Robert Scheer from Creators Syndicate

It Turns Out Ahmadinejad Was the Truthful One for 12/06/2007

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Bush is such a liar. Or is he just out to lunch on the most important issue that he faces? In October, he charged that Iran's nuclear weapons program was bringing the world to the precipice of World War III, even though the White House had been informed at least a month earlier that Iran had no such program and had stopped efforts to develop one back in 2003.

Is it conceivable that Bush ...

Updated: Thu Dec 06, 2007

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What "Good Time Charlie" Brought for 01/02/2008

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

In the film "Charlie Wilson's War," the nitwit and deeply corrupt congressman elevated to heroic status through Tom Hanks' ever-charming performance has a meeting with Pakistan's then-dictator Zia ul-Haq, in which they broker a deal for a joint effort to "save" Afghanistan from the Soviets. It's all great fun — the United States is, as always, on the side of the good g ...

Updated: Wed Jan 02, 2008

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Playing the Class Card for 01/09/2008

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

As long as Hillary Clinton, and now Gloria Steinem, has chosen to play the women's card against the race card, let me throw in a third one: the class card. Clinton claimed in the New Hampshire primary debate that she is the unmistakable agent for change because she is a woman and her election as president would send a strong signal of a new day aborning to America and the rest of the world. It ...

Updated: Wed Jan 09, 2008

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Those Ungrateful Saudis for 01/16/2008

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Why is it that George W. Bush only gets a 12 percent favorability rating in Saudi Arabia? Even Osama bin Laden and Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad scored higher in a poll last month by the nonpartisan Terror Free Tomorrow group, which counts both Republican Sen. John McCain and Democrat former Rep. Lee Hamilton on its advisory board. What ingrates those Saudis are — didn't the Bush f ...

Updated: Wed Jan 16, 2008

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Who Will Take on the Banks? for 01/23/2008

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

It was smart of the top Democrats to cut presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich out of that South Carolina debate, where they lamely attempted to deal with the dire consequences of the banking meltdown without confronting the banks. They made all the proper concerned noises about millions of folks losing their retirement savings and homes, but none was willing to say what Kucinich would ha ...

Updated: Wed Jan 23, 2008

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Obama, Clinton and the War for 01/30/2008

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

It should mean a great deal to progressives that Sen. Ted Kennedy favors Sen. Barack Obama over two other colleagues he has worked with in the Senate. No one in the history of that institution has been a more consistent and effective fighter for an enlightened agenda, be it civil rights and liberty, gender equality, labor and immigrant justice, environmental protection, educational opportunity ...

Updated: Wed Jan 30, 2008

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No Candidate Will Battle the Military Budget for 02/06/2008

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Curb your enthusiasm. Even if your favored candidate did well on Super Tuesday, ask yourself if he or she will seriously challenge the bloated military budget that President Bush has proposed for 2009.

If not, military spending will rise to a level exceeding any other year since the end of World War II, and there will be precious little left over to improve education and medical research ...

Updated: Wed Feb 06, 2008

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What's good for Exxon ... for 02/13/2008

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Whadda you mean "we," Mr. TV Pundit? When you say "we" are doing better in Iraq or, even more absurd, that "we" were right to invade that country in the first place, are you putting Joe Blow American in the same bag as the top officers of Exxon, which made $40.6 billion in profit last year thanks to the turmoil in the energy markets? That royal "we" is go ...

Updated: Wed Feb 13, 2008

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Fidel's Iconic Power Grows for 02/20/2008

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The resignation of Fidel Castro is more promising for the burnishing of his legacy than the mostly septuagenarian Cuban hardliners in Miami and their fawning allies in the Bush administration would like to believe. After all, Mao Zedong is still honored in communist China, the fastest growing capitalist power in the world, and former KGB agent Vladimir Putin is, at least for now, a very popular ...

Updated: Wed Feb 20, 2008

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McCain More Complicated Than Times Portrayal for 02/28/2008

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

As Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain twisted briefly in the wind kicked up by that New York Times story suggesting he had swapped political favors for the personal favors of an attractive lobbyist for the telecommunications industry, I kept waiting for the public policy punch line.

Surely the Times would spell out just what it was that McCain had delivered to big media b ...

