February 6, 2006
The Senate Judiciary Committee opened hearings today into the Bush Administration’s domestic terrorist abatement initiative, with Chairman Arlen Specter telling Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in no uncertain terms he’d been called to account for the government’s refusal to abide by laws defining a “forceful and blanket prohibition against any electronic surveillance without a court order.”
January 19, 2006
Apparently, the White House has reached the denial phase of its 12 step journey toward a better place for us all.
January 5, 2006
American charities became unwitting beneficiaries of millions of dollars in contributions today as Republican lawmakers, including the President of the United States, sought to wash their hands of a once-fruitful and symbiotic relationship with Jack Abramoff, the former high-flying K Street macher who pled guilty to three felony counts of bribery and racketeering in Washington, DC Federal District Court on Tuesday.
December 14, 2005
Perhaps a few readers will remember a post I made somewhat in advance of the 2004 election cycle, imploring citizens everywhere to take note of the mechanisms by which we effect our electoral perogatives. If not, you can refer to it here.
September 28, 2005
The Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, Tom Delay (R-TX) announced today he will return to his home state to face charges of conspiracy to violate election finance laws, which he promptly denounced as baseless.
September 7, 2005
As floodwaters begin to recede from New Orleans, the bloated, rotting corpses of thousands of Hurricane Katrina’s most obvious victims are not the only ghastly elements of the disaster surfacing. For any who care, nay, dare to look, the callousness, megalomania, and utter incompetence of the Bush Administration has also shown itself in all its criminal wretchedness. And while Karl Rove and a host of the nation’s genteel lawmakers have decreed that what happened in the City that Care Forgot during the past week was either the fault of local politicians, or nothing for which anyone should point fingers in blame, the truth of the matter is that the President should turn in his scorecard and head for the 19th Hole.
August 24, 2005
Proving conclusively that Islamic mullahs have no corner on the market for incendiary hate speech, America’s own notorious televangelist, Pat Robertson –the one-time Republican candidate for President and long-time confidant of George W. Bush– called this week for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
August 1, 2005
Revealing the depth of his disregard for both the United Nations and the long-term security of the American people, President George W. Bush made John Bolton the United States’ ambassador to the U.N. today. The appointment comes while Congress is in recess, thereby circumventing the unpleasant fact that nearly half the members of the U.S. Senate understand how poorly qualified Mr. Bolton is for the position, and have thus refused to approve the appointment originally tendered this past March. By making a recess appointment, Mr. Bush will have Mr. Bolton as his government’s representative at the international diplomatic body until the next full session of Congress convenes in January 2007.
July 12, 2005
Lewis H. Lapham, the Editor in Chief of one of America’s smartest, most engaging monthlies, thoroughly explicates in his July editorial the futility of blaming George W. Bush for everything. Mr. Bush is, of course, doing his level best to do what he’s been told to do –project for the country, and the world, the “powers of the American imagination [and] the strength of the American spirit.”
May 19, 2005
If you’ve ever followed the stock or commodity markets, or read the classic treatise Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, you know at significant turns in the cycles of events which characterize human existence, things get pretty wild.
Prices gyrate, structures crumble, rules and traditions are broken or ignored, and, often enough, people die.
I believe we may be approaching just such a turn in the cycles. It’s just too wild out there to believe things can keep going the way they are.