Irish Ban ‘Guantanamo Express’

THE plane sometimes referred to as the ‘Guantanamo Express’, used by the CIA to transport kidnapped suspects to secret jails, has been banned from landing at Irish airports in future, Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern told a European Parliament committee......more

29 November 2006 McDowell rejects claim on 'rendition' flights

Menu for this year's White House holiday receptions

As the president flies back from his summit on the war -- the one that will have claimed the lives of more than 3,000 Americans by Christmas -- the Office of the First Lady is distributing the menu for this year's White House holiday receptions....here

"The time of war is a time of sacrifice."

Slaughter House Iraq

Civil war is raging across central Iraq, home to a third of the country's 27 million people. As Shia and Sunni flee each other's neighbourhoods, Iraq is turning into a country of refugees. The US and British position in Iraq is far more of a house built on sand than is realised in Washington or London, despite the disasters of the past three-and-a-half years. George Bush and Tony Blair show a unique inability to learn from their mistakes, largely because they do not want to admit having committed any errors in the first place......more

US Hearts and Minds Cash Goes to Taleban

When United States troops in the southern province of Ghazni handed out cash to village elders, they must have thought they were winning friends. The money, intended for bridges, wells, drinking water, irrigation systems and other infrastructure projects, was supposed to convince the local Afghans that the foreign presence would benefit their country in general and themselves in particular. But the resources intended to combat Taleban influence ended up doing just the opposite. Local people in several parts of Andar district told IWPR that almost as soon as the coalition forces left their villages, the money found its way into Taleban coffers to finance the jihad against the foreigners......more

Howard Dean opens Liberal Party convention

As the Liberals struggle to regain their confidence and drive -- having lost to Harper's Conservatives in January after 12 years in power -- they've turned to a man from south of the border for inspiration. U.S. Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean will open the convention.....more

Committee on Public Information

Also known as the CPI and the Creel Committy, was established under Woodrow Wilson as an independent agency by Executive order 2594, April 13, 1917.

Its purpose was to influence American public opinion toward supporting U.S. intervention in World War I via a vigorous propaganda campaign. Among those who participated in it were Wilson adviser Walter Lippmann and Edward Bernays, the latter of whom had remarked that "the essence of democratic society" was the "engineering of consent", by which propaganda was the necessary method for democracies to promote and garner support for policy. Many have commented that the CPI laid the groundwork for the public relations (PR) industry.......@Wikipedia

Stop The War! Bring The Troops Home!

Whistling Past Dixie

'How Democrats Can Win Without the South'

Democrats should forget about recapturing the South in the near term and begin building a national majority that ends, not begins, with restoring their lost southern glory. Most of the South is already beyond the Democrats' reach, and much of the rest continues to move steadily into the Republican column. White southerners used to be among the most economically liberal voters in America but are now among the most conservative.....more

The Civil War in Iraq

Miami

World Class City Where Diversity Is Celebrated

Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo calls Miami a `Third World country'. pointed to Miami as an example of how ''the nature of America can be changed by uncontrolled immigration.

''I invite my friend, Tom, to visit beautiful Miami, my hometown, and experience firsthand our hospitality,''...Miami Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Tancredo didn't visit Miami on the Nov. 18-19 trip, but has visited before, a spokesman said. And, if Ros-Lehtinen's invitation includes ''a stay at a five-star beachfront resort, he may be willing to look beyond the inherent dangers that he had cited and visit Miami again,'' his spokesman said.....more

In a funk
Why is the nation's happiest party still so unhappy here at home?

Let's start in Hillsborough, where the Democratic Party continued to lose ground. How bad was Nov. 7 for local Democrats? The only local Dems on the ballot who won the county vote were Congresswoman-elect Kathy Castor, House candidates Mike Scionti and Betty Reed, Senate candidate Arthenia Joyner and Tampa City Council member Kevin White. All five ran in districts with wide Democratic registration margins and represent no great achievement for the party......more

Peace sign a symbol of Satan

A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan......more

9/11 was a Tuesday. FEMA got there on Monday night

State chiefs credit Dean for victory

Democratic state chairmen, decrying postelection bickering, say the party's gains were in large part a result of National Chairman Howard Dean's 50-state strategy, which helped make deep inroads into Republican territory......more

Ridiculing the hicks

Despite all the rave reviews and boffo box office, I've had a distinctly uneasy feeling about Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat film-- and therefore haven't made an effort to see it......more

Rosa Brooks: Iraq is broke beyond repair

The invasion of Iraq, for instance, will go down in history as a national transgression of epic proportions — and our original screw-up (an unjustified invasion based on cooked intelligence books) was compounded many times over by our failure to plan for the reconstruction of post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.....more

The real Afghan war

The Taliban and the insurgency are not Afghanistan's worst problems. The country is now ruled by a new mafia of corrupt police and officials, who are crippling any hopes for a democratic future......more

What is the point of Iraq deaths?

Will God punish the United States for all the deaths, both Iraqi and American? I don't believe that God works that way. However, our intervention in that chaotic, broken country will certainly have created hundreds, perhaps thousands of would-be martyrs who will seek vengeance. We will have brought it on ourselves......more

Are the Germans Stationed in Afghanistan Cowards?

Southern Afghanistan is far from having been pacified -- a bloody war with the Taliban has erupted there. German troops have picked a relatively comfortable spot for themselves in the north of the country. Because they have avoided deadly fighting, they have been labeled "cowards" by the Americans and Brits. But are they?.....more

No Thanks to Thanksgiving
Instead, we should atone for the genocide that was incited -- and condoned -- by the very men we idolize as our 'heroic' founding fathers

One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-indulgent family feasting with a National Day of Atonement accompanied by a self-reflective collective fasting.....more

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Giving Thanks

Let's take stock and be oh so thankful for the blessings of food, family, clothing and shelter that we take for granted. Let's reach out in 2007 to help others less fortunate in our own backyards. Whether volunteering at a shelter, giving food to a food bank, collecting signatures for petitions or staying involved in political actions, It's incumbent upon us to find ways to help heal our broken culture and neighborhoods.......more

Americans Now Say Iraq War Similar to Vietnam Conflict

Claims by critics of the war in Iraq that this conflict is similar in many ways to the U.S. experience in Vietnam have long been derided by pundits and administrations officials. But a new survey finds that almost 6 in 10 Americans believe that the analogy is accurate.......more

Faces of the Fallen