Progressive Newswire

The secret buried in the Torture Bill

2006-09-30T18:04:00.000-04:00

Legislating Violations of the Constitution

2006-09-30T17:42:00.000-04:00

By Erwin ChemerinskySaturday, September 30, 2006With little public attention or even notice, the House of Representatives has passed a bill that undermines enforcement of the First Amendment's separation of church and state. The Public Expression of Religion Act - H.R. 2679 - provides that attorneys who successfully challenge government actions as violating the Establishment Clause of the First

Protecting American Values...

2006-09-30T16:11:00.000-04:00

Ties to GOP Trumped Know-How Among Staff Sent to Rebuild Iraq

2006-09-17T02:33:00.000-04:00

By Rajiv ChandrasekaranSunday, September 17, 2006After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's

Deafeatists and Apeasers...

2006-09-17T00:50:00.000-04:00

George W. Bush, Confused Rhetoric, and the Failures of the "War on Terrorism"

2006-09-12T18:03:00.000-04:00

By Arnaud de La Grange Monday 11 September 2006 The Pentagon's 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review counted a surprise guest on the sidelines of one of its pages: Lawrence of Arabia, to whose strategies George W. Bush appealed to illustrate what asymmetric warfare and psychological action should be. The article notably cited the seizure of Aqaba in 1917 by a handful of Bedouins. In

The True Iraq Appeasers

2006-09-01T12:41:00.000-04:00

by Peter W. Galbraith Published on Thursday, August 31In his most recent justification of his Pentagon stewardship, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reached back to the 1930s, comparing the Bush administration's critics to those who, like US Ambassador to Britain Joseph P. Kennedy, favored appeasing Adolf Hitler. Rumsfeld avoided a more recent comparison: the appeasement of Saddam Hussein by the

Study calls Iran 'biggest beneficiary' of US war on terror

2006-08-26T12:10:00.000-04:00

By Arthur Bright posted August 25, 2006 at 2:00 p.m.Two new reports criticize the US's handling of Iran, just as the West gauges Iran's response to a proposal meant to rein in Tehran's nuclear ambitions. One report says the US war on terror has strengthened Tehran, the other slams America's poor intelligence on Iran.The first report, released Wednesday by the non-government Royal Institute of

Commander in Denial...

2006-08-26T11:20:00.000-04:00

Keith Olbermann: Terror and Politics in America

2006-08-17T13:03:00.000-04:00

Keith Olbermann does a stunning job of laying out a five year history of Bush administration Terror Alerts that came at moments when the administration may have wanted to change the subject.

Groundhog Day

2006-08-17T12:14:00.001-04:00

by James K. Galbraithposted online on August 16, 2006Let's see... It's August. Bush is in Crawford on a "working vacation." His polls are in the tank. Congress is in revolt. The economy is going soft. The next elections don't look good. Cheney is off in Wyoming, or wherever he goes. It's 2001. No, it's 2006.In The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Marx reports that "Hegel writes somewhere" that

Be skeptical... be very skeptical

2006-08-17T12:14:00.000-04:00

By M K BhadrakumarAug 18, 2006One of the significant contributions to the "war on terror" by Britain's home secretary David Blunkett before his abrupt departure from the Tony Blair cabinet last year was his statement on terrorism in the House of Commons that specifically flagged the possibility of a "dirty bomb" being planted in Britain by terrorists.That was in November 2002, when preparations

Fearful Tales...

2006-08-17T12:07:00.000-04:00

Joe Scarborough: Is Bush an idiot?

2006-08-17T12:02:00.000-04:00

Joe Scarborough, former Republican congressman from Florida, asks some interesting questions about the Presidents intellect on MSNBC's Scarborough Country.

Watching Lebanon

2006-08-14T13:44:00.000-04:00

By Seymour M. Hersh21 August 2006 IssueIn the days after Hezbollah crossed from Lebanon into Israel, on July 12th, to kidnap two soldiers, triggering an Israeli air attack on Lebanon and a full-scale war, the Bush Administration seemed strangely passive. “It’s a moment of clarification,” President George W. Bush said at the G-8 summit, in St. Petersburg, on July 16th. “It’s now become clear why

A Rational Discussion...

