Dive into the archives.
- The Bush Years
Last week, the Census Bureau released a statistical report on the last year of George W. Bush’s presidency. The numbers were brutal. On every indicator, Americans lost ground during the Bush era. The median income slumped. The poverty rate increased. The percentage of Americans without health insurance rose. (full article…)
- Why He Threw the Shoe
I am not a hero. But I have a point of view. I have a stance. It humiliated me to see my country humiliated; and to see my Baghdad burned, my people killed. Thousands of tragic pictures remained in my head, pushing me towards the path of confrontation. The scandal of Abu Ghraib. The massacre [...]
- If True, This is Some Good News
In a move with potentially major strategic implications, U.S. President Barack Obama announced Thursday he is scrapping plans by the George W. Bush administration to deploy long-range-missile defence systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. (full article…)
- The Price of Giving Bush What He Deserved
The Iraqi television journalist who hurled his shoes at then-President George W. Bush was released Tuesday after nine months in prison, claiming Iraqi authorities had tortured him. (more…)
- The Shoe Felt ‘Round the World
Zaidi’s actions during the former US president’s swansong visit to Iraq last December have not stopped reverberating in the nine months since. Next Monday, when the journalist walks out of prison, his 10 raging seconds, which came to define his country’s last six miserable years, are set to take on a new life even more [...]
- Good
In what is being hailed as an unprecedented ruling, a federal appeals court has concluded that the George W. Bush administration’s first attorney general, John Ashcroft, can be held personally responsible for the wrongful detention of an innocent U.S. citizen. In the panic that followed the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001, the Justice Department [...]
- A Viable State?
After all, when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon assured President George W. Bush of his support for a Palestinian state in April 2004, he referred to Palestinians in the West Bank having what he called “transportation contiguity,” meaning tunnels beneath Israeli bypass roads to settlements that only Israelis could use. That constitutes a viable state? (more…)
- Out of Hiding
But Mr. Bush, in an appearance here on Wednesday, maintained that he would not criticize President Obama, though he did discuss his policies. “I will just tell you that there are people at Gitmo who will kill Americans at the drop of a hat,” Mr. Bush said at a dinner held by a group of [...]
- Back To the Future (On Torture)
If, like me, you’ve been following America’s torture policies not just for the last few years but for decades, you can’t help but experience that eerie feeling of déjà vu these days. With the departure of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney from Washington and the arrival of Barack Obama, it may just be back [...]
- This is “Change”
CLIMATE CHANGE: Obama Sounds Too Much Like Bush (more…)
- Bush’s View of International Relations
Top secret military intelligence briefings prepared by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and often hand-delivered to George W. Bush featured Crusades-like Bible quotes above triumphant photos of the U.S. military effort in Iraq. (more…)
- This is “Change”
Barack Obama will revive the heavily criticised George Bush-era military tribunals for detainees at Guantánamo Bay but will make them fairer, according to US officials. (more…)
- This is “Change”
“This tragic, misguided, and unprincipled reversal seems to be consistent with the fact that instead of getting a real ‘change’ on policies under the Obama administration, the American people are experiencing continuity across the board with those of the discredited and criminal Bush administration when it comes to international law, human rights, and U.S. constitutional [...]
- Obama’s War
For all the talk of “smart power,” President Obama is pressing down the same path of failure in Pakistan marked out by George Bush. (more…)
- Torture, American Style
More than 25 of the CIA’s war-on-terror prisoners were subjected to sleep deprivation for as long as 11 days at a time during the administration of former president George Bush, according to The Los Angeles Times. (more…)
- Obama as Nixon?
In short, he’s trying to deal with Bush’s legacy by cutting losses, resolving conflicts, and getting help from our allies, in order to buy time for economic and military recovery. Sounds almost Nixonian (or maybe Kissingerian). (more…)
- U.S. Torture (Even Before the Legal Memos)
“The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees.” The report undercuts the Obama administration’s case for leniency against the CIA, since the agency was pursuing abusive techniques even [...]
- Bush’s Legacy
The oil sector, still Iraq’s most significant industry, is plagued by a rotting infrastructure. Pipelines in Basra are being kept together by “duct tape and spit”, according to one concerned American official. “They can burst at any minute.” Most Iraqis today might say much the same about their country. They are grateful for the temporary [...]
- Can Anyone Say Ghost-Writer…?
