U.S. Said to Seek Execution for 6 in Sept. 11 Case
(Read about judicial horror story in today’s New York Times.)

Over the last few weeks I have become rather deflated. The ascendancy of McCain has not been a surprise, though the speed with which both George Bush And Karl Rove have flocked to his side […]

“Veterans not entitled to mental health care, U.S. lawyers argue”
Bob Egelko reports in the San Francisco Gate, and it makes for a pretty dispiriting read.
Veterans have no legal right to specific types of medical care, the Bush administration argues in a lawsuit accusing the government of illegally denying mental health treatment to some troops […]

The Khaleej Times reports on the effect and possible causes of this mysterious and continuing problem. As of today five different cables have been snapped or cut over the last two weeks. Iran had its internet service cut to nothing.
A friend who served some years in the Navy in his youth and for […]

Great little piece in today’s Washington Post from Michael Kinsley and the desperate quest of the Republican candidates to out-Reagan each other, while also giving us a nice run-down of the Reagan reality.

On Mitt Romney:
Mitt Romney, meanwhile, kept repeating, inanely, “We’re in the house that Reagan built.” Reagan “would say lower taxes” and “Reagan would […]

London Times drops the third shoe (and still NO mainstream media in the US hears it)

The FBI was monitoring Turkish diplomatic and political figures based in Washington who were allegedly working with the Israelis and using “moles” in military and academic institutions to acquire nuclear secrets.

The creation of this nuclear ring had been assisted… […]

BTW, it has been pointed out to me, that we seem to refer a lot to the New York Times for our news stories. I’ve been told this shows my liberal bias. Readers who read will probably note that many times I disagree with the paper of record, but I acknowledge that it […]

A little over two weeks ago, the Times of London ran the most comprehensive article on the case of FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds to date, an article for which Ms. Edmonds (the most gag-ordered individual in US history, or so they claim) provided new evidence, effectively breaking the court orders for the first time.
It […]

Asia Times scoops with a story on how a routine encounter in the straits of Hormuz on January 6th was spun by the Pentagon into an international incident for domestic consumption in the US.

Porter has a pretty solid reputation and while his analysis seems a little short on who or why the decision was […]

Fred Kaplan in Slate analyzes it for us:
“In the latest Newsweek, Michael Hirsh reports that, during a private conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Bush “all but disowned” the agencies’ Dec. 3 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. A “senior administration official who accompanied Bush” on the trip confided to Hirsh that Bush “told the […]

Bush disavows Iran NIE to Israeli Prime Minister
This is troubling:
“He told the Israelis that he can’t control what the intelligence community says, but that [the NIE’s] conclusions don’t reflect his own views” about Iran’s nuclear-weapons program, said the official, who would discuss intelligence matters only on the condition of anonymity.
Bush’s behind-the-scenes assurances may help to […]