Robert Scheer from Creators Syndicate

McNamara's Evil Lives On for 07/08/2009

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Why not speak ill of the dead?

Robert McNamara, who died this week, was a complex man — charming even, in a blustery way, and someone I found quite thoughtful when I interviewed him. In the third act of his life, he was often an advocate for enlightened positions on world poverty and the dangers of the nuclear arms race. But whatever his better nature, it was the stark evil he perp ...

Updated: Wed Jul 08, 2009

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'Government Sachs' Strikes Gold ... Again for 07/15/2009

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Connect the dots: Goldman Sachs made $3.44 billion in profit this past quarter, while the U.S deficit topped $1 trillion for the first time in the nation's history and appeared to be headed toward doubling that figure before the budget year is out. Since most of the increase in the federal deficit is due to bailing out the banks and salvaging the greater economy they helped destroy, why is the ...

Updated: Wed Jul 15, 2009

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Deep-Sixing the F-22 for 07/22/2009

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

I'll believe it when it finally happens. But the news that Congress might actually stop production of a high-tech, job-generating and, most of all, high-profit weapons system because it fills no legitimate national security function is a considerable victory for President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, as well as for logic.

You wouldn't think it should require great ...

Updated: Wed Jul 22, 2009

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Chinese Masters Preach Discipline for 07/29/2009

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

What a hoot. The Chinese communists invaded Washington on Monday demanding not that we sacrifice our freedoms but rather that we balance our budget.

Creditors get to make that kind of call. And the Marxists of Beijing, who have turned out to be the world's most prudent bankers, are worried about their assets invested in our banana republic.

"China has a huge amount of investm ...

Updated: Wed Jul 29, 2009

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Banking Bandits Get Their Reward for 08/06/2009

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

By now everybody must know that the top banking executives responsible for our economic meltdown have no shame. Otherwise they would not have dared give themselves such hefty bonuses as a deeply perverse reward for actions that caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs and homes. The $33 billion that the executives of the nine banks bailed out with taxpayer funds paid themselves in 2008 i ...

Updated: Thu Aug 06, 2009

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In at Least One Court, the Bankers Are Being Made to Answer for 08/12/2009

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The good judge smelled a rat.

"Was there some sort of ghost that performed these actions?" New York federal Judge Jed S. Rakoff demanded to know Monday in rejecting a deal that would let Bank of America off the hook in yet another banker bonus scandal. The Securities and Exchange Commission had charged the bank with covering up for outrageous bonuses given out at Merrill Lynch ...

Updated: Wed Aug 12, 2009

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Is Phil Gramm Hopelessly Naive or Corrupt? for 08/19/2009

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

In recent days, yet another wealthy private customer of the Swiss-based banking conglomerate UBS admitted to criminal fraud in a growing parade of perp walks that could extend into the thousands.

It is a case that threatens to ensnare former Sen. Phil Gramm, the Texas Republican who is vice chairman of UBS' investment banking business. Given the widespread involvement of UBS in what the ...

Updated: Wed Aug 19, 2009

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Remembering the Real Deal for 08/26/2009

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The light has gone out, and with it that infectious warm laugh and intensely progressive commitment of the best of the Kennedys. Not, at this point, to take anything away from the memory of his siblings — Bobby, whom I also got to know, was pretty terrific in his last years — but Sen. Ted Kennedy was the real deal.

Unable to move with his brothers' intellectual alacrity, some ...

Updated: Wed Aug 26, 2009

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Afghanistan Looking More and More Like Vietnam for 09/02/2009

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

True, he doesn't seem a bit like Lyndon Johnson, but the way he's headed on Afghanistan, Barack Obama is threatened with a quagmire that could bog down his presidency. LBJ also had a progressive agenda in mind, beginning with his war on poverty, but it was soon overwhelmed by the cost and divisiveness engendered by a meaningless, and seemingly endless, war in Vietnam.

Meaningless
Updated: Wed Sep 02, 2009

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Sept. 11 Unleashed American Barbarism for 09/09/2009

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

What if eight years ago the World Trade Center had been leveled by a small nuclear bomb that took out most of lower Manhattan, as well? How many millions of innocent civilians would we have killed in retaliation? Would we still be a free society, or would Dick Cheney have attained the power of a demented king, having moved on from snooping on our phone calls and outing honest CIA agents to dest ...

