Ronald Reagan once famously said that presidents should "never say never" But when it comes to the reinstatement of the military draft, recent public opinion polls seem to suggest that the American people think "never" would be a fine idea, indeed. A recent AP/Ipsos poll showed only 27% of Americans favored conscription, with a whopping […]

While President Bush's statements on Iraq have entered the realm of the hallucinatory, Vice President Dick Cheney's chutzpah and mendacity in the just the last few weeks hasn't gone unnoticed, either. Cheney, the same man said who instructed Senator Pat Leahy "go f**k yourself" on the Senate floor, criticized Illinois Senator Dick Durbin for his […]

On the heels of Prime Minister Tony Blair's visit to the U.S. and the growing furor over the Downing Street Memo, a new British document promises to further highlight the Bush administration's deception and incompetence in preparing for the Iraq war. The Washington Post reports that just two days before the Downing Street meeting, a […]

Memorial Day in the United States arrives this year at a sobering time. As the violence and disorder conitnues in Iraq, American servicemen and women stand in harm's way there, in Afghanistan and around the world. Our troops and their families deserve our thanks and need our support. This is the first modern American conflict […]

The ongoing Newsweek saga has given the Bush White House and its right wing jihadists what they see as a golden opportunity. Their simple goal is to use the Newsweek case and the Rathergate episode before it to wage a full scale assault on the credibility and objectivity of "mainstream press." In its place, they […]

The Bush administration and their amen corner continue to rain down hellfire on Newsweek magazine for the Koran desecration flap. Scott McClellan called it "irresponsible" and Ohio Representative and Tom Delay crony Bob Ney termed it "criminal." As I cautioned yesterday, the administration would do well not to overplay its hand. The image of the […]

As expected, the President's commission on pre-war intelligence regarding Iraqi's weapons of mass destruction offers a scathing critique of the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies. (The full report and other commission background can be found here; other Iraq/WMD documents are also available in the Perrspectives Document Library.) Also as expected, the report essentially absolved […]

Sometimes you just have to give credit where credit is due. Like Chauncey Gardner in Being There, right now everything in the Middle East seems to be coming up roses for George W. Bush - and the United States. But like Chauncey, Bush the born-again democratic idealist has a series of happy accidents to thank […]

Once in a rare while, tectonic historical change occurs with the span of only few days. The dramatic fall of the Berlin Wall heralding the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union, was one of those watershed moments. And for many Americans, the events of the last 10 days of January, with the Rice confirmation, the […]

With President Bush's 2005 State of the Union approaching, my 2004 SOTU-eve critique of Bush's so-called Ownership Society still stands. State of Disunion Even with his shaky State of the Union address and dipping approval ratings, President Bush unfortunately remains in a strong position for the 2004 election. Saddam is captured, GDP is surging, and […]