Category: Politics & World Affairs
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In the fast developing friendly atmosphere of co-operation between the world’s oldest and largest democracies, as the US and India like to call themseves, a new collaborative frontier has opened up. According to an agreement signed between NASA and the Indian Space Agency, the Indian unmanned mission to the moon in 2008 will include carrying…
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It is terribly dispiriting to see mainstream Democrats (MSD) run for cover every time someone has the courage to stand up to Republican bullying. Democratic insiders hounded out Howard Dean during the 2004 presidential primaries because he appeared too "angry." Angry? To me he sounded like a person who was telling it like it was…
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Much is being made of the fact that the fearsome Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has terrorized Iraqis and Americans alike with his brutal jihadist tactics during the Iraqi insurgency, is inept with a machine gun. Zarqawi’s own videos, broadcast in the Arab world for recruiting purposes present him as an intrepid warrior and a crack…
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Another moment of truth for this unethical administration in less than a week since Stephen Colbert heroically exposed George W. Bush. Today Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the matinee idol of Bush’s cabinet was caught flatfooted. His usual glib and dismissive style deserted him when Ray McGovern, a 27 year veteran of the CIA challenged Rumsfeld’s pre-war…
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John Kenneth Galbraith, the leading US economist, scholar and diplomat died on Saturday at the age of ninety seven. I was a young girl in middle school when Galbraith was appointed the US Ambassador to India by President John F. Kennedy. I had no idea what his politics and scholarship were about. But I remember…
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In a chillingly sarcastic roast, last night Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central stood next to George and Laura Bush and did a "comedy" routine that left mouths agape in the room. At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner where the press and the president of the United States are the butt of comedians’ jokes, the invited host…
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“The great mass of people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.” Adolf Hitler Mein Kampf (1925) And the most egregious lies through human history have been told in the name of god and religion. Greed, exploitation, domination and aggression – all otherwise unattractive traits, gain societal sanction…
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Find out what it means to have a president who thinks he has been empowered by God, builds his foreign policy on preventive war and when you disagree, says, "Be silent; I see it, if you don’t." Historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. explains: "….a thousand days remain of President Bush’s last term — days filled with…
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George W. Bush came into power by declaring that he is a "uniter" not a "divider" and then promptly proceeded to divide not just this country but the whole world by his hostile and arrogant stance. Very soon we found out to our dismay that he is not much of a "doer" and he proved…
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On how many fronts can a government fail and still retain its legitimacy? The Bush administration is surely as bad as a Banana Republic … but with nukes, which makes it far more dangerous than a bunch of garden variety inept buffoons. Its reverse Midas touch has been evident again and again at home and…
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Old soldiers and cowboys we are told, fade away or ride into the sunset. But politicians? Especially those who have grabbed power late in life and are arrogant to boot? They cling to their positions like barnacles on a ship. Recently, some retired soldiers – generals to be exact, instead of fading away, have come…
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The rapid fall from grace of Tom DeLay, a man known for his supersized ego and penchant for power has stunned his loyal constituency in Texas’ District 22. Many of my neighbors now say that they are relieved to see the last of DeLay. His departure they think guarantees that the seat will remain quietly…
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At the annual Radio and TV Correspondents’ Dinnner last month, Dick Cheney assumed the role of the humorist in chief. Without a trace of irony or shame he poked fun at the hunting accident in which he shot his friend, Harry Whittington. In the looming shadow of the failing and bloody Iraq war for which…
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For the better part of his presidency, George W. Bush remained insulated from the real world. His able handlers Karl Rove et al, have effectively shielded him from adverse public opinion and criticism. Up until the 2004 election, the president addressed only carefully selected partisan audiences and held very few press conferences. Bush, we learnt…
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