Supporters of the Iraq war continue to impute to those of us (the liberal left or just the plain old left)  opposed to this appalling misadventure, several unsavory qualities and motives. They imply that we are not sufficiently disturbed by tyranny and oppression. That we find fault with the US government (especially a Republican one)…

India, Pakistan, Israel, England, New Zealand, Indonesia, Latvia and Finland have all done it once. The Phillippines, Sri Lanka, Ireland and Bangladesh have each done it twice.  Germany and Liberia just did it.  Chile is poised to become the first to do it in the Americas.  Will the US elect the first woman national leader…

Last year, we watched with fascination and a sense of solidarity, a tide of orange take to the streets of Kiev,  in support of the popular but battered, Viktor Yushchenko, the eventual winner of the presidential election in Ukraine. The process was widely viewed by the world as a triumph of ordinary citizens’ voice and…

Whether or not one agrees with Rep John Murtha (D -PA) about immediate withdrawal of US troops in Iraq, it is indisputable that his proposal to do so has ignited a firestorm.  The Republicans who are used to lobbing their pseudo patriotic grenades at liberal and dovish soft targets, are finding it a bit more…

President Bush has insisted before and as recently as last Friday in a Veterans Day day speech, that Democrats saw the same intelligence on pre war Iraq as he and his administration did. Many of us have wondered if the intelligence shared with the US senate told the whole story or if the Bush adminstration…

In a Veterans Day address today in Pennsylvania, President Bush lashed out at those (which is now a majority of Americans) who are questioning the origins of the Iraq war. Among other things, he said, "It is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began.These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to…

Ahmed Chalabi, the ruthless political mercenary is in Washington to meet with Bush administration officials. Chalabi has at different times, been accused of lying to the US about pre- Iraq war intelligence, post-war situation in Iraq, defrauding the Jordanian government (who has an arrest warrant against him) and even forgery. He was the main source…

Since 9/11, terrorists have attacked civilians in Indonesia, India, the U.K, Spain, Russia, Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and yes, in Iraq. China, Thailand, much of western Europe and Australia have experienced threats of terrorism.  And the most savage and unrelenting terrorist atrocity that continues unabated but is not mentioned in the same breath as others…

Every day a new poll is published about the plummeting approval ratings of President Bush.  An article in Houston Chronicle asserts that the reasons for this steep decline go beyond Iraq, Katrina, the CIA leak probe or gas prices. According to pollsters and experts, these negatives can at least in part, be ascribed "to a…

Two different summits took place simultaneously in Mar Del Plata, Argentina, in the last couple of days. One, the Summit of the Americas was a staid meeting of heads of states, mulling over the means and methods of promoting free market capitalism throughout the hemisphere. There was no agreement on much of anything because unlike…

It is legal for Texas civil and criminal court judges to make political contributions. Yet attorneys for US Rep Tom DeLay of Sugar Land, were successful in removing Judge Bob Perkins from hearing DeLay’s case based on the argument that Perkins donated more than $5000 to Democratic partisan organizations. A visiting judge, accepted the argument…

As noted yesterday, the Democrats who scurried away like frightened mice from Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinic during the 2004 presidential campaign, rose up at last to bite like a dog who has been kicked around for too long. They are demanding answers to their (and the public’s) questions about the manipulated, misleading and misanthropic…

Civil rights matriarch, Rosa Parks is the first woman to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda : Washington Post, Oct. 30, 2005 Goodman and Good Sense II Ellen Goodman has something more to say about women in public life, in leadership roles, in the context of Rosa Parks’ life and death. I agree mostly…

With his own approval number and the support for the Iraq war sinking in public polls, President Bush is once again urging patience and promising positive results. Should we believe him?  My own opinion of this administration is amply clear by now. Here are the views of two other, better informed people – neither of…

The press likes to report the deaths of soldiers in round numbers – multiples of 10, then 100 and now 1000. Today we learnt about the death of the two thousandth US soldier killed in Iraq. It is neither a milestone as it appears on the news nor just a number as the Pentagon would…