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Webb's Righteous Amendment

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 01:10:02 -0700

TomPaine - By Digby - Sep. 19 (Opinion) - The Webb Amendment is a powerful piece of legislation, backed by the Military Officers Association and many military families who are seeing their loved ones deployed over and over again until their marriages and their finances are at a breaking point. Although it may serve to force the administration to withdraw troops more quickly than they wish to, this is not a political ploy. Even before the surge, experts said that the Iraq war was breaking the military. Now it is far worse. Someone has to step in and do something about this problem and it's obvious it isn't going to be the Republican party. Until today, it was looking very promising that Webb might get the 60 votes needed to override a filibuster. Vulnerable Republicans and those in states with a heavy military presence heard an earful from their constituents on this subject over the summer recess. But with His Eminence Warner now making little whimpering noises that he will accept the useless little Christmas sugar plum from the White House instead of backing it, he may give cover to enough wavering Republicans to derail this popular, necessary legislation.

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Greenspan Spills The Beans

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:34:33 -0700

TomPaine - By Ray McGovern - Sep. 17 (Editorial) - For those still wondering why President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney sent our young men and women into Iraq, the secret is now "largely" out. The uncommon candor comes from a highly respected Republican doyen, economist Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006, whom the president has praised for his "wise policies and prudent judgment." Sadly for Bush and Cheney, Greenspan decided to put prudence aside in his new book, The Age of Turbulence, and answer the most neuralgiac issue of our times-why the United States invaded Iraq.

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Stealing The 2008 Vote

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 11:45:07 -0700

TomPaine - By Rob Richie - Aug. 29 (News Analysis) - If you thought Tom DeLay's Texas gerrymandering scam in 2003 was bad, just wait. Now partisans are seeking to steal the 2008 presidential election. It's that serious. Taking advantage of the frustration their supporters understandably feel about their powerless role in presidential elections, leading California Republicans are promoting an initiative to divide California's slate of 55 electoral votes. Rather than all electoral votes going to the statewide winner, each U.S. House district in a state would elect one presidential elector, while the statewide popular vote winner would take the two electoral votes corresponding to states' Senate seats.

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Keep out the vote

Tue, 15 May 2007 10:36:15 -0700

TomPaine - By Michael Winship - May. 15 (Opinion) - What's the real motive for knocking off those eight, now nine, maybe more U.S. attorneys--Republican appointees all--apparently replaced for insufficient fealty to the Bushie party line? In part, the truth may be lurking in the upcoming 2008 elections.

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Reagan, White As Snow

Tue, 08 May 2007 12:24:10 -0700

TomPaine - By Alec Dubro - May. 08 (Editorial) - Last week, as we've heard, the Republican presidential candidates praised the name and heritage of Ronald Reagan 40 times during the televised Show and Tell at the Reagan Presidential Library. That none of them mentioned Reagan's legacy of white supremacy and support for apartheid is a little like invoking Jefferson Davis and not mentioning treason or slavery.

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Why Conservatives Can't Govern

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 11:02:22 -0700

TomPaine - By Robert L. Borosage - Mar. 19 (Opinion) - Donald Rumsfeld has been axed. Tom DeLay cut and ran. "Scooter" Libby stands convicted. Michael "you're doing a heck of a job" Brown was tossed. Newt Gingrich disgraced himself. And now the clueless Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, is surely the next to go. Why this confederacy of dunces? The conservative National Review cover asks plaintively, "Can't Anyone Here Play this Game?" Time Magazine puts conservative icon Ronald Reagan on its cover, a tear rolling down his face, reporting on "How the Right Went Wrong." But it's not incompetence or corruption--although both abound--that fostered the misrule of this conservative administration. And Reagan would feel not dismayed, but right at home with the follies and crimes. Remember: Reagan's attorney general, Edwin Meese, was disgraced. His national security advisor copped a plea. Oliver North stood convicted. His defense secretary, Caspar Weinberger, would have been indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice if George Bush the first hadn't issued a preemptive pardon.

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Outsourcing Walter Reed

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 09:24:19 -0800

TomPaine - By Philip Mattera - Mar. 06 (News Analysis) - Supporting the troops--or supporting the contractors? The real story behind the scandal at Walter Reed.

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Public Misconduct

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 14:20:27 -0800

TomPaine - By Elizabeth de la Vega - Mar. 03 (Opinion) - Last week, apparently belatedly realizing the obvious -- that the attack on former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife Valerie Plame was a White House family affair -- New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof called for the administration to come clean. Bush and Cheney owe "the American people a candid explanation" of their conduct with regard to the leaking of Plame's identity as a CIA agent, Kristof insisted.

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Separation Of Oil And State

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 02:02:03 -0700

TomPaine - By Steve Kretzmann - Oct. 20 (Opinion) - As gas prices continue to decline, it’s only natural to wonder about the apparent coincidence between this trend and Republican interests in the election. Indeed, a recent poll found that 42 percent of Americans believe that gas prices have been “deliberately manipulated” in advance of the election. Countless articles have been written on blogs and in the mainstream press speculating on the possibility of a gas price conspiracy, either supporting the supposition or shooting it down. The trouble with conspiracies is that they're wickedly difficult to prove, particularly without a smoking gun. There may be a conspiracy, or there may not be. However, there doesn’t have to be a specific conspiracy on gas prices in the run-up to the election—there just has to be a collective recognition of self-interest among the Bush administration, oil industry executives, investment fund managers and oil traders. What we’re seeing in the oil markets right now is a chilling demonstration of the mutual and constantly converging interests of oil and state in the U.S. In other words, it's not a conspiracy—it’s the gasoline market, which is an oligopoly, recognizing that its collective self-interest lies in more Republican rule. In the current election cycle, the Center for Responsive Politics reports that donations from the oil industry and its employees are running 83 percent in favor of Republicans, which is the most pronounced slant by the oil industry—and possibly the most pronounced in any industry—ever. Clearly, they know which side their bread is buttered on, and can take actions to protect those interests.

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