Well, Bush denounced Hamas's electoral win earlier, asked Abbas to stay in office anyway and demanded the winners be disarmed, and now I'm watching Netanyahu on MSNBC blaming Sharon for leaving Gaza and "emboldening" Hamas. Why their election did not immediately turn Hamas into wonderful angels was not explained. Boy, can you imagine what would happen if there were democratic elections in all our imperial satellite states in the Middle East? I don't think they'd be our puppets anymore. Maybe...

Gore Vidal on the "boy emperor" and the fall of the empire.

Check out this great movie by Adam Finberg about the state of St. Bernard Parish in New Orleans. Apparently the whole thing was shot last month. "When I finally get a straight answer, I won't believe it, because I'm not used to getting straight answers." Note that all the government efforts have basically nothing to show for themselves while it is private charities that are actually providing aid. Why people are not yet moving there and opening up shop is puzzling. Obviously the place is a...

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"Attacks by Iraqi insurgents rose by 29 percent in 2005 to 34,131 attacks, up from 26,496 the year before, U.S. military figures released Sunday said." Repeat after me: "Victory, Victory, Victory!"

The Iraqi Minister of Replacement and Migration has warned Iraqi expatriots to stay away until the security situation is better. Bob Dreyfuss says that's going to be a while.

In spite of some of his misguided calls for government monopolies on health and learning, this is some great stuff: Albert Einstein and Mark Twain gave up on the human race at the end of their lives, even though Twain hadn't even seen the first world war. Link via Lew Rockwell

By Sue Pleming WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday there was strong international consensus against Iran's nuclear plans and time had run out for talking to Tehran. With Italy's foreign minister at her side, Rice said the next step must be to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council. The United States believes Iran is building a nuclear bomb but Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful, energy purposes. "The referral absolutely has to be made,"...

If anybody out there needs to catch up or get a good refresher course in who lied us into war in Iraq and how, may I recommend this great article by former DIA officer W. Patrick Lang, "Drinking the Kool-Aid" from the summer of 2004? It is a detailed retelling of the activities of the neoconservatives in the office of the vice-president, the Office of Special Plans, the Policy Counter-Terrorism Evaluation Group and the way they accomplished their end-run around the regular intelligence...

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We all know (hopefully) from reading Dr. Gordon Prather 3 times a week at Antiwar.com and World Net Daily (and even from rags like the Washington Post) that if the government of Iran began to enrich uranium for nuclear bomb making purposes right now, it would take them 10 years to make one simple gun-type nuke (Prather's term) (and nevermind the delivery system). In other words, all the hype about some imminent nuclear danger is a pack of lies. Karen Kwiatkowski, Ph.D., the great witness to...

Despite uncertainty, U.S. journalists take sides By Steve Rendall Hat Tip: Gordon Prather

I have heard through the grapevine that Harry Browne, one of the most thoughtful, articulate and successful spokesmen for the ideas and values of individual liberty, author, lecturer, radio host, two time Libertarian Party presidential candidate and personal hero of mine, is very ill. My understanding is that it's a pretty bad situation. I believe that Harry was the one who first offered a bit of structure (that I would accept) to my rampant government hatred. Libertarianism he called it, and...

I hate to see people get locked up by the state, but when it's one of Doug Feith's employees, and his object [.pdf] is helping a foreign nation get this one into a war with Iran, he can rot. Really, he should have gotten at least 20, but I'll take it at this point. Now we'll see about the Dynamic Duo over at AIPAC. Here's to hoping they don't plead out. I want to know what Franklin was doing hanging out with Michael Ledeen, Harold Rhode, Manucher Ghorbanifar, Ahmad Chalabi, Italian and Iranian...