More on aviation insecurity, or how not to screen passengers: the following anecdote comes from an ordinary passenger returning to the U.S. on a routine overseas flight.

 

The passenger, for privacy reasons not named, was scheduled to arrive in the U.S. Monday, November 27, from a large city in Great Britain. While he was waiting in the security line at the British airport, however, a very drunk guy in line was arrested. When the authorities would not permit the drunk passenger to bring his little liquor bottle through the screening, he became, apparently, disorderly.

The crux here is that ...   more »

The web site buzzflash posts an open question today, “Who is the enemy in Iraq now?” Good question, and there will be more than one answer.

 

From the administration standpoint, the enemy in Iraq is anyone who might oppose a de facto annexation of Iraq to Kuwait. This would include present opponents of the Kuwaiti and Saudi regimes, potential opponents, human rights organizations, mosques, Iraqi nationalists, Iraqis whose primary affiliation is regional or sectarian, and all Iraqis who just simply would prefer their country to be free of foreigners. That’s why current administration policy causes or allows the ...   more »

Whatever the mythology about children and dogs as judges of character, small children are not necessarily mind readers. Still, one of my early childhood memories is of classifying adults vaguely but sometimes validly into “nice faces” and “mean faces.” Generally, of course, that meant smiling versus frowning, and adulthood has brought more acquaintance with reasons why grownups might frown or be preoccupied.

 

When I was four years old, I was sitting with my young mother in a waiting room one day. She was pregnant with my little brother; this was in a small town in East Texas; and ...   more »

New Senators-elect Jon Tester of Montana and James Webb of Virginia were interviewed today by Tim Russert. Both sound sensible, speak clearly, and bring up the most important issues of our time. Jim Webb said plainly that the top issue for him is economic fairness.

 

Shorn of the superficialities that go with any television interview, the discussion on Meet the Press did actually foreground our huge and growing gap between top and bottom.

 

High time. Since the issue of economic fairness impinges on both foreign policy and domestic policy, it has to come up somewhere. Webb referred more ...   more »

Senator Russ Feingold, Democrat from Wisconsin, gives a living example of magnanimity. Here is his most recent statement on getting the U.S. out of Iraq.

A consistent and heroic voice in the Senate for common sense and probity, Feingold was the first senator to propose a date for redeploying out of Iraq. He alsocosponsored an amendment to the ongoing DoD authorization to require redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq by July 1, 2007.

As he says in an article posted at http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/11/16/a_way_out_of_iraq.php, "our current Iraq policy is making the United States weaker, not stronger. The president has continually refused to change our current approach in Iraq, despite a growing number of policymakers and experts, including many Republicans, advocating for a change of course. Voters responded to his failed policies by putting Democrats in control of Congress. They want to change course, and they have given Democrats the chance to finally put our national security policy right by proposing a timetable for redeploying U.S. troops from Iraq."

"The president’s policy has us in Iraq with no end in sight. But the Iraqis need an end in sight to get their political house in order, and we need an end in sight so we can get back to fighting terrorist networks. Our disproportionate focus on Iraq has undermined our ability to confront the terrorist threat around the globe. Now Democrats can start to turn these wrong-headed policies around. But we won’t do that by continuing our open-ended commitment of troops on Iraq. And we won’t do it with tepid or muddled policies of our own. We will do it by setting a target date for redeployment, so that we can direct our resources to defeating the terrorist organizations that seek to harm this country."

It is regrettable that making this kind of sane and self-evident statement is almost tantamount to political heroism under the current administration. But given the regrettable circumstances, it is good that we have some members in both houses of Congress measuring up.

Several important matters need investigating, even aside from the Iraq war. Election fraud is one of the biggest. This message was passed along some time ago from Brad Friedman (at bradblog) and is worthy of attention again. Its significance could hardly be overstressed.