Bush feels content with his presidency, friends said. Now he will try to explain his two terms by writing a book and building a presidential center at Dallas’s Southern Methodist University so that history will have the means to judge him fairly. (more…)
- This is “Change”
The Obama administration formally adopted the Bush administration’s position that the courts cannot judge the legality of the National Security Agency’s (NSA’s) warrantless wiretapping program, filing a motion to dismiss Jewel v. NSA late Friday. (more…)
- A Bi-National State?
Many Palestinians and some important voices in what remains of Israel’s now-battered peace camp have concluded that it is now impossible to win the ‘two-state solution’ envisaged by Bush and Obama. This has led to the re-emergence in both communities of an old idea: that of a single bi- national state between the Jordan River [...]
- Obama’s Quagmire
Why, in fact, were such simple projects never implemented? The answer proved to be surprising, and it helps, in part, to explain the dismal fate of the Bush administration’s version of Afghan “reconstruction.” Virtually none of the $5.4 billion in taxpayer money that USAID has disbursed in this country since late 2001 has been invested [...]
- Carrying Bush’s Legacy
Many of Obama’s initiatives in his first few days in office — preparing to depart Iraq, ending torture and closing Guantánamo — were aimed at signaling a sharp turn away from Bush administration policies. In contrast, the headline about the strike in Waziristan could as easily have appeared in December with “President Bush” substituted for [...]
- From 43 to 44
Forwarding mail should go to The Bush Ranch, Crawford, Texas. If it looks like a bar tab, just send it to Cheney (about time the old skinflint paid for something), and if it’s from either of the Blairs just toss it. If I never get another one of her begging letters as long as I [...]
- Carrying Bush’s Legacy
Thus far, Obama appears to have hewed closely to the line held by the Bush administration, among the most pro-Israel presidencies in U.S. history. (more…)
- Change? Not So Much.
The Obama administration is reluctant to turn over too many rocks in the Bush administration’s conduct in the War on Terror. Obama has pledged to reach a post-partisan nirvana, and Republicans could condemn any investigation of Bush administration abuse of the republic as a partisan witch-hunt. Also, the Obama administration has a conflict of interest [...]
- American War Crimes
“Judicially speaking,” Nowak told the German broadcaster ZDF, “the United States has a clear obligation” to prosecute Rumsfeld and Bush for ordering interrogation methods at Guantanamo that contravened a UN convention on torture.” He added that there were publicly available documents “that prove that these methods of interrogation were intentionally ordered by Rumsfeld.” (more…)
- Bush Should Have Been Impeached
However, as corrupt as the Illinois governor’s alleged violations were, the harmful results of his crimes and misdemeanors pale when compared with those of the former president of the United States, George W. Bush. Yet the House of Representatives allowed Bush to finish his term with no accountability for his transgressions. (more…)
- Angry Arab on Obama and Bush
In Obama’s speech–or anthology of American political cliches–he said that markets “expand freedoms”. How does that work? Like if I buy chicken mcnuggets I make contributions to freedoms around the world? Watching Bush leave in disgrace: in the US and around the world, I could not help think: who in the world would invite that [...]
- Arrogant to the End
Vice President Dick Cheney made it clear that he has even less regrets than President Bush about his time in office. (more…)
- A Fitting Last Few Weeks For the Bush Years
A senior Israeli official said that if the rockets stopped it would be better if Israeli troops were out of Gaza by the time the new American president takes office, so he could concentrate more on rebuilding Gaza and a more moderate Palestinian leadership than on pressuring Israel to withdraw. The official spoke anonymously because [...]
- Worst President in History?
How will Mr Bush be judged in the light of history? “Many historians”, says Princeton’s Mr Wilentz, “are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history.” (more…)
- Joke of the Day
Today is a very special day. We are going to commemorate many of the achievements of our nation over the last eight years in furthering the Freedom Agenda. (more…)
- What Clinton Should Have Addressed
Human rights groups have criticized Israeli attacks on Gaza as disproportionate and indiscriminate, bordering on war crimes. Yet the Bush administration has encouraged Israel’s offensive, blaming Hamas for the violence. Unconditional American support in the face of Israeli brutality is one of the principal reasons so many people in the Arab world hate the United [...]
