Dispatches
Autumn for the Ayatollah
09.15.2008 07:33 | RUSS WELLEN
Is Supreme Leader Khameini sabotaging his regime by throwing his support behind Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the upcoming presidential election? In "Ahmadinejad gets a crucial boost" on Asia Times Online, Golnaz Esfandiari writes that "On August...
Georgia Conflict Obstructs Deproliferation
09.08.2008 06:05 | RUSS WELLEN
"START I expires December 2009," writes Alicia Goldberg at the FAS Strategic Securities Blog, "after which time there will be no nuclear arms control treaty that requires intrusive verification measures [or] the dismantlement of warheads. T...
Exactly When Isn't Rendition Extraordinary?
08.30.2008 15:48 | RUSS WELLEN
Not to mention in violation of any law known to God and man. Read Sangitha McKenzie Millar's earth-shattering story, "Extraordinary Rendition, Extraordinary Mistake," just posted on Foreign Policy in Focus. Excerpt:Mamdouh Habib, an Austral...
Democracy: Since We Can't Stand the Heat, We Stay out of the Kitchen
08.18.2008 06:28 | RUSS WELLEN
When Stealth Democracy: Americans' Beliefs about How Government Should Work was published in 2002, it caused "quite a stir among people who work for civic and democratic reform," according to reviewer Peter Levine. With the aid of a Gallup p...
Oh, Sweet Cynthia, Silence Thy Siren Song
07.15.2008 09:56 | RUSS WELLEN
When Barack Obama opted out of public campaign financing, it was tough to condemn him. Only a fool would shut down the money-making machine his campaign had become. It was also understandable when he backed the death penalty for child rapists. In no way,...
The Myth of the Sainted "People"
06.30.2008 06:37 | RUSS WELLEN
Most Democrats in the two houses of Congress balk at initiating impeachment proceedings against President Bush. We assume it's because, like a woman living with a rageaholic husband, they prefer to let their Republican colleagues lie as if they were s...
Where Did the Idea We Don't Negotiate Come From?
06.06.2008 05:08 | RUSS WELLEN
The need to negotiate means one nation has problems to iron out with another. And those the US has the biggest problems with are much less likely to be friends than they are states that sponsor terrorism or are run by tyrants. Obviously then, the most cri...
Are Escort Services Poised to Go Mainstream?
05.13.2008 11:41 | RUSS WELLEN
Whores no more.On the job, the key for many of us is adapting by adopting -- an alternate personality, that is. But some jobs arouse emotions and sensations that are too overwhelming for the conscious mind. In the process called splitting, we shunt those...
Donors to Clintons: We Gave at the Office
04.30.2008 07:41 | RUSS WELLEN
"In a campaign of surprises," writes Daniel Henninger in a recent Wall Street Journal column, "none has been more breathtaking than the falling away of Clinton supporters, loyalists [and] friends. Why?"The answer, of course -- after al...
Obama Makes Old Bush Dog Go All Warm and Fuzzy
04.11.2008 05:55 | RUSS WELLEN
When Barack Obama was endorsed by Jay Rockefeller in late February, it was considered a feather in his national security cap because the senator from West Virginia is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Rockefeller, however, as he told the...
Which Rocky Is Hillary? The Winner or the Loser?
04.02.2008 09:07 | ADAM BULGER
It's time for Hillary Clinton to bone up on her classic '70s cinema. Attempting to pander to a Philadelphia crowd, she compared herself to Philly's most famous fictional son, the Italian Stallion, Rocky Balboa.The AP reports:"Let me tell...
Condi Rice: Never Met a Milestone She Wasn't Willing to Render Meaningless
03.27.2008 11:25 | RUSS WELLEN
At The Washington Note yesterday, the estimable Steve Clemons wrote "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is speaking this morning to Grover Norquist's weekly powerhouse gathering at Americans for Tax Reform of conservative associations, think tan...
"Unsexiest" Woman Holds Mirror up to Judges
03.24.2008 04:33 | RUSS WELLEN
"Am I really the unsexiest woman in the world?"That's the rhetorical question actress Sarah Jessica Parker posed to Grazia (which actually bills itself as Britain's "first glossy magazine"). She was responding to the title of &...
Looks Like the Iran NIE Has Gone the Way of the Iraq Study Group
03.06.2008 05:22 | RUSS WELLEN
The UN Security Council just passed a third set of sanctions against Iran ostensibly because it refuses to cease and desist enriching uranium. In truth it was informed by another issue both more immediate and intimidating.On February 22 the International...
You Can't Tell the Players in Iraq without a Scorecard
02.27.2008 06:49 | RUSS WELLEN
Years ago, when Bosnia-Serbia-Kosovo was aflame, I found myself tuning out the conflict because of difficulty tracking all the warring factions. Afterward, I read a book on the subject, Michael Parenti's "To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavi...
Will Our Championship Drought in the Super Bowl of Elections Ever End?
02.01.2008 14:27 | RUSS WELLEN
It's been 99 years since the Chicago Cubs have won a World Series. But they, as well as teams that have never won a Super Bowl, aren't the only ones in the throes of a championship drought.No one is more long-suffering than those of us who dream o...
Tale of Two Zingers
01.14.2008 05:57 | RUSS WELLEN
Not only Obama, but Iran's Supreme Leader, spoke with a barbed tongue this week.It was the week of the artful put-down. The first was Obama's now infamous response to Hillary Clinton's protest, at the last presidential New Hampshire debate, th...
Give Us Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Iraqi Refugees. . . Hey, Wait a Minute
01.02.2008 07:59 | RUSS WELLEN
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have fled the carnage and poverty that our intrusion into their affairs has unleashed. They've been admitted to two countries ill-equipped to accommodate them: Jordan and Syria. Meanwhile, the US has kept its borders cl...
Sioux Sue for Sovereignty
12.27.2007 10:36 | RUSS WELLEN
In December, a Lakota (Sioux) delegation delivered a statement of "unilateral withdrawal" to the State Department. In other words, it plans to secede. Not all Lakota, just the delegation, which was led by Russell Means. He, of course, is famous...
Oprah: The Un-Hillary
12.14.2007 05:47 | RUSS WELLEN
As more and more people are beginning to sense, the Democrats may have missed the boat with Hillary Clinton. If she's nominated, winning the election will be no promenade up the gangplank of the ship of state. Instead, it will be a flying leap from pi...
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