Dispatches

Ahmadinejad Kosher?
12.11.2007 10:31 | RUSS WELLEN
A sergeant in the US Army Special Forces with whom I'm acquainted turned me on to an article on Israel's Ynet in which a member of the Knesset responded to the Iran NIE.Shas party minister Yitzhak Cohen has been called a key coalition partner in O...

Is the Iran NIE a Trojan Horse?
12.05.2007 11:18 | RUSS WELLEN
The Iran NIE has elicited a range of emotions in those opposed to the Bush administration's policies from gloating to discreet celebration. In the minds of many, it's like V-Day: Let the church bells peal, kiss a girl in Times Square. Others, part...

Ahmadinejad: Holocaust Denier or Mystic?
11.30.2007 05:54 | RUSS WELLEN
In December 2006 Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad kicked off a two-day conference dedicated to examining whether the Holocaust took place.In October 2007 he addressed the audience the International Congress on the 800th birth anniversary of Rumi.Jalal a...

Alex Rodriguez's Relationship with Yankees Replicates His Marriage
11.27.2007 10:12 | RUSS WELLEN
The foundation for Alex Rodriguez's new contract was poured two weeks ago -- 10 years at $275 million. As if that weren't already enough to start his own nation (the Republic of Rodriguez? A-Rodriana?), on Sunday the infrastructure for his five $6...

Time to Sic the Church Lady on Bush
11.26.2007 19:30 | RUSS WELLEN
Jack Goldsmith, Bush's disaffected former director of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department, wrote: ". . . the administration's conception of presidential power had a kind of theological significance that often trumped politic...

Left Behind: Black Music by White Musicians
11.14.2007 03:22 | RUSS WELLEN
"Why did so many white rock bands retreat from the ecstatic singing and intense, voicelike guitar tones of the blues, the heavy African downbeat, and the elaborate showmanship that characterized black music of the mid-twentieth century?"Sasha Fr...

Attack Iran, Lose Your Job
11.05.2007 03:26 | RUSS WELLEN
It beggars belief. Polls show the president's support at less than 30 percent nationally -- in not one single state does even 50 percent approve of him. Yet he retains enough of his beloved "political capital" to plan an attack on another co...

Following Hillary Over a Cliff
10.26.2007 05:48 | RUSS WELLEN
Zogby's recent poll asking "Whom would you NEVER vote for president?" was kind of mischievous, wasn't it? But if I were a member of the Democratic National Committee, not to mention a congressional Democrat, I'd be sweating bullets o...

Bad Aftertaste from Clinton's Iran Vote Lingers
10.15.2007 04:02 | RUSS WELLEN
Though it's been almost three weeks, Hillary Clinton's vote for the Kyl-Lieberman amendment still sours the stomach. In Sunday's New York Times Week in Review, Helene Cooper terms it "more hawkish than even most of the Bush administration...

Post, Times Condemn Peace Prize Winner for Making Peace
10.01.2007 05:02 | RUSS WELLEN
Life as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate -- especially if you're not resting on your laurels -- is not as awash in dignity and respect as you might think. Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi (1991) has spent 10 of the last 17 years under house arres...

The Administration Is Coming at Iran from Every Direction
09.17.2007 03:57 | RUSS WELLEN
Some of the threatening actions the administration is taking against Iran have been well-covered by the media. These include calling for another round of UN sanctions on Iran for continuing to enrich -- at however slow a pace -- uranium, charging Iran wit...

ElBaradei Continues to Roll up Bush's Rollout to War
09.10.2007 05:35 | RUSS WELLEN
Iran continues to make it difficult for the administration to mount an attack against it. Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency's el jefe Mohamed ElBaradei handed in his report on Iran's nuclear program. Reuters summed up: "I...

Michael Vick: Adding Insult to Black People's Injury
09.05.2007 11:55 | RUSS WELLEN
Wait a minute -- what injury did Michael Vick inflict on black people? Since when are an individual's crimes a reflection on his race?  It's not Vick's crimes that reflect badly on his race. It's the reactions of black people -- a few...

Iran May Be a Once and Future Threat, But Al Qaeda Is a Clear and Present Danger
08.29.2007 04:43 | RUSS WELLEN
Speaking before an American Legion group yesterday, President Bush described Iran as the "world's leading state sponsor of terrorism." Its pursuit of technology which could lead to nuclear weapons, he added, threatens to put the region "...

Does a Force Field Protect Defense Spending from Democrats?
08.20.2007 03:32 | RUSS WELLEN
"Most Democratic candidates for president speak of increasing rather than slashing the military budget," writes Frida Berrigan in a recent column on Foreign Policy in Focus. "Since President Bush came into office in 2001, the Pentagon's...

Hillary's First-Strike Capability
08.11.2007 19:36 | RUSS WELLEN
The recent Clinton-Obama exchange over nuclear weapons was much scrutinized, especially by the right. ABC News reported it thusly:"Regarding terrorist targets in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region, Obama told The Associated Press Thursday: 'I think...

WaPo Confers Cold Warrior Status on Iran
08.05.2007 00:15 | RUSS WELLEN
In a recent article in The Washington Post, Robin Wright quoted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calling Iran the state that presents "the single most important. . . strategic challenge to the United States." Wright concluded: "After thr...

The Bush Quartet
07.31.2007 03:33 | RUSS WELLEN
The war maestro's magnum opus requires two more wars.As a country founded on the principle of majority rule, most of us have yet to accept that a small cabal of extremists infiltrated and wrested control of our government. Despite Bush & Co.'s...

Sole Bush Achievement Poised to Go Up in Smoke
07.13.2007 06:53 | RUSS WELLEN
"A secret military operation in early 2005 to capture. . . [bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri] was called off. . . [by] Donald H. Rumsfeld. . . [who] decided that the operation. . . put too many American lives at risk. . . [and] could cause a rift with Pakis...

If Gays Can't Marry, Nobody Should
07.12.2007 03:37 | SHAYNE ALDRICH
As a gay man raised in a loving and affirming home with wonderful parents and siblings and surrounded by equally wonderful extended family, friends and acquaintances, I have come to realize that I want more than just acceptance and tolerance, I want equal...