Dispatches
Able Baker (James) and Charlie (Rose)
10.23.2006 04:57 | RUSS WELLEN
Able to fix almost anything, James Baker has let his smugness get the better of him.For a man with a reputation for working behind the scenes as a consigliere, especially to George H.W. Bush, James Baker has sure been in the spotlight a lot recently. Gues...
Global Warming? We Should Be So Lucky
10.18.2006 05:46 | RUSS WELLEN
Slow cooking sure beats being flambeed at ten million degrees in a nuclear attack. There's little doubt that the nuclear weapon programs of North Korea and Iran constitute clear and, if not present, someday-soon, dangers. But they also serve a pu...
The More Iraqis Die, the Less We Care
10.16.2006 04:45 | RUSS WELLEN
Does an inverse ratio exist between Iraqi deaths and American compassion? The new study by Johns Hopkins study revealing 600,000 Iraqis have died from violence may not cut a lot of weight with Americans. Bad enough that there are 500 violent deaths a...
President Misses Major Megaphone Moment
10.06.2006 06:12 | RUSS WELLEN
The president's men -- or man, Karl Rove -- whiffed at a fat pitch. Remember when Bush, firefighter by his side, picked up that megaphone at the site of the World Trade Center collapse? He got a lot of mileage out of that -- two wars worth, in fact. W...
Is Condoleeza Rice Really Our Last Best Hope?
10.04.2006 04:56 | RUSS WELLEN
Is the shaky secretary of state, reeling from yet another assault on her credibility, all that stands between us and war with Iran? "They wouldn't dare." "Congress would never approve it." These are typical reactio...
How to Lose Your Job in 800 Easy Air Strikes
09.29.2006 04:43 | RUSS WELLEN
Chapter and verse for the front and back of a doomsayer's imaginary sandwich board: "If we attack Iran. . . we might lose our jobs. . . if we attack Iran. . . we might lose our jobs. . . if we attack Iran."Frankly, the prospect of 7,500 Iran...
Iraq Creates Terrorists -- And Your Point Is?
09.27.2006 05:32 | RUSS WELLEN
We don't mind creating terrorists. We just don't want them anywhere near us. In the National Intelligence Estimate the administration was forced to release, 16 of the government's intelligence agencies signed off on the view that our inva...
Never Mind "Body Worlds,"* See a Spine Deteriorate Before Your Eyes
09.25.2006 06:27 | RUSS WELLEN
No thanks to Senator McCain, as well as Lindsey and Warner, the White House has been granted permission to continue authorizing the CIA to torture.Thus exposed to the risk of reciprocal treatment are captured American service personnel. In fact, with its...
Meigs and Mr. Jones
09.18.2006 05:07 | RUSS WELLEN
In March 2005 Popular Mechanics magazine ran an article titled "9/11: Debunking The Myths." But it was too sketchy to be of much use in pulling the rug out from under the 9/11 Truth Movement.It's since produced a book titled "Debunking...
Who Does This Sound Like?
09.13.2006 06:42 | RUSS WELLEN
From "The Master Plan" by Lawrence Wright in The New Yorker:"After coalition forces overran Al Qaeda compounds in Afghanistan in late 2001, they seized thousands of pages of internal memoranda. . . . [Only one] briefly addresses whether jih...
What's the Opposite of the "Homeland"?
09.06.2006 06:33 | RUSS WELLEN
Many Americans can't quite put their finger on why the word "homeland" makes them queasy. Well, for starters, it invokes visions of the Nazis and the fatherland. Also, homelands are what Russia and South Africa called the out-of-sight, out-o...
Suspect a Wash, But Social Redemption in Ramsey Case Found!
08.29.2006 06:52 | RUSS WELLEN
JonBenet Ramsey may have been the prototype for all those missing or murdered privileged white girls that the media mainstream loves. In light of Iraq, where any number of violent deaths could be Law & Order episodes in their own right, how can we jus...
Good Old American Know-How Lives!
08.25.2006 06:31 | RUSS WELLEN
Besides energy, no issue is as perplexing to Americans as security, especially of the fatherland, I mean homeland, variety. But there's finally been a breakthrough development. However embarrassing to the government and big business, it was incubated...
Hoisted on Its Own Petard
08.24.2006 06:15 | RUSS WELLEN
Except for a handful like John Kerry, John Edwards, and Russ Feingold, it's as if most Democratic senators don't believe the polls that lay bare public disaffection with our occupation of Iraq. They refuse to call for a timetable for withdrawal.Ho...
Why the Hard Right Brands Hilary Clinton a Liberal
08.17.2006 04:42 | RUSS WELLEN
What's a girl expect when she plays the field?The only liberals that support Hilary Clinton are those who think supporting a "centrist" candidate is realpolitik. (How mature of them.) Why then does the hard right persist in characterizing he...
It's Not Just Blood That's Hemorrhaging in Iraq
08.10.2006 04:56 | RUSS WELLEN
Drowning in a sea of red ink. In financial journalism, you're advised to break down numbers into bite-size chunks the reader can digest. Matthew Yglesias does his best with his valuable July American Prospect cover story, "The Price Is Wron...
Death by Nuance
08.07.2006 05:17 | RUSS WELLEN
Believe it or not, when killing civilians, Israel may have international law on its side.In an article in the Forward, Ori Nir writes: "While intentionally targeting civilians or civilian property is forbidden, international law takes a more nuanced...
Chain of Deceit: From the Pentagon to the 9/11 Commission to the Public
08.04.2006 09:49 | RUSS WELLEN
9/ll theories have been stewing in their juices for five years. A confluence of events this past week suggests that the garbage can lid that's been tamping them down is ready to blow. -- Astonishing as it sounds, a conference featuring the 9/11 S...
We Will Fight Them in the Schoolyards, the Strip Mall
07.29.2006 09:56 | RUSS WELLEN
On Friday, Cursor linked to an article on the Website of WSFA-TV, based in Montgomery, Alabama. The state capital's SWAT team is undergoing training in counterterrorism techniques by former Israel Defense Force member Aaron Cohen at the local police...
From Israel with Love
07.28.2006 10:09 | RUSS WELLEN
The title of this Dispatch is typical of the messages Israeli children write on shells to be fired into Lebanon. Picture -- rated "S" for surreal -- here (scroll down).Columnist Robert Koehler calls such corruption of the young collateral damage...
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