Author: david

To me, this was the most disgusting part of the FBI’s campaign against Dr. Martin Luther King. It is pretty well known by now that the FBI had bugged King’s hotel rooms, and had recorded explicit sexual episodes. They used these tapes against him for years, and even played them for selected journalists. I heard…

Anger Mounts Over Deployment of Kurdish Forces to Baghdad By Nidhal al-Laithi and Marsi abu Tareq Azzaman, Iraq, 1/7/07 Kurdish leaders have decided to deploy their own militias in the fighting now taking place in Baghdad….This will be the first time Kurdish armed groups will fight in Baghdad, and specifically against their co-religionists, Arab Sunnis.…

“Mortgage rates jump on strong labor market, inflation pressures “WASHINGTON (Reuters) 1/11/2007— Average interest rates on 30-year mortgages crept upward in the latest week to 6.21% from 6.18%, according to a survey by finance company Freddie Mac on Thursday.”

Three Bush Foreign-Policy Hypotheses I won’t undertake to substantiate these, just to offer them as hypotheses. 1. We (i.e., the Bush administration) are refusing talks with Syria and Iran, because we are afraid the talks would succeed. 2. We are afraid of the talks succeeding, because we’d have to renounce regime-change. (It is diplomatically untenable…

Barak Obama is, among other things, a unique personal phenomenon, a political happenstance. And that is frightening in a way, because America is a country where, as with both of the Kennedys, you can kill an idea.

“This documentary visits Ingmar Bergman, one of the 20th century’s greatest film directors…” http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1167037-bergman_island/about.php Only the 20th century! I’m not afraid to say it–I think he was one of the greatest film directors of all time!

“The administration also does not plan to alter its strategy of isolating adversaries Iran and Syria, despite mounting pressure…” —NYT, 12/1/06 DKo: We are very close to standing alone, as we isolate Iran, Syria and, in effect, the entire world.

We really need to go invade a better country! Washington Post, 11/29/06: “As Iraq Deteriorates, Iraqis Get More Blame”

“Want to garner a DVD tonight? We could nab a good one.” “I’ll mull it, but don’t get roiled if I don’t. I’m not inking anything.”

And now for something completely different… In this week’s synagogue Torah reading, Genesis 18:1 – 22:24, God tells Abraham that Sodom and Gomorrah are to be destroyed, and Abraham challenges the morality of this decision. He morally challenges God. And God accepts. “Will You sweep away the innocent along with the guilty? What if there…

While both the President and the Democrats have promised to seek new approaches on Iraq, pundits have noted that new approaches may just not be available. In particular, they say not to expect something new to be discovered by the Baker commission. But, the Baker mandate (report due at the end of the year) may…

Thanks and congratulations to our own Christian Crumlish and Cecil Vortex, who epitomized for us the heart and soul of the committed Long Haul. And thank you to Howard Dean, whose controversial decision to spend on party-building in all 50 states, not just limited battleground states, has been well vindicated by the competitive races and…

Note: This is very dense and wonky, and only marginally informed considering how definite it sounds. I’m just noodling with limited information, but I have a realpolitik suggestion for the Baker-Hamilton Commission. It can’t be much worse than what has been bruited about so far. It is a variation on the federated partition idea, and…

This viewpoint should be common knowledge. North Korea: A Nuclear Threat–An exclusive account of what Pyongyang really wants. Newsweek International Edition On Sept. 19, 2005, North Korea signed a widely heralded denuclearization agreement….to “abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs.” In return, Washington agreed [to] “respect each other’s sovereignty, exist peacefully together and take…

“The Republican Party is taking pro-family conservatives for granted,” said Mike Mears, executive director of the political action committee of Concerned Women for America, which promotes biblical values. –“Some Seek ‘Pink Purge’ in the GOP,” LA Times DKo: No, it’s not a mistake; I’ve seen him quoted before.

I’ve put together a couple of things President Bush has revealed recently about the Democrats in Congress; it is awfully sobering, but very clear, what he is going to have to do. (My italics.) Bush: [I]f somebody from al Qaeda is calling into the United States…we need to know…what they’re planning …. 177 Democrats voted…

I first reported years ago the real mistake in the first moon words, and that mistake’s potentially staggering costs to our nation. When I give you the details, the words Why didn’t the biggest newspapers in America grab this story and run with it as front page news? will leap to your lips! This is…

“Don’t even think about it! “Uh, well, of course, you can think about it. I mean, you couldn’t resolve not to do it, if you couldn’t think about it. “But, don’t even contemplate enacting it!”

“[Sen. Allen] said the United States needs to interrogate terrorism suspects effectively. ‘I don’t want to stop these interrogations,’ he said. ‘I’m not for torture . . . but some of these techniques have been very helpful to us.’” Article,” Washington Post. DKo: Then why not torture? Wouldn’t those interrogations be even more effective? Wouldn’t…

Military Lawyers Caught in Middle on Tribunals, NYT, 9/15/06 On Wednesday evening, the night before a crucial Senate vote…the Pentagon general counsel, William J. Haynes II, summoned the senior uniformed lawyers [judge advocates general] from each military service to a meeting. …Mr. Haynes sought to enlist the lawyers on the administration’s side by asking whether…