contributions

In this former imperial capital, every square seems to contain a giant statue of a Habsburg on horseback, posing as a conquering hero. America’s founders knew all too well how war appeals to the vanity of rulers and their thirst for glory. That’s why they took care to deny presidents the kingly privilege of making war at their own discretion. But after 9/11 President George W. Bush, with obvious relish, declared himself a "war president." And he kept the nation focused on martial matters (…)

Rarely in recent years has Washington seen so dramatic a clash between the legislative and executive branches as was witnessed Thursday, when U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, D-Masschusetts, went after Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on the question of whether the Pentagon chief should resign for mismanaging the war in Iraq.
"This war has been consistently and grossly mismanaged. And we are now in a seemingly intractable quagmire. Our troops are dying. And there really is no end in (…)

In the Northwest, most people I know have (at least) a healthy dose of scepticism towards Federal Government solutions to our problems. Even outside the more liberal population centers of Portland and Seattle, many Northwesterners have rejected the new paradigm and started working towards a better future. All around, farmers’ markets are spreading like wildfire, though these blazes only really threaten WalMart, Albertsons, and petro-chemical dependence. Or, take "conservative" Idaho. The (…)

I have been retired for more than 20 years, so I know what Social Security means to the elderly. Yet we have President Bush still pushing his plan for personal accounts, which would be a disaster. They can use IRAs for that.
Another thing that angers me is the snickering about the filing cabinets full of useless IOUs. The U.S. government promises to pay those. I realize that under the Bush administration they may be useless, because it wants to run the U.S. government as Bush did his (…)

June 23, 2005 - On May 1 the London _Sunday Times_ published leaked minutes — the Downing Street Memo — of a high-level British cabinet meeting held on 23 July 2002 that discussed contingencies, political and military, for invading Iraq.
In the Cabinet meeting, C [the head of MI6, Richard Dearlove] ’reported on his recent talks in Washington’, where ’military action was now seen as inevitable’ and ’the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.’ In other words, the books (…)

June 23, 2005
JB Campbell
Here’s one reason that so many American soldiers and marines have died in Iraq...
Back in 1981, I was the head of a bulletproof car company in Monterey, California. We’d construct a box made of Lexgard inside a limo or regular car. It was pretty effective but difficult to install. Lexgard is General Electric’s transparent polycarbonate armor, very effective at stopping handgun bullets. If you put a hard surface in front of it, such as glass or sheet metal, it (…)

WASHINGTON, June 23, 2004 — It began as a leaked commentary on the Bush administration’s confrontation with Iraq. In recent weeks, however, the so-called Downing Street Memo has become a rallying cry for critics of the war and the way the American news media have covered it.
The memo, which some regard as evidence that the U.S. trumped up intelligence to justify its invasion of Iraq, might have been largely forgotten in the U.S. if not for a few people who took action while many in the (…)

LIVING IN THE FOURTH REICH
By Gary Steven Corseri
In the Third Reich we said We were just following orders. Today we say, We’re just doing our job.
In the Third Reich We were anti-Semitic. (We hated the Jews.) In the Fourth Reich We are anti-Semitic. (We hate the Arabs.)
In the Third Reich We had our Minister of Information. Goebbels said If you tell a lie big enough And often enough People believe it.
In the Fourth Reich We have Corporate Media. We get 24-7 lies Interspersed with (…)

Having followed the story of the death of Col. Ted S. Westhusing, the highest-ranking US officer killed so far in the Iraq, since June 5, the date he died, it is with a heavy heart and much trepidation that I have finally arrived at the conclusion you read in the headline, that Ted’s death was a suicide. Westhusing was a professor in the English Department at the US Military Academy at West Point who volunteered to go to Iraq.
Officially, Ted died of a non-combat injury at Camp Dublin near (…)

One of the unsung heroes of the opposition to the Iraqi War is Ann Wright. Rather than support the war, she resigned her position with the State Dept. on March 19, 2003. Ms. Wright, a career diplomat for over 16 years, who had also served in the military, believes the Downing Street Memos have plenty of ammunition in them to support impeachment proceeding against President George W. Bush and criminal charges against others in his administration. On March 19, 2003, President George W. (…)