I could speak about the latest chapter in the sorry saga of the U.S. citizen chosen as “the demonstration project for the elected dictatorshipTM”, Jose Padilla, sentenced to 17 1/2 years more for a nebulous role in a nebulous plot where the jury heard the words “al Qaeda” and “Osama bin Laden” a lot… but Andy Worthington does it far more succinctly than I. The most important case of our life times will now be appealed, and perhaps, no one will pay heed to the fact that all a President needs is enough public hysteria, and he can pick any...

The stock markets in Europe and Asia… duly collapsed, to the tune of around 5%, 7%, declines… which are expected to be reflected in a 3%, 4% decline or thereabouts in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and other American markets tomorrow. And finally, a debate worthy of the name… Let the fur fly, Senators! I feel a little bad for Edwards… but then, third place sucks. Especially in a two-way race. Something to amuse us while we watch our net worths circle the drain, as the government we’re stuck with for the next 364, 365 days is utterly clueless about...

To be fair, it’s a leap year… 366 days… 20 January 2009 at 12 noon– someone who isn’t George W. Bush will be sworn in as the next President of the United States. Whether it’s Clinton or Obama (who now duel it out as to who “won Nevada”… since it seems Sen. Clinton won more votes, but Sen. Obama won more delegates)… well, with any luck at all, one of them will be there at inauguration, or possibly even both (Clinton/Obama in ’08? Obama/Clinton in ’08?)… Meanwhile, Romney won the GOP side in NV, McCain won in SC (Huck just...

As we go into today’s NV caucuses for the Dems (and the SC primary for the Republicans… the Dems will be there… Tuesday?)… Sen. Barack Obama is forced into having to directly challenge the hot and cold running smears coming at him from the Clinton camp. It’s not quite “no more Mr. Nice Guy”… but after whatever-it-was-that-worked-for-her-in-NH… the Obama team simply cannot take anything for granted any longer. In short, transcendent campaign or no, the nitty gritty cheap shots from the Clinton campaign (and now, from the Edwards camp) must be rebutted. A sea-change? Or just a reality check? Well,...

The Baltimore Sun gives us this discussion of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the preacher at Barack Obama’s church, Trinity United in Chicago. The candidate himself regards Rev. Wright as his “spiritual mentor”, and supposedly, BHO’s book title “the audacity of hope” is a phrase originating with Wright. One TD friend recently e-mailed to let me know just how huge a liability Wright’s association with Obama was and will likely become as we move on. Maybe so, but this BaltSun article, at least, is unconvincing on that score. Yes, Wright has the traditional watermarks enabling one to accuse him of anti-semitism...

And so native son Mitt Romney pulls out all the stops to win the GOP Michigan primary, around 39% to McCain’s 30% and Huck’s 16%. Not a terrible surprise, though McCain’s last big chance to put it away before Super-Duper Tuesday is gone, and without the Michigan Mo’, Huck looks good in South Carolina, and just a little later in Florida, Rudy is somehow still in it (God help us all). If Democrats would rather face Mitt in November than McCain, this probably helped that scenario. Who knows where we go now. On the other hand, running quite literally unopposed...

The often disagreeable these days but sometimes amusing Christopher Hitchens gives us this, The case against Hillary Clinton. Simply put, the big irony is that Hitch feels sold out because Hillary has backed away from her one-time embrace of Neoconservatism and its favorite product, the Iraq war, for the crassest of reasons: to shore up support in the Iowa caucuses. Anyway… Hitch on Hillary’s experience: One also hears a great deal about how this awful joint tenure of the executive mansion was a good thing in that it conferred “experience” on the despised and much-deceived wife. Well, the main “experience”...

Check out this week’s AmStreet entry, Unpersons (Not Even 3/5)! I think the expression is “disappointed but not surprised” by the D.C. Circuit’s decision to toss out a suit brought by former GTMO detainees seeking damages from their torture mistreatment at American hands.

Well, well. Today, exactly six years and four months since 9-11, marks exactly six years since the first guests arrived at America’s tropical beach resort gulag at our naval air station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, more accurately, the flagship gulag of an international gulag archipelago. The ACLU has evidently designated today as “Close GTMO Day”. Nice sentiment; necessary but not sufficient, of course. It’s not even about releasing the remaining 280, 290 poor bastards we’re holding there, or even the other 10,000 or so we’re holding in Afghanistan, Iraq, Diego Garcia, Thailand, Romania, elsewhere in Europe, the Middle East and God...

Yes! What a night for AARP! Two of its members, seventy-one year old John McCain, who as late as a few weeks ago, was written off as (politically) dead, and sixty year old Hillary Clinton, who just yesterday was believed to be crushed to death under Omnibus Obama… have both emerged to win their respective parties’ primary in New Hampshire. On the Democratic side of the roster, Hillary edges out Obama around 39% to 37%, though CNN projects each will get 8 delegates, with Edwards out of the money at around 17%, and frankly, out of a particular reason to...