istanbul – Ashura procession

We caught Saddam! In absolute terms, this a good thing. It doesn’t matter how it gets spun, or whether it was worth going to war for. We caught him. No matter how you cut it, Saddam is a bad man, dare I say evil? He needed to be brought to justice over 20 years ago, but better late than never. I’m an American, and proud to be one. Part of that pride is the belief that the US is a nation of laws, of principle and of hope. We’ve caught Saddam alive, which means not myth, no legend, no symbol,…

I’m trying really hard not be political, but darn it, it seems that we as Americans are most threatened whenever the current administration opens its mouth. Iraq has yellow-cake, WMD (oddly enough, it’s meant as non-conventional weapons, not necessarily nuclear which is why it can different from the yellow-cake claim), Al-Qaeda is in bed with every Muslim in the world, etc., etc., etc.. I was feel better when they are quiet, not because ignorance is bliss – in their case quite the opposite – but because then the truth starts to come out into the open. That’s when I feel…

From Paul Krugman’s excellent op-ed in the NY Times today: And there are many other cases of apparent abuse of power by the administration and its Congressional allies. A few examples: according to The Hill, Republican lawmakers threatened to cut off funds for the General Accounting Office unless it dropped its lawsuit against Dick Cheney. The Washington Post says Representative Michael Oxley told lobbyists that “a Congressional probe might ease if it replaced its Democratic lobbyist with a Republican.” Tom DeLay used the Homeland Security Department to track down Democrats trying to prevent redistricting in Texas. And Medicare is spending…