Pardon Poor Larry Craig
by Frank Rich
"I DID nothing wrong," said Larry Craig at the start of his long national nightmare as America's favorite running, or perhaps sitting, gag. That's the truth. Justice lovers of all sexual persuasions must rally to save the Idaho senator before he is forced to prematurely evacuate his seat. |
Uxorious or Spurious?
by Maureen Dowd
The press piled into a hall near a pile of N.R.A. swag bags to watch Rudy stride into the ballroom.Would the tough guy kowtow to the powerful lobby he once lambasted as extremist? Would he pull a Romney and pretend to be an avid hunter of small varmints? |
Massive surveillance net keeps track of Americans' travel -- down to the size of your hotel bed
by Raw Story
The Bush Administration has been collecting detailed records on the travel habits of Americans headed overseas, whether you fly, drive or take cruises abroad -- not simply your method of transit but the personal items you carry with you and the people you stay with, according to documents and statements obtained by the Washington Post. |
Dan Rather : 'Somebody's got to take a stand and say democracy cannot survive... with government interference in news'
by Mike Aivaz and Muriel Kane
Former CBS anchor Dan Rather recently filed a $70 million lawsuit against CBS, saying they made him a "scapegoat" when he was fired for a September 2004 story on 60 Minutes about President Bush's unsatisfactory service in the Texas Air National Guard. |
Janeane Garofalo: If Colin Powell had found his integrity, he could have changed the course of history
by Nick Langewis and Mike Aivaz
Bill Maher sits down with musician Rob Thomas, comedienne Janeane Garofalo and author Salman Rushdie. The panel discusses the phenomenon of people who don't speak their minds until they have left their positions of influence, preferring instead to write a memoir or sit down with a reporter to share their grievances, after they can no longer influence change. |
Iraqi forces take lead in only 8 percent of Baghdad: US general
by AFP
Iraqi forces have taken the lead for security in only about eight percent of Baghdad's neighborhoods more than eight months after the start of the US troop surge, a senior US commander said Friday.Major General Joseph Fil said violence has declined sharply in the city and more than half of its 474 neighborhoods, or "mahalas," are under the joint control of US and Iraqi forces, up from about 19 percent in June. |
McCain calls white, male NRA members 'core of the modern US'
by Raw Story
Giuliani takes 'surprise call' from wife during speech.Members of the powerful US National Rifle Association (NRA) on Friday grilled presidential hopefuls on how far they would go to protect Americans' right to bear arms."We believe that God, guns and guts made our country free and we're fighting to keep all three," NRA member Ray Oostdyk, from Virginia, said in between speeches mainly by Republican contenders vying for their party's nomination for the 2008 presidential election, including Rudy Giuliani. |
A challenge to the U.S. Senate: If the troops must forego R and R, so should you.
