The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters
In 2003, the State Department issued a report which said “terrorist attacks and related deaths had dropped to the lowest levels in three decades, and top Bush administration officials immediately cited it as proof of their success in the global war on terrorism.” Five months ago, “embarrassed State Department officials acknowledged widespread mistakes in the government’s influential annual report.”
Read moreCivil rights complaints ? including charges of abusive police tactics, racial violence, slavery or involuntary servitude, and blocked access to clinics ? have remained relatively constant over the last decade.
Read moreAs many as 15,000 soldiers who have been injured in Iraq have been left off the official casualty count because their injuries were not sustained as a result of enemy fire. CBS News reports while most of these injuries are not life threatening, “only 20 percent return to their units in Iraq.
Read moreThe administration’s own Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan, warned this week that “The persistence of bloated U.S. trade deficits over time can pose a risk to the U.S. economy.” So far, Greenspan said, foreigners have been willing to lend the U.S. money to finance the current account imbalances, but “at some point foreigners might suddenly lose interest in holding dollar-denominated investments.
Read moreThis weekend, Iraq’s Independent Electoral Commission announced the nation would hold elections on January 30. There are serious obstacles still to be overcome to meet that objective. Flawed or delayed elections would be a significant blow to Iraq’s stability and threaten civil war.
Read moreI guess the Holiday Season sort of officially started for me last night. A friend of ours, BR, builds a
Read moreI think it was just last week that Miami-Dade police officers used a taser stun gun to subdue a very dangerous six year old boy. They claimed he was holding a shard of glass and threatening to hurt himself, so I went easy on that one.
Read moreWell, any hope that Bush might mellow a little as a lame duck went away this week with his appointment of John Ashcroft’s replacement. Bush proved Wednesday his personal contempt for the Constitution by replacing one hater of the U.S. Constitution with another – nominating right-wing zealot Alberto Gonzales to replace his head Nazi – John Ashcroft – as attorney general.
Read moreThe media have unanimously accepted the notion that “moral; values” was the driving force behind the 2004 Bush victory. I’m not buying it, and I’m surprised that so many of the writers I admire have accepted this shabby explanation without a bit of skepticism. The last time the media acted with such earnestness they were conspiring to pack the nation off to war. I expect a similar deception is taking place now.
Read moreI’d like to drop politics and the election as a topic, and I sincerely hope you’ll see less of it here, but the things going on now have the potential for an on-going impact on our day to day lives. So, I’ll continue to monitor Bush Act II. There is much to be concerned about. Bush’s only plan for unity is to “reach out to those who share our views.”
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