The latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll indicates that the recent string of speeches by the President have improved both his approval ratings and the prospects of the Republican Party to hold control of the House and the Senate. The data adds substantiation to other recent polling that seems to be trending in favor of the GOP. [...]

We haven’t posted him yet, but I’ve remedied that right now.
General Colin Powell on the torture policy:
Former secretary of state Colin L. Powell said yesterday that he decided to publicly oppose the Bush administration’s proposed rules for the treatment of terrorism suspects in part because the plan would add to growing doubts about whether the [...]

This is from a guy who was commander of the First Infantry Division of the Army at the start of the war. He has only recently come out against our tactics in the WoT. There are some who may have a higher moral authority on this issue, but not very many. Please watch.

“And I applaud [...]

From what a few in the right-wing blogosphere say, the torture tactics we employ are completely harmless. Or at the very least, they don’t inflict that much damage on those who are being interrogated.
Torture or harmless?
The techniques sought by the CIA are: induced hypothermia; forcing suspects to stand for prolonged periods; sleep deprivation; a [...]

In these days where the two major political parties view the other party as the Evil that Will Destroy America, it’s nice to see an example of two politicians being friends to each other.
The New York Times has a great piece about Congressman Patrick Kennedy, son of Ted Kennedy and a Democratic Representative from Rhode [...]

McCain is hearing it from the Republican base over the torture amendment. They want torture. He doesn’t.
From the NY Times:
After months of orchestrated peace, the battle with Mr. Bush over the administration’s effort to reinterpret the Geneva Conventions has put Mr. McCain back into a familiar position: bucking the White House and at odds again [...]

Eugene Volokh points out that in 2000, John Yoo (one of the lawyer’s behind Bush’s new wartime powers) said the following:
President Clinton exercised the powers of the imperial presidency to the utmost in the area in which those powers are already at their height � in our dealings with foreign nations. Unfortunately, the record of [...]

“Over the weekend, Pope Benedict apologized to the Muslims. On the other hand, altar boys are still waiting for their apology.”
-David Letterman, 2 minutes ago on The Late Show

(To be read with the preceding post)
When I read this at Jack Whelan’s After the Future, I was surprised by my own reaction: almost everything in me leapt to believe it.
I continue to be amazed at the paranoia that animates the right wing in this country and the way that paranoia creates [...]

Crusader against religion Sam Harris (who, largely through his own tireless efforts, now merits our culture’s coveted prefix “bestselling”) in the L.A. Times:
Perhaps I should establish my liberal bone fides at the outset. I’d like to see taxes raised on the wealthy, drugs decriminalized and homosexuals free to marry. I also think that the Bush [...]

I’m going to ask all of you to do something right now, and I’m asking quite sincerely.
All you have to do is read this entire piece:
After the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans — restless professionals, Arabic-speaking [...]

I wake up to this heads-up from The Walrus Said:
Bigger than 9/11
This is the kind of attack Al-Qaeda is threatening against the US, warning all American Muslims to flee New York and Washington.
From an interview with Abu Dawood, the newly appointed commander of the al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan, by journalist Hamid Mir.
It is headlined:
Exclusive [...]

So says the Bayh…
From the AP:
DES MOINES, Iowa – Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh defended Democratic assaults on President Bush’s prosecution of the war on terror, but he warned Friday that his party can’t come across as “a bunch of wimps” on security issues.
Asked about repeated Republican comments that Democrats are undermining the war on terror [...]

Things are getting bad for President Bush. Even Peggy Noonan seems to be having her doubts. For the uninitiated, Peggy Noonan’s spent the last six years responding to every Bush appearance by rolling over, waving her paws in the air and wetting herself in an orgy of submissiveness.
He is talking a lot lately, out there [...]

Bill Roggio at Fourth Rail, the indispensable blog on all matters involving the Afghanistan war has this:
The Pakistani government is living up to its commitments on the “Waziristan Accord,” and has emptied the prisons of Taliban and al-Qaeda who have been captured since the fall of 2001. The “Waziristan Accord” calls for the Pakistani government [...]

In football, they call it peaking too soon. In politics, they call it a mismanaged campaign strategy. Call it what you will, but if the current trending beginning to surface in recent polling continues to expand and multiply, the Democrats may be scrambling to explain why they failed to capture control of the House or [...]

After months of denial, Rep. Robert Ney has pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and making false statements in the Jack Abramoff scandal.
This isn’t a wrist slap, either.
The maximum sentence for the two counts is 10 years, but the Justice Department and Ney’s lawyers agreed on a sentencing recommendation of 27 months in prison, [...]

A children’s ditty for world unity puts me in a bad mood. Why?

Michael Reynolds (aka sideways) wrote a great post last week about Pakistan’s surrender to the Taliban that got a lot of attention around the web. More than 12,000 people viewed the post thanks to the site reddit.com.
Given that, I think we should take a look at the post again, as well as the followup, and [...]

You know what they say…if you can’t control the media…buy the media.
From Reuters:
RIYADH (Reuters) – Muslim tycoons should buy stakes in global media outlets to help change anti-Muslim attitudes around the world, ministers from Islamic countries heard at a conference in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
Information ministers and officials meeting under the auspices of the 57-nation [...]