A few days ago I slammed Democrats for hypocritically exempting American Samoa from the new minimum wage law. In passing, I noted that one of the beneficiaries of low wages on the island is Starkist, a subsidiary of Del Monte, which is based in Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco district. Partisans have now taken that basic [...]

I’m in the midst of writing another book now, called The Broken American Male. It’s about how the family rut is primarily due to the fragmented nature of today’s manâ€â€?just how messed up men are today and how we can heal them. ~ Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, in Publishers Weekly. Discuss.

With negotiations — and protests — underway over Bush’s presidential library, and analysts trying to predict what his legacy will be, I’ve been musing about a not-so-far-off time. Specifically, what will Bush do once he waves goodbye for the last time and leaves office in 2008? I figure it’s pretty certain he won’t be sent [...]

From Bloomberg… The Bush administration, backing off a disputed policy for fighting the war on terrorism, agreed to let a secret court supervise an eavesdropping program that targets suspected al Qaeda members in the U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced the change in the program, until now conducted without court warrants, in a letter today [...]

…which the drug companies won’t test because they can’t make any money off of it? Hmmm… From the New Scientist: It sounds almost too good to be true: a cheap and simple drug that kills almost all cancers by switching off their “immortalityâ€Â?. The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), has already been used for years to treat [...]

So, what is it that costs that much? I’ll give you one guess.

I’ve been far from prolific these past couple weeks, so my apologies for that. Just settling into a new arrangement, and I should get back in the flow of things soon. In the meantime… Obama said he’s going to form an exploratory committee, but questions still swirl around his experience. However, he’s pretty much tied [...]

…what dreams do you have for our country?

From Newsweek: Jan. 22, 2007 issue – Intel director John Negroponte gave Congress a sobering assessment last week of the continued threats from groups like Al Qaeda and Hizbullah. But even gloomier comments came from Henry Crumpton, the outgoing State Department terror coordinator. An ex-CIA operative, Crumpton told NEWSWEEK that a worldwide surge in Islamic [...]

First, if you sell enough stolen ammo on the civil-war fueled black market, you can make enough to get out of the country. From The Guardian: These days Rami gets most of his supplies from the new American-equipped Iraqi army. “We buy ammunition from officers in charge of warehouses, a small box of AK-47 bullets [...]

The title of my post comes from a 1978 song by Johnny Mathis and Denice Williams. It could also describe how I feel about the President Bush’s so-called “surge” of American troops in Iraq. And it seems that his plan is not playing well in among the American people either. This is a plan that [...]

Wow, it wasn’t even close. I guess that’s what you get when you botch something so badly and mislead people about how successful the war is going. Still, 70% is pretty incredible. From the AP: Just as 70 percent of Americans oppose sending more troops to Iraq, a like number don’t think such an increase [...]

My take on Bush’s speech: More of the same, punctuated with spurious justifications and disheartening implicit admissions that he was slow to admit what the rest of us saw long ago, and that he pursued a strategy (“clear and hold”) even though he didn’t have the resources to make it work. His proposed pacification campaign [...]

20,000 troops in Iraq comes too late.

…if we lose in Iraq. Those are the words from the White House…(bolding theirs)… Iraq Could Not Be Graver – The War On Terror Cannot Be Won If We Fail In Iraq. Our enemies throughout the Middle East are trying to defeat us in Iraq. If we step back now, the problems in Iraq will [...]

We’re already going through with the plan. From ABCNews: announce in a prime time speech tonight has already begun. Ninety advance troops from the 82nd Airborne Division arrived in Baghdad Wednesday. An additional battalion of roughly 800 troops from the same division are expected to arrive in Baghdad Thursday. Eighty percent of the sectarian violence [...]

Now this is interesting. Because the top three Presidential nominees are potentially more socially liberal than Bush, Evangelicals are scratching their heads and figuring out who will be their guy in 08… Senator John McCain originally opposed Bush’s tax cuts, supports looser immigration policies, voted against a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and was an [...]

So it was just a rumor. I should have known better. From Columbia Tribune: Although Bond denied the rumor before Christmas, it persists. Yesterday, Sam Richardson, a lobbyist who lives in Moberly and who also works and lives in Washington, said he has fielded questions from Capitol Hill staffers asking about Bond’s future. “Why didn’t [...]

Senator Schwarzenegger? From Washington Whispers… There’s growing buzz in Washington and California that just re-elected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger likes this government stuff so much that he’s got his eye on the Senate. Specifically, the seat held by Sen. Barbara Boxer, who’s up for re-election in 2010 when the Terminator ends his second term. Hmmm…

We’re getting hints of what the new war plan looks like… From NY Times: BAGHDAD, Jan. 7 â€â€? The new American operational commander in Iraq said Sunday that even with the additional American troops likely to be deployed in Baghdad under President Bush’s new war strategy it might take another “two or three yearsâ€Â? for [...]