2006-08-14T13:19:00.000-04:00

Israeli Leaders Fault Bush on War

2006-08-13T18:43:00.000-04:00

By Robert ParrySunday 13 August 2006 Amid the political and diplomatic fallout from Israel's faltering invasion of Lebanon, some Israeli officials are privately blaming President George W. Bush for egging Prime Minister Ehud Olmert into the ill-conceived military adventure against the Hezbollah militia in south Lebanon. Bush conveyed his strong personal support for the military offensive

Hizbullah's resilience built on years of homework

2006-08-11T16:01:00.000-04:00

By Nicholas BlanfordFri Aug 11, 4:00 AM ETFor a month, several small groups of Hizbullah militants on a Lebanese hillside have withstood heavy artillery shelling and airstrikes to continue firing hundreds of Katyusha rockets into Israel from positions just a few hundred yards from the border.Even seasoned observers with the United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, known as UNIFIL,

Hangover...

2006-08-11T15:51:00.000-04:00

Half of U.S. still believes Iraq had WMD

2006-08-06T19:50:00.000-04:00

By Charles J. HanleyAP Special CorrespondentAugust 6th, 2006Do you believe in Iraqi "WMD"? Did Saddam Hussein's government have weapons of mass destruction in 2003?Half of America apparently still thinks so, a new poll finds, and experts see a raft of reasons why: a drumbeat of voices from talk radio to die-hard bloggers to the Oval Office, a surprise headline here or there, a rallying around a

Bush brings democracy to Cuba...

2006-08-06T18:27:00.000-04:00

Critics Cite 'Constrained' Mideast Policy

2006-08-06T17:47:00.000-04:00

By Glenn Kessler and Michael AbramowitzWashington Post Staff WritersSunday, August 6, 2006; A16The Bush administration's policy of refusing to engage with nations and groups linked to terrorism, including Syria, Iran and Palestinian factions, has sharply limited U.S. maneuvering room during the war between Israel and Hezbollah, according to former administration officials and outside experts.Iran

Terrorism seeds...

2006-08-05T23:00:00.000-04:00

Game point: Hizbullah wins sympathy

2006-08-05T11:30:00.000-04:00

By Daniel SchorrAugust 5, 2006 History may recall a shift in the Middle East power balance in the three weeks since Hizbullah's provocative cross-border attack on an Israeli Army patrol. One element in that shift is the discovery that Hizbullah has sophisticated weapons that can inflict significant damage, even with Israeli domination of the air. These weapons,

Borrowed Empire

2006-08-04T14:07:00.000-04:00

By Paul Craig RobertsJuly 31, 2006 IssueIn recent months a hot topic on Internet sites has been speculation that Iran will instigate a collapse of the dollar’s value by billing its oil in euros. As the argument goes, Iran’s desertion of the U.S. dollar would be followed by other oil producers, bringing to an end America’s financial hegemony and severely affecting the living standards of most

'The US is the kiss of death' in the Arab world

2006-08-04T12:17:00.000-04:00

By Jim LobeAug 5, 2006WASHINGTON - After almost four weeks of fighting between Lebanon's Hezbollah militia and Israel, the US administration's ambitions to transform the Arab Middle East into a pro-Western, more democratic region are fading fast.Not only is Washington's thus far staunch support for Israel losing Arab "hearts and minds" at an astonishing pace, but the "moderate" governments and

How about a ceasefire?..