- The Green Light
Bush reveals that he personally authorized torture on Khaled Sheikh Mohammed. (more…)
- An Arrogant Legacy
I’ve talked to the President many times about this, and I think the President has made clear his concerns for innocent civilians, Israeli civilians, but Palestinian civilians, too. (more…) Notice that Rice mentions Bush’s concern for 900+ Palestinian deaths as an afterthought to the handful of Israeli deaths. Does this not speak volumes to the [...]
- How Quaint
“I strongly disagree with the assessment of our moral standing has been damaged – people still understand America stands for freedom” (more…) Even as he spearheads the undermining of democracy in Palestine and provides unqualified support to Israeli slaughter in Gaza, he believes that America still stands for freedom…? How quaint. How precious.
- Nothing Changes…
Comparing his approach to the Middle East to that of previous administrations, Obama suggested that he will not be making a clean break from the Bush policy. “I think that if you look not just at the Bush administration, but also what happened under the Clinton administration, you are seeing the general outlines of an [...]
- No One Will Live That Long
She shares Bush’s conviction that history will be kinder to him than his abysmal approval ratings suggest. “Hopefully I’ll live long enough,” she quipped. (more…)
- Bush Plan Eliminated Obstacle to Gaza Assault
Until mid-2007, there was a serious political obstacle to a massive conventional war by Israel against Hamas in Gaza: the fact that Hamas had won free and fair elections for the Palestinian parliament and was still the leading faction in a fully legitimate government. (more…)
- Power to the Shoe
On Thursday, Dana M. Perino, the White House press secretary, said President Bush had urged the Iraqis “not to overreact, because he was not bothered by the incident, although it’s not appropriate for people to throw shoes at a press conference, at any leader.” (more…) I disagree—the shoe is the least Bush deserves for the [...]
- Shoe-Thrower to Be Pardoned
Den irakiske journalist, der kastede sine sko efter præsident Bush, beder om at blive benådet. (more…)
- Bush X-Mas Video
If only Bush had stuck to his acting career.
- Power to the Shoe
Le lancer de chaussures du journaliste Mountazer Al-Zaïdi sur George Bush est d’ores et déjà qualifié de “moment historique” sur la blogosphère irakienne. Les vidéos de la séquence, les parodies et les jeux circulent de site en site et des blogueurs qui n’avaient pas posté depuis longtemps se sont remis à l’ouvrage. (more…)
- Cheney’s Scowling Visage
Over the last eight years, Cheney’s scowling visage has been the more true and honest face of the Bush administration. Unlike Bush, when discussing the national security policies of the US Cheney rarely bothered with transparently disingenuous appeals to democracy-building, dealing instead in appeals to fear and raw assertions of power. (more…)
- Bush’s Legacy
George W. Bush. US president: January 20, 2001 – January 19, 2009. Born of privilege. Unimpressive by every measure. A history of underachievement. Chosen by big money. Arranged through electoral fraud. Installed by the Supreme Court. (more…)
- Power to the Shoe
The Shoe Heard Round the World
- Power to the Shoe
Thousands of Iraqis on Monday demanded the release of Muntazer al-Zaydi, the journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W. Bush. (more…)
- Power to the Shoe
Both shoes missed their target – one went high, and the president ducked the other – and Bush did his best to laugh the whole incident off. “I saw his sole,” he joked. But Bush is unlikely to escape the image of a US president cowering behind a lectern watched by an unflinching Maliki. The [...]
- Another Success for the Bush Doctrine
The brother of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush has said that the reporter has been beaten in custody. (more…) I’m sure this is what Bush intended when he promised to bring democracy to Iraq. Ah, freedom smells great!
- Power to the Shoe
But the lowly shoe and the Iraqi who threw both of his at President Bush, with widely admired aim, were embraced around the Arab world on Monday as symbols of rage at a still unpopular war. (more…)
- Chillin’ With My Homie
“I met with [Afghan] President Karzai, who is determined to help the young democracy survive,” Bush said. “And so he said, why don’t you hang around for a while? (more…)
- Power To the Shoe
Far from a joke, many in the Mideast saw the act by an Iraqi journalist as heroic, expressing the deep, personal contempt many feel for the American leader they blame for years of bloodshed, chaos and the suffering of civilians. (more…)
- Power to the Shoe
“This is a farewell kiss, you dog,” he yelled in Arabic. “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.” (more…)
- Just a Shoe and Nothing More
“No one should read anything more into it than what it was, which was an individual throwing a shoe,” Zahren said. (more…) That’s right. Just a shoe. So it would be silly to think that Iraqis are sick of the nightmarish carnage that continues to devastate their country. That’s just silly. It’s only a shoe.
