[ Posted Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 – 13:33 UTC ]
The time has come for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to hand in her resignation. The latest revelation that the Blackwater personnel involved in the recent Baghdad shooting were given immunity by the State Department for giving statements about the incident should be the final straw for America's patience with Rice to come to an abrupt end.
Of course, the real time for Condi to have handed in her resignation in an honorable administration should have been September 12, 2001. Remember, at this time Rice was National Security Advisor to the president. The NSA's job description is to "take all the intelligence from the various intelligence agencies in the U.S. government and put it all together for the president to act upon." Her spectacular failure to perform this job would have meant disgrace and a shameful resignation in virtually any other administration in history.
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[ Posted Monday, October 29th, 2007 – 14:56 UTC ]
Six House members -- three Republicans and three Democrats -- have joined together to introduce legislation strengthening the 1973 War Powers Act which (if successful) could mean a showdown on the separation of powers before the Supreme Court. This showdown may determine once and for all the limits of the president to order American troops into battle.
Of course, I have no idea what chances this new legislation has for passing Congress as a whole, but the astonishing thing is that it is being ignored almost totally by the mainstream media, which is a shame. Because it deserves debating now, while the White House seemingly is preparing the American public for yet another war (this time against Iran).
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[ Posted Sunday, October 28th, 2007 – 14:58 UTC ]
[ Posted Friday, October 26th, 2007 – 17:35 UTC ]
It's been a busy week in Washington, providing lots and lots of fodder for this week's Friday Talking Points column.
After being named last week's Most Impressive Democrat, Senator Chris Dodd showed what happens when you actually, you know, lead on an issue -- all the other major Democratic candidates began supporting him in his bid to shut down the telecommunications amnesty provision in the bill the Senate is currently debating. While I'm glad Hillary and Barack and the others got on board with this effort, the difference between supporting a good idea, and taking the lead on the issue was stark.
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[ Posted Thursday, October 25th, 2007 – 16:24 UTC ]
If you want to know why the rich keep getting richer and nothing ever seems to change in Washington, look no further than this extremely depressing article in Salon, written by Robert Reich, who was President Clinton's Secretary of Labor.
I'm a fan of Reich, as he seems to be one of the few people who actually understand how "the little guy" in America -- the hardworking middle class -- always seems to get screwed, no matter who is in charge. I quoted him in my book and in my very first blog post ever on his ideas for a mandatory three-week paid vacation for everyone who works in America, for instance.
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[ Posted Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 – 15:25 UTC ]
[ Posted Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 – 03:47 UTC ]
[Mayor "Diamond" Joe Quimby and tycoon C. Montgomery Burns]
You may well wonder why I, a (mostly) serious political analyst, begin my weekly Wednesday column with the images of two Simpsons characters. The answer is: these two images are the story. More on that in a bit.
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[ Posted Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 – 15:41 UTC ]
[Sorry for such a short post today, I've spent all day on the phone. Tomorrow's column is going to be fun to write! Stay tuned....]
Boo!!
Halloween has apparently come early in Republican-land. The Republican National Committee's website today unveiled a prominent link to their new "Scariest Democrat" page. You can go to the page and vote from among six of the Democratic presidential candidates (with sound effects!). Missing are Kucinich and Gravel, which seems odd as Kucinich should definitely be in the running for the candidate to scare Republicans the most.
Out of the other six, guess who is currently polling at 91% of the vote? No real surprise....
-- Chris Weigant
[ Posted Monday, October 22nd, 2007 – 16:34 UTC ]
There is one thing that just about everybody in the Iraq debate agrees on, from President Bush to anti-war Democrats to Republicans to the generals on the ground: that the biggest thing we want to avoid in Iraq is a "wider regional war." No matter what your position on Iraq, from "leave troops there for 50 years like in South Korea" to "bring all troops home tomorrow," pretty much everybody agrees that a wider war which involves Iraq's neighbors is a thing to be avoided if at all possible.
We're now on the brink of that war starting, but we barely even realize it because it's happening from a direction we haven't been paying much attention to -- Turkey. Now, I personally have been warning for a long time that the situation with Turkey could put the United States in a very tough spot, both diplomatically and militarily. Last year (8/9/06) I wrote: Continue Reading »
[ Posted Saturday, October 20th, 2007 – 17:26 UTC ]