2006-08-04T12:00:00.000-04:00

It's the Stupidity, Stupid

2006-08-02T13:22:00.000-04:00

By Matthew YglesiasWeb Exclusive: 07.31.06"We discussed a lot of issues. The Prime Minister has laid out a comprehensive plan. That's what leaders do. They see problems, they address problems, and they lay out a plan to solve the problems. The Prime Minister understands he's got challenges and he's identified priorities." -- President George W. Bush, joint press availability with Nouri al-Maliki,

The View From Israel

2006-07-29T19:35:00.000-04:00

by Hillel Schenkerfrom the August 14, 2006 issueTel Aviv - The current bloody situation in Lebanon and northern Israel did not begin with the July 12 Hezbollah attack across the border; it began with Israeli indifference to the need to stabilize the situation there after the withdrawal of its troops in 2000. Today, with Israel's new and inexperienced civilian leadership having quickly acceded to

The Dogs of War...

2006-07-29T19:34:00.000-04:00

The "hiding among civilians" Myth

2006-07-29T14:59:00.000-04:00

By Mitch ProtheroJul. 28, 2006The bombs came just as night fell, around 7 p.m. The locals knew that the 10-story apartment building had been the office, and possibly the residence, of Sheik Tawouk, the Hezbollah commander for the south, so they had moved their families out at the start of the war. The landlord had refused to rent to Hezbollah when they requested the top floors of the building. No

The F-22 Money Pit

2006-07-28T15:10:00.000-04:00

Jack ShanahanJuly 27, 2006 Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan (USN, ret.) is the former commander of the U.S. Second Fleet and heads the military advisory committee of the Priorities Campaign. Last month, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., led a battle in the Senate to stop multi-year production of the F-22 fighter jet. This $72 billion program, launched in the late 1980s, had been plagued with major cost

Right on target?..

2006-07-28T15:07:00.000-04:00

The Neocon Resurgence

2006-07-27T14:57:00.000-04:00

by Sidney Blumenthal Published on Thursday, July 27, 2006by the Guardian / UKOnce again the Bush administration is floating on a wave of euphoria. Israel's offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon has liberated the utopian strain of neoconservatism that had been traduced by Iraq's sectarian civil war. And the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, (above, right) has propelled herself forward as

The plan is to terrorize them...

2006-07-27T13:15:00.000-04:00

Civil Rights Hiring Shifted in Bush Era - Conservative Leanings Stressed

2006-07-24T19:18:00.000-04:00

by Charlie SavagePublished on Sunday, July 23, 2006 by the Boston Globe WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is quietly remaking the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, filling the permanent ranks with lawyers who have strong conservative credentials but little experience in civil rights, according to job application materials obtained by the Globe.The documents show that only 42 percent

The Clarity of Our War Strategy...

2006-07-24T16:43:00.000-04:00

American Petrocracy

2006-07-20T19:38:00.000-04:00

by Kevin PhillipsJuly 17, 2006 IssueFew lies have wound up injuring Americans more—in everything from automobile gas tanks and winter heating bills to diminished U.S. global standing—than a rarely revisited three-year-old fib-fest involving George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and Tony Blair. Since World War I, history is clear: the British and Americans have been pre-occupied with only one

The Pecking Order...

2006-07-20T18:24:00.000-04:00

Hezbollah's Transformation

2006-07-19T09:57:00.000-04:00

By Dahr JamailJul 20, 2006LATAKIA, Syria - Hezbollah, a group often misunderstood by Westerners, is a militant but also a political group.The Arabic name means Party of God. Led by the charismatic Hassan Nasrallah, (right) the Lebanese Islamist Shi'ite group was set up in 1982 to resist Israeli occupation of Lebanon during the brutal civil war. The group declared a political existence in 1985.

Bombs Away...

2006-07-19T07:42:00.000-04:00

Video: Valerie Plame speaks about suit against Cheney, Rove and Libby

2006-07-14T15:26:00.000-04:00

07/14/2006 @ 12:13 pmValerie Plame-Wilson has made a very rare press appearance, delivering a statement about the civil lawsuit she and husband Joseph Wilson have filed against Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and others for their purported roles in damaging the couple's careers.

Triumph of the Authoritarians

2006-07-14T14:56:00.000-04:00

By John W. Dean Published on Friday, July 14, 2006 by the Boston GlobeJohn Dean was legal counsel to U.S. president Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s, and his testimony before Senate investigators convinced many Americans that Nixon was closely involved in the criminal activities that eventually led to his resignation from the presidency.Contemporary conservatism and

In the Trap...

