from my interview with his former attorney Rick Wilson among other places, was captured as a 15 year old child in Afghanistan, after American forces bombed the residential compound he and his family were in., Supposedly Khadr threw a grenade that killed an American soldier and wounded another. Even if true, last I looked, Afghanistan was...

Well, whaddaya know? It seems that those real estate declines on which the masters of the universe Goldman Sachs claims it lost money as a “defense” among other things to the recent S.E.C. civil enforcement action against it.,.. were, surprise,, surprise, in fact very profitable to the firm, because, because of course, the game is rigged, and Goldman could short the real estate market knowing bloody well it could bring it down itself if it had to to make sure the firm (and more importantly, certain individuals) profited extremely handsomely. That’s how a rigged game works. The only suckers are...

A federal judge in Madison, Wisconsin made the legally correct (and entirely irrelevant) decision that the National Day of Prayer is an unconstitutional infringement on freedom of (or from) religion, as mandated by the First Amendment, With all due respect to the (oh so self-important) “serious minded” atheists: who the f*** cares? Americans are dying, right now, in every sense and every way! For starters,. our countrymen are dying in misguided, pointless imperialist wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And they are dying of the effects of obesity at a rate never before seen in human history (and not likely to...

Not quite sure of the science behind it, but just the threat would make most sane, intelligent people (thereby ruling out many Americans, of course) crap in their pants. That of course, is the possibility that increasing global temperatures might increase volcanic activity on Iceland. The current eruption of an unpronounceable volcano in Iceland has pretty much shut down air travel in much of Europe and is otherwise… bad. Interestingly, increased airborne particulate matter (as spews out of volocanoes) might temporarily mask the trend of rising global temperatures… who knows… Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes… oh my. And yet… don’t you think...

I mean that in the Shakespearean sense, that of the only character generally permitted to speak the unvarnished truth, because, well, he is, you know, a fool. A fool, even if, of course, he is, speaking the truth. And hence, we get Congressman Ron Paul’s address to the Southern Republican leadership conference, in which he tells his fellow Republicans the unpleasant truth that pretty much cleans them out of talking points, wait for it, i.e. Barack Obama is not a “socialist” after all, but is instead (like most of the Republican audience he was addressing, who had selected Mitt Romney...

The announced retirement of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens represents a wee bit more than pretty much the last “Rockefeller Republican” (a holdover from the days when the Dixie-free Republican Party were the social liberals in this country) in major office in the United States (Snowe and Collins, folks, for all the talk of their “centrism,” are “new Republicans,” i.e., “fascists”). As hinted at in this piece by Greenwald, Stevens’s departure from the Court and likely replacement by former Hahvahd Law School Dean and current U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan represents the probable end of any semblance of American...

It does this middle aged White man good to see guys who are older and Whiter than him kicking ass… such as Fred Couples leading and Tom Watson one shot back after the first round at the Masters golf tournament. (Not my game, of course, and quite frankly, I’d ban the damned thing on environmental grounds… but still and all…) And, despite the compelling nature of the almost unprecedented situation– a couple of over-50 men in the hunt for a major sporting championship– Tiger Woods— the only thing anyone cares about– is only one shot behind Watson. Good for you,...

Condolences for the families of the at least 25 dead in a coal mine accident in West Virginia, the worst American mine disaster in at least 25 years, The mine at issue, owned by the Massey company, which itself was involved in other recent accidents, had numerous violations found by federal inspectors, but continued to operate anyway. Coal has always been deeemed “cheap” energy because “the market” has valued the human cost (of both these kind of tragedies and of the horrifying medical conditions suffered by miners) and the environmental cost (we can add global warming to the air pollution...

Let me be among the last to comment on the decision of Chief Judge Vaughan Walker of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco to the effect that the Bush Administration’s warrantless electronic eavesdropping on Americans is not only illegal, but as Dan Froomkin tells at Huffpo, the Obama Administration can stick its “state secrets” assertion up its tush too. This is one of those things that kind of give the public the correct impression that in sheer cojones, the Republicans have a humongous edge over their pathetic Democratic “colleagues.” The Republicans, of course, brought articles of impeachment against Bill...

Sarah Palin is the former Governor of the State of Alaska and was the Republican candidate for Vice President of the United States in 2008. She is currently a Fox News commentator, and the author of the best-selling political memoir, “Going Rogue”. On April 1, 2010, I had the privilege of interviewing Governor Palin by telephone. The Talking Dog: Governor, as you know, my usual first question is “where were you on September 11, 2001”? Sarah Palin: I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I’m going to talk straight to the...