Ten Problems With Bush's Latest Iraq Plan

On January 10th, President Bush presented his "new plan" for Iraq. Bush's proposal has ten serious problems. It wasn't a plan: A realistic proposal starts with an accurate assessment of the current situation and then presents a detailed program for achieving a set of measurable objectives given time and budget constraints. Bush's "plan" has none of these elements. It's wishful thinking wrapped in sophistry......more

Lisa Strikes Back

Dear Joe Scarborough,

Why are you trying to turn my webpage about you, What Liberal Media? into What Death of an Aide? by threatening me with a lawsuit? Resumes are important, Joe, and you fit the mold of my political comedy website, All Hat No Cattle -- People pretending to be what they are not. Gee, you like Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, and they make fun of you, too! My feelings are hurt......more

New postal law lets Bush peek through your mail

Bush has quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans' mail without a judge's warrant, The President asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on Dec. 20. Bush then issued a "signing statement" that declared his right to open people's mail under emergency conditions......more

Rattled America will find it can't spin itself out of this one

And who will trust the Americans now, after this and Abu Ghraib and hurricane Katrina, to get any process right in any country including their own? Not the British soldiers on the ground in Helmland Province, Afghanistan. Not the Australian "security guards" in downtown Baghdad. Not the Iraqi dentists, doctors, nurses, restaurateurs and university lecturers daily fleeing the country. Not the children with toothache. Not the pregnant women with nowhere to go to give birth. Not the grandmothers of dead babies in humidicribs whose electricity gave out. Not the middle-class parents afraid to put their children on school buses lest they never see them again......more

Santa Claus and bare-breasted women

The decision to let Shelton Brothers sell Santa's Butt Winter Porter and two other European beers reverses a decision last fall to deny the company's application to sell the beers in Maine.
After the denial, the Maine Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Belchertown, Mass., company in U.S. District Court in Portland accusing the Maine Bureau of Liquor Enforcement of censorship.....more

The Candy Desk

With Democrats back in control of Congress for the first time in years, much is changing in the nation's capital, including a longtime tradition in the U.S. Senate: the "candy desk." For a decade until his defeat last year, Sen. Rick Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican, stocked the desk with donations from home-state candy makers including Hershey Co. and Just Born Inc., maker of Hot Tamales and Peanut Chews.......more

Martin Luther King Celebration in Ybor

In the spirit of unity, many cultures will come together to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the International Bazaar in Ybor City on Sunday, January 14, 2007, from 3-5pm. The Musical Celebration will be followed by an open consultation on Peace, Race Unity, Equality and Freedom.

Hosted by The International Bazaar
Sponsored by CDTB

From DFA Tampa Bay organizer, Susan Smith. Let's wear our DFA (or Mary Mulhern) t-shirts and attend this event.

Tampa Treasure

A New Direction for America

The New Direction for America advances the right priorities – to make our nation safer and our economy fairer; to make health care and college more affordable; to energize America with energy independence; and to guarantee a dignified retirement for all Americans. These initiatives – the product of a united Democratic House Caucus working together with our Senate colleagues - are our priorities for the 109th Congress. We are committed to building an America where all families can live and prosper in diverse, safe, and vibrant communities.....more

"In this House we may be of different parties, but we serve one country."

Democrats took control of both the House and Senate today for the first time in the presidency of Republican George W. Bush — and promptly embraced at least some of the trappings of bipartisanship.The House made history by electing Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco as its first female speaker, putting her behind Vice President Dick Cheney in the line of succession to the presidency......more

Liberal Media Bias

Something taken as a given by most conservatives, and even many moderates and a few liberals, is that there is a bias in the mainstream media that favors liberals. The problem with this is that there is actually no evidence to support this claim. And I mean that literally -- no evidence......more

Operation: Save Bush's Legacy

If press reports are correct – that George W. Bush will approve a troop “surge” in Iraq of 17,000 to 20,000 soldiers – the follow-up question must be whether the escalation will do anything but get more Americans and Iraqis killed while only forestalling the defeat of Bush’s war policy......more

And So It Begins…

It's a cliché to say that the 2008 battle for the presidency is the most open and competitive in our lifetimes, but a general examination of the race can't begin without pointing it out......more

Dems to Inherit Agenda Dominated by War

Now the majority party, Democrats will inherit an agenda dominated by the war in Iraq when the new Congress convenes Thursday, increasing their exposure to what has mostly been a politically damaging issue for Republicans.....more

God tells Pat Robertson of mass killing in US

"I'm not necessarily saying it's going to be nuclear," he said during his news-and-talk television show "The 700 Club" on the Christian Broadcasting Network. "The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that.".......more

US plunges to 53rd place

Cuba, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Eritrea: The worst violators of press freedom

New countries have moved ahead of some Western democracies in the fifth annual Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index, issued today, while the most repressive countries are still the same ones.....more

Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents

Librarians took them off the shelves and dumped them

Like Borders and Barnes & Noble, Fairfax is responding aggressively to market preferences, calculating the system's return on its investment by each foot of space on the library shelves -- and figuring out which products will generate the biggest buzz. So books that people actually want are easy to find, but many books that no one is reading are gone -- even if they are classics......more

Officers Won't Let Protesters Cross Bridge

Police took 10 war protesters into custody Monday at the Golden Gate Bridge after a three-hour standoff that backed up New Year's Day traffic and frayed tempers of tourists and bicyclists hoping for a jaunt across the span. The confrontation began at noon when about a dozen members of the women's peace organization CodePink prepared to walk across the bridge as a vigil to remember the 3,000 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. Officers from the California Highway Patrol, the Golden Gate Bridge District and the San Francisco Police Department barred their way and also refused to let tourists onto the span.....more

Ret. Col. Ann Wright

"I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq."
U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, 21 July 2003