- Shoe-Thrower Wanted to “Humble the Tyrant”
Den irakiske journalist, som i weekenden blev så arrig på præsident Bush, at han smed begge sine sko efter ham, ønskede at »ydmyge tyrannen«. (more…)
- Shoe In
“Just as the men were shaking hands, an Iraqi reporter in the small crowd stood up and hurled not one, but two shoes, at the president, forcing Bush to duck to avoid getting hit,” Raddatz said. “His press secretary, Dana Perino, was hit in the eye by a microphone as the man was wrestled to [...]
- The Endangered Endangered Species Act
“As the Bush administration fades off into the sunset, it continues to take brazen pot shots at everything in sight, including America’s landmark conservation law, the Endangered Species Act,” said House Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall II (D-W.Va.), who said he would introduce legislation seeking to overturn the rule next year. (more…)
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On January 20, Barack Obama will be more prepared than any president in recent history to move in, and as everyone now likes to write, “hit the ground running.” But that ground–the bloated executive and the vast national security apparatus that goes with it (as well as the US military garrisons that dot the planet), [...]
- Jeremy Scahill: Justice, of a Sort, for Blackwater
For 1,929 days, the Bush administration’s mercenary force of choice, Blackwater Worldwide, has operated on a US government contract in Iraq in a climate that has wed immunity with impunity. Today the Justice Department took the first concrete step to hold accountable the individuals responsible for the single greatest massacre of Iraqi civilians at the [...]
- Paul Craig Roberts: If Only US Law Applied to the US Government
The U.S. government does not have a monopoly on hypocrisy, but no other government can match the hypocrisy of the U.S. government. It is now well documented and known all over the world that the U.S. government tortured detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and that the U.S. government has had people kidnaped and “renditioned,” [...]
- Ali Gharib: Regional Players Key to Salvaging Peace Process
One of the biggest foreign policy challenges facing the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama will be reinvigorating what looks like a completely stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace process. Repeated failures in the struggle for peace make clear that a change in direction is needed. And many observers think that taking advantage of the Arab Peace Initiative [...]
- Jeremy Scahill: Obama’s Kettle of Hawks
Barack Obama has assembled a team of rivals to implement his foreign policy. But while pundits and journalists speculate endlessly on the potential for drama with Hillary Clinton at the state department and Bill Clinton’s network of shady funders, the real rivalry that will play out goes virtually unmentioned. The main battles will not be [...]
- Noam Chomsky: What Next? The Elections, the Economy, and the World
Well, let’s begin with the elections. The word that the rolls off of everyone’s tongue is historic. Historic election. And I agree with it. It was an historic election. To have a black family in the white house is a momentous achievement. In fact, it’s historic in a broader sense. The two Democratic candidates were [...]
- Jeremy Scahill: This Is Change? 20 Hawks, Clintonites & Neocons to Watch for in Obama’s White House
U.S. policy is not about one individual, and no matter how much faith people place in President-elect Barack Obama, the policies he enacts will be fruit of a tree with many roots. Among them: his personal politics and views, the disastrous realities his administration will inherit, and, of course, unpredictable future crises. But the best [...]
- Juan Cole: Should Obama Chase Osama?
In Sunday’s interview with “60 Minutes,” President-elect Barack Obama reaffirmed that “it is a top priority for us to stamp out al-Qaida once and for all,” adding, “and I think capturing or killing bin Laden is a critical aspect of stamping out al-Qaida.” Obama argued that the Saudi terrorist “is not just a symbol” but [...]
- Justin Raimondo: Torture—Yes We Can?
Most politicians wait at least until they’ve been sworn in before they start breaking their campaign promises. In this sense, as in so many others, Barack Obama represents an entirely new phenomenon: the politician who preemptively reneges. A recent Wall Street Journal piece describing the transition process as it relates to intelligence-gathering reveals we aren’t [...]
- Tom Engelhardt: Don’t Let Barack Obama Break Your Heart
On the day that Americans turned out in near record numbers to vote, a record was set halfway around the world. In Afghanistan, a U.S. Air Force strike wiped out about 40 people in a wedding party. This represented at least the sixth wedding party eradicated by American air power in Afghanistan and Iraq since [...]
