Daveed Gartenstein-Ross knows: Zarqawi’s role model was twelfth century Arab fighting king Nur ad-Din Zanki. Zanki had two missions in life: to drive the Crusaders from Arab lands and to crush Shiite rulers. Few understood the importance that Zarqawi placed on him. In interviews with Iraq and Zarqawi specialists at the State Department, Defense Department [...]

Ladies and gentleman, we got him. BAGHDAD, Iraq – Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most-wanted terrorist in Iraq who waged a bloody campaign of beheadings and suicide bombings, was killed when U.S. warplanes dropped 500-pound bombs on his isolated safehouse, officials said Thursday. His death was a long-sought victory in the war in Iraq. Is this [...]

With no big surprise, the Senate rejected cloture on a vote for a constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage. During this whole debate, I keep hearing people who are against the ban that this is a distracting issue and that government should focus on more important issues like immigration or health care. I’d like [...]

Good. From the AP: WASHINGTON – The Senate rejected a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage by a wide margin Wednesday, delivering a stinging defeat to President Bush and other Republicans who had hoped the issue would rally GOP voters for the November elections. The senators’ vote was 49-48 to limit debate and bring the [...]

Parts of Baghdad are being dominated by Islamicists. Are we winning?

Mr. President, On behalf of millions of gay and lesbian Americans, I write to denounce your decision to divide the American family by promoting an amendment that would insert discrimination into the United States Constitution. Your decision to use the grounds of the White Houseâ€â€?America’s Houseâ€â€?to advance discrimination is an insult to millions of fair [...]

Just in case you’re wondering (and I know you are!), here are three more stories about byoms. ‘Chatting With Your Search Engine’, Wired News ‘Kozoru Opens Public Beta Testing Of Byoms’, Search Engine Watch ‘Kozoru searches in your favorite sites by IM’, Tech Crunch Shameless Self Promotion Machine Off!

Remember the McCain Amendment? It made sure that our government defined torture in an appropriate manner. It passed with overwhelming support. Not so fast John McCain! The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Convention that explicitly bans “humiliating and degrading treatment,” according to knowledgeable military officials, [...]

Do something good today, would ya?

John Hawkins lays out the biggest “threats.” Guess who’s at the top? If you guessed Hillary Clinton, you’re wrong. She’s fourth down the list. The three above her are all…say it with me…moderates. In third place is Evan Bayh, senator from Indiana. He’s a popular figure in his state and Hawkins thinks he could easily [...]

The conservative side of the blogosphere is sick of the administration using the gay marriage issue too. Captain’s Quarters has more.

President Bush has thrown his weight behind the proposed definition of marriage Constitutional amendment saying that it is vital for our nation to preserve the traditional family structure. Anyone who has read me for any length of time knows how I feel on this issue. But in case you don’t, let me recap my two-point [...]

The Republicans have found their issue for the fall, and it is gay marriage. Why? Because gays are dangerous and they must be stopped at all costs. They want the same rights that the rest of us have, and that’s why our President says he strongly supports an amendment to ban same sex marriage. But [...]

When I’m not exploring politics with all of you, I’m a communications manager for a search technology company called kozoru. I’ll have more on Monday when we launch our new product byoms but until then take a look at some of the press we’ve been getting. ‘Investigating BYOMS with Kozoru Founder John Flowers’, Search Engine [...]

Many of our commenters on this post (at AmbivaBlog) took issue with the spirited defense of New Deal-rooted American social democracy expressed by Jack Whelan at After the Future. In my opinion Jack is hands down one of the best thinkers and writers on the Web; I’m particularly blown away by his “post-secular” take on [...]

…. is to re-argue case law that has been settled for more than 100 years. Well, actually, it’s not so much re-arguing as simply ignoring precedents that one doesn’t like. In a debate with powerful echoes of the turbulent civil rights era, four Republicans running for Alabama’s Supreme Court are making an argument legal scholars [...]

At the risk of having my left-leaning credentials pulled, I decided I would venture into a topic that has been ruminating in my head for some time. My goal is to understand and evaluate the objective of those who comprise the left in the netroots. More specifically, I wanted to discuss and debate the calculations [...]