Dispatches

Was It Just Wilson the White House Was After When It Outed Plame?
05.22.2006 05:18 | RUSS WELLEN
On February 13, The Raw Story's star reporter, Larisa Alexandrovna, was among the first to explain how the work Valerie Plame performed for CIA front Brewster Jennings was evaluating Iranian nuclear capability. Alexandrovna's conclusion was cloake...

The Border Fence in Our Mind
05.19.2006 11:27 | RUSS WELLEN
In the eight years I've been commuting by train to Manhattan I think I've overheard a total of one political conversation. (The three most popular topics? House, house, and house.)Not only is talk of politics as indelicate to Americans as of relig...

Is NSA Confiscation of Phone Records the Last Straw?
05.16.2006 09:08 | RUSS WELLEN
Have Bush & Co driven the final nail into their own coffins by authorizing the NSA to confiscate phone records? Is this the final outrage that will establish the impetus for impeachment?The jury's out. In the May 12 The Boston Globe, Bruce Mohl wr...

Delhi Pickle
05.12.2006 17:49 | ALEXANDER ZAITCHIK
When critics of Iran's nuclear program scoff at Tehran's claim that it needs the energy, the scoffing is justified. But it's more than a little curious when those same critics switch modes into supporters of the nuclear technology sharing a...

Does Iran Already Have Nuclear Weapons?
05.12.2006 08:03 | RUSS WELLEN
Curiously overlooked is the possibility -- likelihood even -- that Iran already has nuclear weapons. It's rumored that it once obtained X-55 missiles from Russia with operational nuclear warheads. It's also armed with Shahab 3 and MIRV missiles,...

George Who?
05.09.2006 07:56 | RUSS WELLEN
In November of last year, Freezerbox founder Alex Zaitchik wrote a Dispatch about Bush's post-presidential years called "The Lamest Duck Ever":"Never will there have been less use for a two-term president so otherwise available for use....

And You Thought MAD* Was Mad
05.05.2006 05:25 | RUSS WELLEN
 In his City Journal article "Facing Down Iran," Mark Steyn writes: "Now a state openly committed to the annihilation of a neighboring nation has nukes, and we shrug. . . Just the way things are. . . . let everyone get 'em, and...

Colbert's Display of Intestinal Fortitude Makes White House and Its Correspondents Squirmy
05.02.2006 07:53 | RUSS WELLEN
Whoever hired Stephen Colbert to act as host of the White House Correspondents Dinner must have done so while in the throes of a fit of sadomasochism. It's hard to tell who was more humiliated: the White House or the correspondents.While grueling for...

Has This Been the Golden Age of the Internet?
05.01.2006 05:16 | RUSS WELLEN
That first novel that reaches heights of intensity a writer never again attains. A ballplayer reaches the World Series as a rookie, never to make it again. Those first heady months of a love affair. Sometimes when you think something is just begi...

Baseball's Stock Down with Steroids, but Bonds Inching Up
04.28.2006 07:48 | RUSS WELLEN
As if a steady diet of harassment and condemnation weren't enough, now Barry Bonds faces indictment for perjury and possible suspension from baseball. He's been singled out as the nation's whipping boy for steroids because, thanks to his secon...

Gore's Got the Gravitas, but the Real Grizzly Adams Is Mike Gravel
04.24.2006 05:34 | RUSS WELLEN
Freezerbox founder Alex Zaitchik posted a dispatch entitled, "The 'Run, Al' Chorus," in which, first, he apologized for not voting for Gore in 2002. Then he urged him to grow back his beard as a way of leveraging his identifica...

Run, Al, Run
04.21.2006 11:03 | ALEXANDER ZAITCHIK
Mr. Gore,All those people yelling, "Run, Al, Run" wherever you speak? Count me in. I haven't seen it yet, but The Ugly Truth looks great and has clearly broken through--well done. And the Constitution Hall speech was truly awesome.And, ye...

When's the Nobel Committee Gonna Get Around to Lloyd deMause? (Who)?
04.17.2006 20:08 | RUSS WELLEN
Maybe you've seen mention of one of Psychohistory's founders in this space before. You know, the one who writes:"The amount of time and resources any society devotes to its children's needs is far more likely to be an accurate index...

Bloggers Strive to Fill Void Left by Mainstream Media on Iran
04.13.2006 11:33 | RUSS WELLEN
In response to Bush & Co.'s plans for Iraq, the bloggers have risen to new heights. For instance, in "Mutually Assured Dementia," Whiskey Bar's Billmon writes: ". . . For both the corporate and the conservative media, as well as...

Military Fragging Bush & Co.
04.10.2006 09:00 | RUSS WELLEN
Before the invasion of Iraq there was a handful of retired officers like one-time Centcom (Middle-East) commander General Anthony Zinni who spoke out against it. (And afterwards reflected on the "lying, incompetence, and corruption" he witnessed in the pr...

Iraq Jumps Shark, But High Hopes for Its Sequel, Iran
04.06.2006 06:05 | RUSS WELLEN
In "...

Scalia Watching Too Many Sopranos Reruns
04.03.2006 07:39 | RUSS WELLEN
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has attained a position as high as any Italian-American in the US government. You’d think he’d thus be extra-vigilant about reinforcing stereotypes about his people. . . In "Photographer: Herald got it right" Mari...

Take My Secretary of State, Please
03.31.2006 05:19 | RUSS WELLEN
Upon rumors that Condoleezza Rice was a candidate for the next National Football League commissioner, the dean of pro football writers, Dr. Z (Paul Zimmerman), wrote on SportsIllustrated.CNN.com: "When I read that name this morning I went into severe c...

Roll Over, Rove
03.30.2006 06:00 | RUSS WELLEN
. . . Let the special prosecutor take over (apologies to Jimi Hendrix). This, from The Raw Story: "According to several Pentagon sources close to Rove and others familiar with the inquiry, [he] tipped off Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to. . . del...

No Joy in Gloating Over Bush's Low Ratings
03.27.2006 05:50 | RUSS WELLEN
Who has the stomach to celebrate after all the havoc his administration has wreaked? Besides, embarrassment before the rest of the world that he's our president has long since turned into shame that we failed to remove him from office. (Or indict his peop...