Posts from ‘June, 2006’

In short, Bush intends to subject detainees at Guantanamo to some redneck justice. That’s easily described by a line from an old Western movie, in which a courtroom spectator hollers, “Judge can we hurry up and get this here trial over with, so we can get on with the hangin’?”

The fact Bush’s proposed military “commissions” would be carried out by neatly uniformed, polite officers employing some courtroom procedure isn’t good enough.

Why does the Department of Homeland Security cyber security chief, a contract worker, earn $70,481 more per year than the $175,000 DHS Secretary Alan Chertoff makes?

Several Iraqi insurgent groups are offering to stop their violent attacks in return for a two-year timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops.

In a land wracked by violence and instability, its economy a basket case, its infrastructure a shambles and its society fractured, the prospect of relative peace, even if only partial, has to be tantalizing.

If you work for a paycheck or are retired, prepare to dig deeper into your finances to pay your federal taxes. More bills are coming due for President Bush’s blunder war in Iraq and it’s going to be up to you and us to pay them.

From the state that put President George W. Bush’s re-election bid over the top in 2004 comes another corruption eruption caused by the Republicans’ anything-to-win approach to politics. Why are we not surprised?

The flag is a symbol, an important one, it’s true. But the Constitution is the underpinning of what makes Americans free. Desecrating the Constitution in a half-baked scheme to protect the symbol reveals a deplorable lack of appreciation for what’s most important.

In a comically pathetic bid to qualify as a real standup guy, in some sense at least, professional Democrat basher Rush Limbaugh acquired a bottle of 29 Viagra tablets. Typical of Limbaugh, the pills weren’t legal.

Question: How hard would it be to mess with an electronic voting machine, to help jigger an election outcome?

Answer: In several states, at least, it could easily be done in the privacy and comfort of a person’s own home.

In an era when celebrity heroes are as rare as celebrities blighted by drugs, drink and violence are common, Warren Buffett stands out as the real deal: the kind of human being any good parent wants his or her child to become.

The same goes for Microsoft chairman and Buffett’s fellow philanthropist, Bill Gates, Gates’ wife Melinda and father, Bill Gates Sr.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has put forth a 24-point national reconciliation plan to bring more of his angry countrymen into the political process — and keep them out of violent terrorist activities. . . . This all sounds worthwhile, until we consider the nuts and bolts of getting it done.