Updated: Wed Sep 09, 2009

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Obama's Presidency Isn't Too Big to Fail for 09/16/2009

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

A president has only so much capital to expend, both in tax dollars and public tolerance, and Barack Obama is dangerously overdrawn. He has tried to have it all on three fronts, and his administration is in serious danger of going bankrupt. He has blundered into a deepening quagmire in Afghanistan, has continued the Bush policy of buying off Wall Street hustlers instead of confronting them and ...

Updated: Wed Sep 16, 2009

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Saving the Obama Revolution for 09/23/2009

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Obama revolution, and there was the hope of one, might still succeed. But only if Barack Obama follows the model of the incredibly successful Reagan revolution and heeds the political base that made his presidency possible.

Love him or not, Ronald Reagan had at least one outstanding political virtue — his respect for the concerns of those who placed their trust in him. And when ...

Updated: Wed Sep 23, 2009

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Exorcising America's Diplomatic Demons for 09/30/2009

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

This week, the Chinese Communists celebrate their 60th year in power, an event that the make-war-not-peace crowd, now bloviating over Iran and Afghanistan, might benefit from contemplating.

They might also recall a time when the mere suggestion of peaceful coexistence with the Red Menace of China was a career-ender for high school teachers and State Department officials alike. Now the da ...

Updated: Wed Sep 30, 2009

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A War of Absurdity for 10/07/2009

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

There is no indication that any of the contending forces in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, are interested in bringing al-Qaida back. On the contrary, all the available evidence indicates that the Arab fighters are unwelcome and that it is their isolation from their former patrons that has led to their demise.

Every once in a while, a statistic just jumps out at you in a way that mak ...

Updated: Wed Oct 07, 2009

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Health Care Sideshow Detracts From Real Economic Travesty for 10/14/2009

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wonderful. The 13 Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee get one faintly rational Republican to join them in a meaningless stab at health care reform, and it throws the media into a titillated frenzy about what it all means. It means very little.

The main thrust of the proposal is to forcibly submit even more customers to the tender mercies of the insurance industry while doing nothin ...

Updated: Wed Oct 14, 2009

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Zooming in on This Year's Biggest Hoax for 10/21/2009

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Who are these people? I am not referring to the pathetic parents of "Balloon Boy," whose fake drama I have been unable to escape while on the treadmill this week, thanks to my gym's insistence on tuning its flat-screen TVs to Wolf Blitzer's nonstop self-parody.

The Colorado incident was significant only in the tawdriness of those who perpetrated the made-for-TV scam and their a ...

Updated: Wed Oct 21, 2009

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Lieberman Twists the Knife for 10/28/2009

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Is there a more hypocritical figure in American politics than Joe Lieberman? The Connecticut senator declared Tuesday that he would support a filibuster of any health care reform bill that has a public option — even the version with the "trigger" compromise accepted by Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe — because it might cost money.

"I think that a lot of people ma ...

Updated: Wed Oct 28, 2009

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Keeping Afghanistan Safe From Democracy for 11/04/2009

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The most idiotic thing being said about America's involvement in Afghanistan is that the best way to protect the 68,000 U.S. troops there now is by putting an additional 40,000 in harm's way.

People who argue for that plan clearly have not read Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's report pushing for escalation. The general is as honest as he is wrong in laying out the purpose of this would-be ex ...

Updated: Wed Nov 04, 2009

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Gorbachev's Sermon on the Mount for 11/11/2009

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." That biblical quotation certainly applies to Mikhail Gorbachev, a man not honored enough for the example he set and whose past practices and recent cautions about Afghanistan should be heeded by Barack Obama.

Or, on a secular note, if the Sermon on the Mount doesn't cut it for you, take German Chancell ...

Updated: Wed Nov 11, 2009

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Where Is the Community Organizer We Elected President? for 11/18/2009

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

What's up with Barack Obama? The candidate for change once promised to take on the powerful banking interests but is now doing their bidding. Finally, a leading Democrat, in this case Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, has a good idea for monitoring the Wall Street fat cats who all but destroyed the American economy, and the Obama administration condemns it.

Dodd wants to take ...

Updated: Wed Nov 18, 2009

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