OpinionsAl Gore Speech: Unchecked Executive Power On Monday, January 16, 2006 former Vice President Al Gore delivered a major address on the threat posed by policies of the Bush Administration to the Constitution and the checks and balances it created. The speech will specifically point to domestic wiretapping and torture as examples of the administration’s efforts to extend executive power beyond Congressional direction and judicial review. Al Gore on "Restoring the Rule of Law"Vegetables of Mass Destruction Vegetables of Mass Destruction This Modern World - Tom Tomorrow Tom Tomorrow is the creator of the award-winning weekly cartoon of social and political satire, This Modern World, which appears regularly in approximately 150 papers across the country. In 1998, he won the first place Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Cartooning. This Modern World - Tom Tomorrow (cartoons) The Disinformation Society By Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. George Bush’s re-election has been explained as a red-state-versus-blue-state “values” gap. But research shows a majority of Bush voters were misinformed about White House policies on the environment, Iraq, and terrorism. Instead of news, they got propaganda disseminated by the right-wing machine, corporate broadcasters, and journalists who think balance is reporting one side. The Disinformation Society Having It Both Ways Conservatives are quick to cast doubt on Darwin's biological theory of evolution, but take social Darwinism as the gospel truth. Having It Both Ways The Independent Institute Enlightening ideas for public policy... The Independent Institute 'Collateral Damage' as Euphemism for Mass Murder 'Collateral Damage' as Euphemism for Mass Murder A Week of Bush Is Like A Year of Clinton A Week of Bush Is Like A Year of Clinton I Used To Be A Neocon I Used To Be A Neocon Bush's Most Radical Plan Yet By Osha Gray Davidson With a vote of hand-picked lobbyists, the president could terminate any federal agency he dislikes. Bush's Most Radical Plan Yet When Democracy Failed - 2005 By Thom Hartman This weekend - February 27th - is the 72nd anniversary, but the corporate media most likely won't cover it. The generation that experienced this history firsthand is now largely dead, and only a few of us dare hear their ghosts. When Democracy Failed - 2005 Social Security Isn’t Broken By Doug Orr Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress earlier this year that everyone knows there’s a Social Security crisis. That’s like saying "everyone knows the earth is flat." Social Security Isn’t Broken The Daily Prospect The Daily Prospect Hail to the Robber Baron? By YOSHI TSURUMI Thirty years ago, President Bush was my student at Harvard Business School. In my class, he called former president Franklin D. Roosevelt, Class of 1904, a “socialist” and spoke against Social Security, unemployment insurance, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other New Deal innovations. He refused to understand that capitalism becomes corrupt without democratic civic values and ethical restraints. more... Hail to the Robber Baron? A Culture of Death, Not Life By Frank Rich / New York Times Mortality - the more graphic, the merrier - is the biggest thing going in America. Between Terri Schiavo and the pope, we've feasted on decomposing bodies for almost a solid month now. The carefully edited, three-year-old video loops of Ms. Schiavo may have been worthless as medical evidence but as necro-porn their ubiquity rivaled that of TV's top entertainment franchise, the all-forensics-all-the-time "CSI." To help us visualize the dying John Paul, another Fox star, Geraldo Rivera, brought on Dr. Michael Baden, the go-to cadaver expert from the JonBenet Ramsey, Chandra Levy and Laci Peterson mediathons, to contrast His Holiness's cortex with Ms. Schiavo's. A Culture of Death, Not Life Starving the Beast By Ed Kilgore If President Bush keeps listening to Grover Norquist, Republicans won't have a government to kick around anymore. Starving the Beast Bush's Class-War Budget it may sound shrill to describe President Bush as someone who takes food from the mouths of babes and gives the proceeds to his millionaire friends. Yet his latest budget proposal is top-down class warfare in action. And it offers the Democrats an opportunity, if they're willing to take it Bush's Class-War Budget A Year-Round Party for Blacks Black History Month is about more than reminding ourselves of myriad indignities that African Americans have had to suffer since they arrived on these shores in shackles. It's also about celebrating the triumphs that have been made in the march toward racial equality and racial harmony. A Year-Round Party for Blacks Post-Inaugural Crimes and the Progressive Posse The reality we progressives have to face is that Bush & Co., with a compliant mainstream media in their pocket, are moving their political juggernaut full-steam ahead, not disguising in the least their reckless, rapacious agenda. Post-Inaugural Crimes and the Progressive Posse Bush Out Collecting Knee Caps The obvious threat is “if you want to keep your job in the Senate, vote for my plan.” Grab a man by his job, and his heart and mind will follow. What’s Bush going to do if this strategy doesn’t work, though? Try kidnapping their