Updated: Thu Feb 28, 2008

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Iran on Top -- Thanks to Bush for 03/05/2008

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Are the media dumb or just out to lunch?

Sorry to be intemperate, but how else can one explain the meager attention paid to the truly historic visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Iraq? Not only is he the first Mideast head of state to visit the country since its alleged liberation, but the very warm official welcome offered by the Iraqi government to the most vociferous cri ...

Updated: Wed Mar 05, 2008

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Media Focus on Sex Over Substance Once Again for 03/12/2008

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Tell me again: Why should we get all worked up over the revelation that the New York governor paid for sex? Will it bring back to life the eight U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq that same day in a war that makes no sense and has cost this nation trillions in future debt? Will it save those millions of homes that hardworking folks all over the country are losing because of financial industry shenani ...

Updated: Wed Mar 12, 2008

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Why Is George Still Smiling? for 03/19/2008

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

That idiotic "what me worry?" look just never leaves the man's visage. Once again, there was our president, presiding over disasters, in part of his making and totally on his watch, grinning with an aplomb that suggested a serious disconnect between his worldview and reality. Be it in his announcement that Iraq is being secured on a day when bombs ripped through that sad land or posed ...

Updated: Wed Mar 19, 2008

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Pastor Problems Afflict All Three Presidential Candidates for 03/26/2008

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Would God ever damn America? Is there anything we have done or could do as a nation that might court such severe judgment from an almighty, or is there a peculiar American exemption from God's wrath? The prediction of God's damnation for bad behavior is made in both black and white churches.

Clearly no less an authority on such matters than the Rev. Pat Robertson, who didn't think the la ...

Updated: Wed Mar 26, 2008

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More Taxpayer Dollars Down the Drain for 04/02/2008

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

A trillion dollars here, a trillion dollars there, and soon you're talking real money. But when it comes to reporting on what the Bush war legacy has cost American taxpayers, the media have been shockingly indifferent to the highest run-up in military spending since World War II.

Even the devastating defense spending audit released Monday by the Government Accountability Office documenti ...

Updated: Wed Apr 02, 2008

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What His President Wants to Hear for 04/09/2008

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

General Betray Us? Of course he has. MoveOn.org can hardly be expected to recycle its slogan from last September, when Gen. David Petraeus testified in support of escalating the U.S. war in Iraq, given the hysterical denunciations that worthy group received at the time. But it was right then — as it would be to repeat the charge now.

By undercutting the widespread support for getti ...

Updated: Wed Apr 09, 2008

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McCain, the Man Who Would Be Bush for 04/16/2008

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Are Americans unusually stupid, or is it something our president put in the water? As millions surrender their homes and sacrifice other standards of our nation's economic stability and reputation to the caprice of the Bush-Cheney imperium, a majority of voters tell pollsters that they might vote for a candidate who promises more of the same.

Assuming likely voters are not now thinking o ...

Updated: Wed Apr 16, 2008

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The Clintons Learned Their Lessons Well for 04/24/2008

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

How proud the Clintonistas must be. They have learned how to out-slime what Hillary once termed the "vast right-wing conspiracy" in the effort to destroy a viable Democratic leader who dares to stand in the way of their ambitions.

The tactics used to kneecap Barack Obama are the same as had been previously turned on Bill Clinton, from radical-baiting an opponent's associates to ...

Updated: Thu Apr 24, 2008

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No Country for Old Men for 04/30/2008

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Would President John McCain forget who made that call at 3 a.m. to the special White House phone? I suspect that his aides would not just let him nod off back to sleep, even if they were intimidated by the prospect of one of his alleged intemperate outbursts. But might our septuagenarian president be less than fully focused?

Most likely he would be, although as someone born in the same y ...

Updated: Wed Apr 30, 2008

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Battle of the Hawks for 05/07/2008

Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

In the increasingly unlikely event of a McCain-Clinton election, folks who care about the peace issue would have serious reason to worry. Both of these candidates are inveterate hawks, and what we would be up against is a choice between the neoconservatives and the neoliberals as to who could be more adventurous in getting us into unjustifiable foreign wars.

Both not only voted to author ...

Updated: Wed May 07, 2008

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