by Mary Shaw
Last November, the American people voted for change. We were fed up. So we sent more Democrats to Washington with the expectation that we would finally see some positive change, some real efforts to reverse the direction in which this country has been led (and misled) over the past six years. |
Free Speech Takes a Capitol Beating
by Mike Ferner
Free speech took a beating with another round of arrests September 18 in the nation's capital. It was administered by the police at a rally sponsored by the most unlikely-sounding group to be involved in such a thing: Veterans for Freedom.U.S. Senators Joe Lieberman, John McCain and Lindsey Graham were among the featured speakers at the rally held in Upper Senate Park on Capitol Hill. About 150 people attended the rally to support the group's pro-war position, as did about 30 people who were not in support. Before the rally concluded, Leah Bolger, David Barrows, Christine Rainwater, Anne Kitridge, and Anne Katz were arrested by Capitol Police. |
God's in the details, and so's the devil
by Jaime O'Neill
Got a nice note from one of the people who frequently call in to the 49er to say that Democrats are socialists, traitors, and deviants. You've seen her name many times there, and she often seems rather demented.The note she sent was in that vein, and I quote: "Dear Mr. Jamie O'Niel (sic) Yes, many Republicans can be jerks! But a majority of the democrat politicians are worst (sic) jerks (including you) and many including Billy Jeff Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Nancy Pelosi and others are traitors to their country and the American people!" |
FBI: Web site may have urged `lynching' of Jena teens
by Becky Bohrer
The FBI is reviewing a white supremacist Web site that purports to list the addresses of five of the six black teenagers accused of beating a white student in Jena and "essentially called for their lynching," an agency spokeswoman said Saturday.Sheila Thorne, an agent in the FBI's New Orleans office, said authorities were reviewing whether the site breaks any federal laws. She said the FBI had "gathered intelligence on the matter," but declined to further explain how the agency got involved. |
GOP in danger of losing independents
by Alan Fram
Michael Brooks is exactly the kind of voter the Republican Party can ill afford to lose. But in a foreboding omen for 2008, it may have already done just that.The auto parts store worker from St. Charles, Missouri, says he used to be a Republican but felt abandoned and is now an independent. |
A Pitiless Plan A: Denying Plan B Emergency Contraception to Victims of Rape
by Robert Weitzel
“I don't think you are supposed to put others through hell so you can avoid it yourself.”- A Good Friend -In the cold, early morning hours of January 1, 1974, a good friend, then a 19-year-old college student, was driving home alone from a New Year’s Eve party. Her Volkswagen was forced off the road. She was dragged kicking and screaming into the van of a man who had decided to kidnap and rape her. My friend spent the hours immediately after her brutal violation convincing the man not to kill her. |
A Child's Guide to Iran-US Relations
by Russ Wellen
There's no denying that Iran is an unsavory state. It funds Hezbollah. Its record on women's rights is abysmal. It hangs citizens -- including gay teens -- in public. Also, new evidence suggests that not Libya, but Iran, was responsible for the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie. |
Hired guns, loose cannons
by Eric Margolis
Private armies have a very sinister reputation in Europe.Memories still linger of Germany's post First World War army veterans, the Stahlhelm, and Nazi Brownshirts, who battled Communist street toughs in Munich and Berlin.Europeans remember Italy's fascist Blackshirts and, most recently, Serb neo-fascist gangs like Arkan's Tigers and the White Eagles who committed some of the worst atrocities in Bosnia and Kosovo. |
Of Hubris and Atrocities: Why Do They All Hate America?
by Brian Cloughley
Many years ago there was a song called "Why do we all love Australia" which was a bit of a spoof although funny and to the point. The main thing was that it was ironic and encouraged people to laugh at themselves, which does us all good from time to time. But there is nothing funny or ironical about a major international matter of the moment: Why do they all hate America? |
Mandela still alive after embarrassing Bush remark
by Reuters
Nelson Mandela is still very much alive despite an embarrassing gaffe by U.S. President George W. Bush, who alluded to the former South African leader's death in an attempt to explain sectarian violence in Iraq."It's out there. All we can do is reassure people, especially South Africans, that President Mandela is alive," Achmat Dangor, chief executive officer of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said as Bush's comments received worldwide coverage. |
Cheney seeks pretext for war as US reestablishes elite Air Force wing
by John Byrne
The US Air Force has reestablished the elite fighting force which planned the 1991 Gulf War's air campaign and tasked them with "fighting the next war" as US-Iran tensions bloom, the London Sunday Times reports Sunday.The news came on the heels of another Sunday report in Newsweek, which confirmed a quotation from a Cheney advisor who said that the Vice President "had been mulling the idea of pushing for limited Israeli missile strikes against the Iranian nuclear site at Natanz - and perhaps other sites - in order to provoke Tehran into lashing out." |
War Costing $720 Million Each Day, Group Says
by Kari Lydersen
The money spent on one day of the Iraq war could buy homes for almost 6,500 families or health care for 423,529 children, or could outfit 1.27 million homes with renewable electricity, according to the American Friends Service Committee, which displayed those statistics on large banners in cities nationwide Thursday and Friday. |
