Dispatches
James Dobson Killed God!
06.13.2007 05:28 | RUSS WELLEN
No, not by his own hand. Nor was it that God (we'll explain). It's just that the urge to fight dirty burst forth after reading Media Matters' June 7 report about a sermon by John MacArthur, a pastor in California, that Dobson broadcast on his...
ElBaradei-metric Pressure
06.04.2007 06:08 | RUSS WELLEN
It's never a good sign when a Nobel laureate wigs out."The idea that there's a military solution is absolutely bonkers."-- January 2007 "I have no brief other than to make sure we don't go into another war or that we go cra...
Remember Jesus Freaks?
05.24.2007 05:27 | RUSS WELLEN
Has any American death in recent years been greeted with more jubilation than Jerry Falwell's? (Aside from Timothy McVeigh's.)Christopher Hitchens called him an "ugly little charlatan." Journalist and historian Rick Perlstein said, "...
Leave It to Ringo to Burst the Bubble of the Super-Rich
04.30.2007 05:14 | RUSS WELLEN
Former Beatle Paul McCartney's wealth approaches a billion dollars –- give or take a hundred million depending on what, in the absence of a pre-nup, his estranged (or just plain strange) wife takes him for. Ringo Starr can't be far behind. &...
Giuliani's Other Paradox
04.19.2007 06:14 | RUSS WELLEN
Like many politicians, Rudolph Giuliani welcomed the Supreme Court's ban on partial-birth abortions. But because of his past support for abortion, as well as gay rights, not to mention his affairs and divorces, his legitimacy as a candidate for presid...
Hate Will Bring Us Together
04.02.2007 05:52 | RUSS WELLEN
The hard right, to whom Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi symbolize liberal beliefs, takes fiendish delight in bringing the wrath of God down on them. This might offend Democratic Leadership Council types. But, true liberals, not to mention progressi...
AIPAC's Heavy Hand
03.19.2007 05:59 | RUSS WELLEN
On March 13 Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership deleted a provision from the Supplemental Appropriations bill which forbade funds for military operations against Iran unless authorized by Congress.On her Iran Nuclear Watch blog, Cara Ong wrote: &qu...
Tomatoes Are to Iran as a Gallon of Gas Is to the US
03.15.2007 05:47 | RUSS WELLEN
In "The view from Tehran" on Salon, Hooman Majd reports that tomatoes, an essential ingredient of salads, stews, and kebabs in Iran, are no longer affordable to most of the Persian public, much to their despair. The rich continue to buy them in...
Conning Condi
03.07.2007 05:09 | RUSS WELLEN
In a surprise move, writes Jim Lobe on Antiwar.com, "U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has appointed a prominent neoconservative hawk and leading champion of the Iraq war to the post of State Department Counselor." Her right-hand man, Phi...
A War That Will Hit Home
03.05.2007 04:24 | RUSS WELLEN
Attack Iran and the "homeland" won't know what hit it.Remember the stories our parents or grandparents used to tell us about World War II? For those still stateside, goods such as meat, sugar, gasoline, and clothing were rationed. The manufa...
Little-Known Congressman Pushes Back on Iran
01.15.2007 14:27 | RUSS WELLEN
"Oh, they'd never let that happen." Have you heard that reaction when you've expressed concern that the administration might authorize an attack on Iran? The Democratic Congress, it's assumed, would surely defer to its const...
Toothless in Tehran
01.10.2007 10:18 | RUSS WELLEN
Two days before Christmas, sanctions against Iran were passed. Ambassadors to the UN Alejandro Wolff (US) and Emyr Jones Parry (UK), in conjunction with American Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, spun them as tough.But Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly C...
Nobody to Blame But Themselves
01.05.2007 04:35 | RUSS WELLEN
Reduced to the same circumstances, Americans would never slaughter each other like the Iraqis. Would they?"One possibility is that people around the region and the world would come to judge Iraq's failure as largely the result of American policy....
The Apple Doesn't Fall Far from the Tree
01.02.2007 04:16 | RUSS WELLEN
Much as it wishes it did.I just finished reading "Grant," Jean Edward Smith's authoritative biography of Ulysses Grant (Simon & Schuster, 2001). (His record as president with native Americans and freed slaves will surprise those unfamili...
Culled and Distilled, Part One
12.28.2006 07:52 | RUSS WELLEN
Excerpts from the best articles available on the Internet.Congress". . . both the legislative and the executive branch are mainly engaged in searching out and finding the acceptable mean between voter sentiment and financial interest. [Emphasis added...
9/11: The Bush-League Version of Pearl Harbor?
12.21.2006 04:16 | RUSS WELLEN
The trouble with means to an end is that it always seems to end mean.When the 9/11 Truth Movement proposes that the Bush administration, or elements thereof, aided and abetted 9/11, the first reaction is often: "I just can't picture our governmen...
How to Leave Iraq without Kicking Sunnis Off the Helicopter Skids
12.14.2006 08:45 | RUSS WELLEN
Maybe we should take them with us.Most Americans agree that we can't withdraw now without continuing to train and equip the Iraqi army and police forces. Otherwise, they'd likely collapse and melt into the militias like the Mahdi Army and the Badr...
Oh, the Iran-y!
11.28.2006 04:43 | RUSS WELLEN
In "The Clock's Ticking: Stopping Iran Before It's Too Late" from the November Arms Control Today, Joseph Cirincione ponders the economic effects of an attack on Iran. "The price of gas would soar to between $5 to $8 per gallon in t...
Seniors: No Money to Leave Your Kids?
11.14.2006 04:38 | RUSS WELLEN
No problem. Just leave them a better world then. Post-election momentum provides the perfect opportunity for a new approach to activism.In this day and age it's harder than ever for old folks to bequeath their children an inheritance. They start off o...
Machismo -- or Masochism?
11.03.2006 04:29 | RUSS WELLEN
In war, as well as sports, there's a fine line between the two.How did we ever wind up prisoner to the private pathologies of our garden-gnome-come-to-life of a vice president? That's a question best left to history to decide. Another is more to t...
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