2006-07-10T16:52:00.000-04:00

Another secret US intelligence program?

2006-07-10T16:39:00.000-04:00

By Tom ReganPosted July 10, 2006 at 12:00 p.m.The Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said the White House briefed his committee on another "significant" intelligence program only after it was brought to his attention by a government whistleblower.The New York Times reports that Rep. Peter Hoekstra, (R) (right) of Michigan then pressed President Bush to tell him about the

Inside the anti-US resistance

2006-07-07T12:30:00.000-04:00

By Syed Saleem ShahzadJul 8, 2006Osama Bin Laden is ill and invisible, but five years after September 11, 2001, his al-Qaeda movement has become the fulcrum of a global, Islamic resistance against the United States.Asia Times Online has learned from an operative close to the al-Qaeda leadership that bin Laden languishes on a dialysis machine, in rapidly declining health."Sheikh [Osama] was in a

Public Perception...

2006-06-30T02:49:00.000-04:00

The Occupation of Iraqi Hearts and Minds

2006-06-29T03:44:00.000-04:00

By Nir RosenPublished on Wednesday, June 28, 2006 Three years into an occupation of Iraq replete with so-called milestones, turning points and individual events hailed as “sea changes” that would “break the back” of the insurgency, a different type of incident received an intense, if ephemeral, amount of attention. A local human rights worker and aspiring journalist in the western Iraqi town of

Shafting the Working Poor

2006-06-22T16:20:00.000-04:00

Katrina vanden HeuvelPosted 06/21/2006 @ 1:13pmThe GOP just shafted the working people of America. By rejecting an attempt to raise the minimum wage, the Republican-controlled Senate showed that it is far more interested in lining the pockets of its campaign contributors than--as Paul Krugman wrote in a New York Times op-ed on Monday--arriving at a "new New Deal" and working to "rebuild our

Ethanol - It's the Future...

2006-06-22T14:19:00.000-04:00

PBS Documentary - The Insurgency

2006-06-18T06:35:00.000-04:00

Through interviews and never-before-seen footage featuring insurgent leaders and their foot soldiers, U.S. military personnel and journalists, this FRONTLINE report, "The Insurgency," investigates the people who are fighting against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq.click to view the documentaryDuring the investigation, the FRONTLINE team must rely on creative techniques to record the insurgents

The Case of the Missing $21 Billion

2006-06-11T19:16:00.000-04:00

By Dave LindorffJune 7, 2006During the days of the Nixon Watergate scandal investigation, reporter Bob Woodword was famously advised by his mysterious source, Deep Throat, to "follow the money" as a way of cracking the story.Well, there is a lot of money to follow in the current scandal that can be best described as the Bush/Cheney administration, and so far, nobody's doing it.My bet for the

The Cost of Killing Civilians in Iraq

2006-06-11T02:21:00.000-04:00

By Greg Mitchell Published: June 10, 2006 11:55 AM ET Long before the Haditha revelations, I was always amazed, if not surprised, when newspapers routinely took at face value reports from the military on the results of a raid, air strike or firefight in Iraq: you know, "15 insurgents were killed," and so forth. After more than three years of fighting a shadowy enemy in Iraq -- not to mention the

Leadership...

2006-06-11T02:00:00.000-04:00

Cheney's Office Declares Exemption From Secrecy Oversight

2006-06-08T00:01:00.000-04:00

By Michelle Chen The NewStandardWednesday 07 June 2006Thickening the haze of secrecy surrounding the executive branch, the Office of Vice President Dick Cheney has declared itself exempt from a yearly requirement to report how it uses its power to classify secret informationIn its 2005 report to the president released last month, the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), a branch

Good News in Iraq...

2006-06-06T10:55:00.000-04:00

Was the 2004 Election Stolen?