children? Bush Out Collecting Knee Caps Defining Victory Down By MAUREEN DOWD The president prides himself on being a pig-headed guy. He is determined to win in Iraq even if he is not winning in Iraq. Defining Victory Down By MAUREEN DOWD A Really Dumb Idea Robert B. Reich There have been, and will be, equally dumb ideas emanating from the Bush administration, but privatizing Social Security surely will be in the qualifying round for the first prize. A Really Dumb Idea Republican Ethics House Republicans have rewritten the ethics rules so Tom DeLay won't have to resign if indicted after all. Let's hear it for moral values. DeLay is one of the leading forces in making "Republican ethics" into an oxymoron. Republican Ethics White House to 'Gut' CIA By Molly Ivins Whilst the punditry wanders weak and weary in the deep fogs of the "moral values debate," what say we pay some attention to what is going on, eh? White House to 'Gut' CIA Bush's Looming Political Deficit Conservatives grow restless with big-spending Republicans Bush’s God By Robert B. Reich It was recently reported that the Bush campaign had e-mailed members of the clergy, soliciting help in identifying "friendly" congregations that would do the campaign's bidding in their areas. When the e-mail came to light, legal experts warned that any religious organization that endorsed one candidate over another could lose its tax-exempt status. A few days later, House Republicans added a measure to a tax bill working its way through Congress called the "Safe Harbor for Churches" act, which would allow any religious organization to make as many as three "unintentional" political endorsements in a calendar year without jeopardizing its tax-exempt status. Bush’s God We’re Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore By Garrison Keillor How did the Party of Lincoln and Liberty transmogrify into the party of Newt Gingrich’s evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk? We’re Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore Powell's Resignation By Juan Cole Colin Powell's resignation as secretary of state may be a more important development than meets the eye. Tuesday, November 16, 2004 Powell's Resignation The Real Battle Winning in Fallujah Is Just the Beginning By Wesley K. Clark Sunday, November 14, 2004 Winning in Fallujah Is Just the Beginning Attack on Fallujah can't be justified By Helen Thomas Do Americans of good conscience really believe that we are making the United States more secure by bombing and killing the people of Fallujah? Attack on Fallujah can't be justified On 'Moral Values,' It's Blue in a Landslide Farewell to Swift boats and "Shove it!," to Osama's tape and Saddam's missing weapons, to "security moms" and outsourced dads. They've all been sent to history's dustbin faster than Ralph Nader memorabilia was dumped on eBay. In their stead stands a single ambiguous phrase coined by an anonymous exit pollster: "Moral values." By near universal agreement the morning after, these two words tell the entire story of the election: it's the culture, stupid. On 'Moral Values,' It's Blue in a Landslide Danger for Dems: A Moral Misstep Democrats who place too much credence in those exit polls that suggest that American politics is being reshaped by voters who are charged up about "Moral Values"--as defined by social conservative opposition to same-sex marriages, the right to choose and out-of-control Super Bowl halftime shows--run the risk of making a mistake that could put them not on the wrong side of one election but, rather, on the wrong side of history. Danger for Dems: A Moral Misstep The Axis of War: Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz by Senator Edward Kennedy The citizens of our democracy have a fundamental right to debate and even doubt the wisdom of a president's policies. And the citizens of our democracy have a sacred obligation to sound the alarm and shed light on the policies of an administration that is leading this country to a perilous place. The Axis of War: Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz ~ by Senator Edward Kennedy GOP Builds On Smear Campaign By William O'Rourke - Chicago Sun Times The GOP convention made that future clear: tax cuts for the wealthy made permanent, Social Security crippled with a partial privatization initiative, the Supreme Court packed with activist God-fearing conservative justices (modeled after Bush's favorite, Clarence Thomas), rash military adventures anytime, anywhere. GOP builds on smear campaign ~ BY WILLIAM O'ROURKE - Chicago Sun Times ColumnsThe Unofficial Paul Krugman ArchiveJoe Conason - Salon Joe Conason - New York Observer Michael Kinsley Arianna Online Maureen Dowd Columns George Monboit - plus Expressed views by George Monbiot Our view: Tuition increases, budget cuts buck college-for-all trend New limits on college access sting students and states Think Again: Torturous Logic, Media Silence Mr. Bush's Glass House Miller, Bush 'flip-flop' on important issues The Opportunity Costs of the Iraq War The Wrong Civil Liberties Board Shame on the Swift Boat Veterans for Bush Alan Keyes 'Still Crazy After All These Years' Sweet Jesus, I hate Bill O'Reilly Jesus in Baghdad Why we should keep Franklin Graham out of Iraq News Hounds - We watch FOX so you don't have to I Hate Rudy Giuliani |