- Philip Cunningham: Yes We Can… What?
America appears to be swept up in a feel-good moment, but as much as Barack Obama wows people as a public speaker and wordsmith, as much as his candid, inclusive style represents an antidote to everything rotten redolent of George W. Bush, as thrilling as it is for black Americans, who have proudly claimed the [...]
- Alan Bock: No Matter Who Wins, Expect More Wars
If the presidential debate Friday night told us anything, it was that whichever of these candidates is elected, we can expect more wars, or at least more conflicts that put U.S. forces or citizens in danger for dubious reasons. Neither John McCain nor Barack Obama came close to questioning the "bipartisan" consensus on U.S. foreign [...]
- Noam Chomsky: Ossetia-Russia-Georgia
Aghast at the atrocities committed by US forces invading the Philippines, and the rhetorical flights about liberation and noble intent that routinely accompany crimes of state, Mark Twain threw up his hands at his inability to wield his formidable weapon of satire. The immediate object of his frustration was the renowned General Funston. “No satire [...]
- Tariq Ali: Bush’s War Widens Dangerously
The decision to make public a presidential order of last July authorizing American strikes inside Pakistan without seeking the approval of the Pakistani government ends a long debate within, and on the periphery of, the Bush administration. Sen. Barack Obama, aware of this ongoing debate during his own long battle with Sen. Hillary Clinton, tried [...]
- Maureen Dowd: Bering Straight Talk
Anchorage I’ve been in Alaska only a week, but I’m already feeling ever so much smarter about Russia. I can’t quite see it from my hotel window, but, hey, I know it’s out there somewhere, beyond all the stuffed bears and cruise ships and glaciers and oil derricks. The proximity of the country from which [...]
- Eyad Sarraj
In the Gaza Strip, there are a vast number of inspiring individuals prepared to put their personal reputation (and even their own physical well-being) on the line for matters of conviction. Dr. Eyad Sarraj is one of the more prominent of these figures and I was fortunate enough to speak with him on several occasions [...]
- Amy Goodman: Whistle-Blower Points to Target List in U.S. Attack on Hotel
More than five years have passed since the invasion of Iraq, since President Bush stood under the “Mission Accomplished” banner on that aircraft carrier. While these fifth anniversaries got some notice, another did not: the shelling of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad by a U.S. Army tank on April 8, 2003. The tank attack killed [...]
- That Much More of a Tragedy: On the Stupidity of Bush
When I reflect upon the upcoming U.S. Presidential election, I tend not to place so much faith in the rhetoric of change. Despite prevailing, popular attitudes here in Europe, I find it difficult to imagine anything but the most marginal change in domestic policy should Obama become President (and virtually zero change elsewhere). We may [...]
- Ralph Nader: An Open Letter To John Conyers
Chairman John Conyers House Judiciary Committee U.S. House of Representatives U.S. Congress Washington, DC 20510 Dear Chairman Conyers: Prominent Constitutional law experts believe President Bush has engaged in at least, five categories of repeated, defiant “high crimes and misdemeanors”, which separately or together would allow Congress to subject the President to impeachment under Article II, [...]
- Half a Decade of War: Five Years After Iraq Invasion, Soldiers Testify at Winter Soldier Hearings
AMY GOODMAN: [Five years ago] on March 19th, 2003, the US began bombing Baghdad. The invasion was on. Six weeks later, President Bush stood under a banner reading “Mission Accomplished” and declared an end to major military combat operations in Iraq. Now, half a decade later, the war continues with no end in sight. In [...]
- Winter Soldier CONT’D: US Vets, Active-Duty Soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan Testify About the Horrors of War
AMY GOODMAN: [Tonight] the US invasion and occupation of Iraq will enter its sixth year. On Monday, at least seventy-two Iraqis were killed in violence around Iraq, including forty-two Shiite worshippers in a suicide bombing in Karbala. Two US troops were also killed, bringing the US death toll to 3,990, ten deaths away from the [...]
- Winter Soldier: US Vets, Active-Duty Soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan Testify About the Horrors of War
AMY GOODMAN: Iraq and Afghanistan veterans gathered in Maryland this past weekend to testify at Winter Soldier, an eyewitness indictment of atrocities committed by US troops during the ongoing occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War, the event was modeled after the historic 1971 Winter Soldier hearings held during the [...]