2006-06-01T19:22:00.000-04:00

By Robert F. Kennedy Jr.Rolling StoneThursday 01 May 2006Like many Americans, I spent the evening of the 2004 election watching the returns on television and wondering how the exit polls, which predicted an overwhelming victory for John Kerry, had gotten it so wrong. By midnight, the official tallies showed a decisive lead for George Bush - and the next day, lacking enough legal evidence to

Cheney Aide Is Screening Legislation

2006-05-30T14:00:00.000-04:00

By Charlie SavageSunday 28 May 2006 Washington - The office of Vice President Dick Cheney routinely reviews pieces of legislation before they reach the president's desk, searching for provisions that Cheney believes would infringe on presidential power, according to former White House and Justice Department officials. The officials said Cheney's legal adviser and chief of staff, David

Frist Things Frist...

2006-05-24T14:02:00.000-04:00

How Corporate America Perpetuates the Health Care Crisis

2006-05-23T15:52:00.000-04:00

By David SirotaPosted on May 22, 2006Editor's Note: This article was adapted from "Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government--and How We Can Take It Back."Let's be honest--very few political operatives, politicians or pundits actually want to explore the real-life, day-to-day economic challenges facing the American people, because to explore them would ultimately

US is proposing European shield for Iran missiles

2006-05-22T12:50:00.000-04:00

By Michael R. Gordon Monday 22 May 2006 Washington - The Bush administration is moving to establish a new antimissile site in Europe that would be designed to stop attacks by Iran against the United States and its European allies. The administration's proposal, which comes amid rising concerns about Iran's suspected program to develop nuclear weapons, calls for installing 10 antimissile

God's Own Party

2006-05-15T08:58:00.000-04:00

by Kevin PhillipsPublished on Sunday, May 14, 2006Now that the GOP has been transformed by the rise of the South, the trauma of terrorism and George W. Bush's conviction that God wanted him to be president, a deeper conclusion can be drawn: The Republican Party has become the first religious party in U.S. history.We have had small-scale theocracies in North America before — in Puritan New England

November, 2006...

2006-05-11T11:12:00.000-04:00

A Path to Peace with Iran

2006-05-06T01:47:00.000-04:00

By Scott RitterPrinted on May 5, 2006It has been more than a week now since the Iranian government announced that it had "joined the nuclear club" by successfully enriching uranium, albeit for nuclear fuel, not a weapon. Once a nation has the capacity to enrich to the former, enrichment to the latter is simply a matter of time; the technology is the same. Iran's declaration immediately made

Excerpt: The Bush Agenda

2006-05-05T16:07:00.000-04:00

By Antonia JuhaszPosted on May 5, 2006[Editor's Note: This is an edited excerpt from Antonia Juhasz's new book, The Bush Agenda : Invading the World, One Economy at a Time, published by Regan Books.]An uncharacteristically somber George Walker Bush approached the podium of the Great Hall of the United Nations on Sept. 14, 2005. As the president stood in midtown Manhattan to address the gathered

The passion of George W. Bush

2006-04-28T13:36:00.000-04:00

By Sidney BlumenthalApr. 27, 2006The urgent dispatch of Karl Rove to the business of maintaining one-party rule in the midterm elections is the Bush White House's belated startle reflex to its endangerment. Besieged by crises of his own making, plummeting to ever lower depths in the polls week after week, Bush has assigned his political general to muster dwindling forces for a heroic

The Worst President in History?

2006-04-20T12:43:00.000-04:00

Sean WilentzPosted Apr 21, 2006 12:34 PMOne of America's leading historiansassesses George W. BushGeorge W. Bush's presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace. Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, after which the public might rally around the White House once again, there seems to be little the administration can do to avoid being

The $104 Billion Refund

2006-04-15T04:13:00.000-04:00

By Michelle LederPosted Thursday, April 13, 2006Feeling flush because you're getting a nice tax refund this year? You're not alone. Some of America's largest corporations—a virtual who's who of the Fortune 100—have been reporting their own hefty tax windfalls, thanks to an absurd provision of a law designed to create jobs.IBM, for example, is banking a $2.8 billion refund—well, better to call it