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Print Message

 

From:	Brad Friedman <Brad.Friedman@cville.com>
Date:	2005/03/08 Tue PM 02:52:52 EST
To:	BradBlogAlert@cville.com
Subject:	CLINT CURTIS INVESTIGATOR'S 'SUICIDE' CASE REOPENED BY GEORGIA POLICE!

CLINT CURTIS INVESTIGATOR'S 'SUICIDE' CASE REOPENED BY GEORGIA POLICE!

Raymond Lemme Crime Scene Photos Said Not to Exist are Published on Net!

Photos, Evidence and FDOT Involvement with Valdosta, ...   more »

Rep. Nancy Pelosi is making a good start. It is a coup for the public that she is supporting Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania for House Majority Leader. With any luck, they both win; high time we had someone with some actual political heroism in the Majority Leader post.

 

With the 2006 election results of last week already taken for granted and with the conventional wisdom now established that the public is fed up with the Iraq war, what Murtha accomplished may be forgotten. Several recent media reports seem to be taking a rather odd line. But it was ...   more »

Throughout recent years, the Washington Post has aggressively taken the line that the U.S. is intractably divided into halves of “red states” and “blue states.” This line was pushed by the WashPost’s most prominent political reporters, in print and on television.

 

The paper has now been forced by the 2006 elections to refine its thesis and, retreating to narrower boundaries in a basically reactionary rear-guard action against the polity, is now aggressively pushing a new orthodoxy of the South exclusively as a monolith of “red states.”

 

Dan Balz says that “The electoral map that has emerged from this election ...   more »

MinimumWage. 

 

One unambiguous outcome of the 2006 midterm elections is that every time a proposal to raise the minimum wage appeared on the ballot, it won.

 

This outcome may be liable to downplaying or dismissal in the smoke and mirrors of who’s-up-who’s-down, but minimum wage initiatives swept all six states proposing them -- Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and Ohio.

 

The results were no razor thin margins. Arizona, previously with no law establishing a minimum wage, voted for its Proposition 202 66% to 34%. Missouri approved its initiative 75.9% to 24.1%. Montana passed both ...   more »

Follow-up to yesterday’s posting (Nov 11). Notwithstanding numerous reports over the weekend that he is now declaring himself a Democrat, newly reelected Senator Joseph Lieberman took the interviewee seat with Tim Russert on Meet the Press this morning reverting to his previous statements that he will “caucus” with Democrats.

 

Double-checking the transcript after listening to Lieberman on air:

 

Lieberman: “But, but I’m going to be an independent because that is how and why I returned to the Senate. I was elected as an independent, I was elected, I believe, because I said to my constituents in Connecticut, ...   more »

This is one Iraq anecdote that has a happy ending. The daughter of friends of an old friend of mine, a nurse, shipped out to Iraq to do ER work there, survived the experience and is now posted as per the military’s promise to her in a safer and easier environment in Europe. Actually, that’s a happy ending in itself. She has a very good chance of coming home to the states, safe, after her contractual two years are up.

 

The anecdote within this anecdote concerns a soldier in Iraq. One of the less regarded frustrations for U.S....   more »

Well, there is one consolation. At least Mr. Lieberman will never be able to do it again. That is, after he loses his next Democratic primary, he might try running as an independent again. But surely in that event he will never again get more Republican votes than the Republican candidate in a three-way race.

 

Not after repeatedly being quoted as saying that he would be an Independent, but caucusing with the Democrats, in the Senate if elected – and then immediately announcing a switch (back) to Dem after winning all those GOP votes. Talk about Lucy and ...   more »

Leave No Post Behind

Bush’s new education act is a bonanza for the D.C. conglomerate.

By Margie Burns

 

 A very few days after George W. Bush became president,  The Washington Post endorsed one of his signature initiatives: “Moving fast to keep one major campaign commitment, President Bush yesterday offered a package of education reform proposals that aim to give states and school districts more flexibility while increasing accountability for student performance.” Bush, this January 24, 2001, editorial continued, “is also headed in the right direction with his call for annual testing of students in the third through ...   more »