Bush's proposals would narrow the U.S. legal interpretation of the Geneva Conventions in a bid to allow tougher interrogations and shield U.S. personnel from being prosecuted for war crimes ( Read more... )

To back up the Billmon quote I had yesterday, look at this article from today's New York Times

In the New York race, Mrs. Clinton’s landslide carried its own broader significance. By performing strongly among a liberal, antiwar primary electorate, she showed that her vote for military action in Iraq in 2002 did not damage her political standing ( Read more... )

The lesson learned from the Democratic reaction to Israel's war of choice is that the Dems are only likely to oppose war as long as the war in question can be framed as a fight against Iraqi insurgents and/or Shi'a death squads, rather than a fight for Israel. But the Iraq occupation isn't going to fit neatly into that frame much longer. In fact it ( Read more... )

I've never been one to bash (much) Bush's pre-9/11 obliviousness to the Al Qaeda threat -- he definitely wasn't the only one sleepwalking towards catastrophe that summer. Like most critics of Path to 9/11, I'm also not pretending the Clinton Administration was a model of anti-terrorist vigilance on its watch. But I think any fair reading of the ( Read more... )

Not George Allen, that's who!

Angry, Lentz lobotomized the thing. "Just punishment," he declared. "This box didn't deserve to think." Hurting the circuit seemed no more sadistic than forcing it to learn in the first place ( Read more... )

Any world in which masked gunmen would steal a good painting is a world worth living in.

Hattip to Jackie for giving me some more inpho about the NY Times article I posted from yesterday. Check out the discussion here.

Now if only some good kind soul can tell me how to post ljusernames again I would be ever so thankful.

With the economy beginning to slow, the current expansion has a chance to become the first sustained period of economic growth since World War II that fails to offer a prolonged increase in real wages for most workers ( Read more... )

Back at DPU for a week. It's strange but a great time.

Also, still very satisfied that The Fragile can still get me going in the morning.

Now if I could only ingest it--or perhaps take it as some kind of a dermal patch....hmmmmmm.