Archive for the ‘united states’ Category

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

War on Terror won? Not so fast…

by Warren

CIA director Michael Hayden recently announced that Al Queda is on the ropes, a spent force, and that the group has failed to gain traction in Iraq. Well, not so fast. A recent editorial in the Guardian points out that mass uprisings may not be what Bin Laden has in mind when he calls for jihadist revolution, and more importantly, terrorists don’t even need mass support to achieve their goals. All they need is the loyalty of a hard-core group of supporters, and they can continue their operations indefinitely. Will the leaders of those die-hards be Al Queda? Maybe not, as recent intelligence has indicated some disillusionment with Bin Laden and Zawahiri. At any rate, the last time the United States took their eye off the ball, they ended up suffering the most devastating attack in the US history, invading Afghanistan and Iraq, and basically ruining their standing in the world. For their own sake, a little more vigilance and a lot less swagger might be a good idea.

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

Florida, where Nixon’s henchmen go to perv out

by Warren

Roger Stone learned the dark art of political hatchet-jobbery from Richard Nixon and Roy Cohn, two of America’s finest villains. He’s continued with their “win at any costs” philosophy, most recently applying his vile talents to both the 2000 recount and the 2004 smear job on John Kerry. And he’s an unrepentant horndog, though interestingly his habit of frequenting Miami swinger’s clubs actually led to the downfall of former New York governor and whoremonger Elliot Spitzer. An article in the current New Yorker lays out his perfidious ways in detail, and if you want to get his personal take on the world, check out his blog. I would hope that somehow this toad is kept out of the current election, but somehow I can’t shake the feeling that Obama has been in his sights from the word go.

Monday, May 5th, 2008

Fareed Zakaria on “the rise of the rest”

by Warren

Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek’s resident smart foreign policy guy. has a corker of an article about what the world will be like once developing economies like India, China and Russia all develop to the point where they equal or surpass the United States. This will be a turning point in history, Zakaria says, and he’s right. It’s inevitable that the US won’t be on the top forever, and Zakaria remains hopeful that the transition will be somewhat peaceful. It’s all excerpted from his new book, “The Post-American World,” due out in May.

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

How America got the Nixon it deserved

by Warren

Nixonland,” a new book by Rick Perlstein, looks like an interesting tome about how Nixon was both a reflection of and answer to the state of America in the late Sixties. It also points out that Nixon did succeed in calming an incredibly tumultuous time in the US, when the country was tearing itself apart from within. Compare that to today, when we have an arguably worse president but a relatively stable social and political atmosphere.

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

America falls out of love with the Clintons

by Warren

Not that I ever trusted Billy anyway, especially amongst the womenfolk, but it’s interesting to see how the conquering hero of the Democrats has sunk a few pegs due to the (shock! horror!) tendency of the Clintons to play dirty in order to get re-elected.

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

Vanity Fair on Bush’s new torture rules

by Warren

Vanity Fair isn’t just George Clooney covers and Oscar parties, it’s also some pretty damn fine journalism, including this article detailing the legal wranglings and outright villainy of the Bush administration as they moved to change the old rules regarding interrogation, ignored the Geneva conventions and legalized torture.

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

Frontline: Bush’s War is all kinds of good

by Warren

The always excellent Frontline has pulled out the stops for the fifth anniversary of the War in Iraq with a huge documentary entitled “Bush’s War,” detailing the build-up from 9/11 onwards, the initial invasion and the continued bloodshed in Iraq today. It’s long, but worth the watch. Unfortunately, PBS hasn’t quite gotten the glory that is embedding video just yet, so you’ll have to head to their page to check it out.

Sunday, March 23rd, 2008

Cheney dismisses the American people

by Warren

In an interview last week with an ABC correspondent, Dick Cheney’s response to the point that the American public doesn’t support the war in Iraq was simple…”So?” Mickey Edwards of the Washington Post, long a Cheney supporter, has had enough of this open contempt of the public interest, and he says so in the Washington Post.

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

Malcolm X on Front Page Challenge

by Warren

One of the more surreal clips in the CBC Archives.

Saturday, March 15th, 2008

American management becomes a laughingstock

by Warren

America is known as one of the most innovative, entrepreneurial places on the planet…or at least it used to be. The subprime mortgage crisis, along with a shaky economy and a war that’s been a colossal money sink, have given pause to the thought that the US is the financial titan of yore, as seen in this article in Slate.

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