Recently by Desperado

I don't have the words to express my disgust with this attack on Department of Justice lawyers from the Liz Cheney-led group that goes by the name of Keep America Safe, more aptly named Keep America Scared. Shameful, despicable, and contemptible aren't strong enough. Adam Serwer at The American Prospect appropriately called it "The New McCarthyism." For those who may not have seen it, here's the video:So now lawyers who defend people accused of being...

This story has absolutely nothing to do with politics, and my apologies in advance to anyone who finds it offensive, but it reminded me of 2 classic lines from 2 of my favorite comedians. "The places where most people buy condoms -- Wal-Mart and drug stores -- are motivated by a business model that needs to maximize shelf space, so they offer few varieties. To complicate things further, there is no standard sizing for condoms..."a...

A couple of items of interest from Afghanistan. 1) President Karzai's latest power grab: "...a presidential decree to take total control of the country's electoral watchdog commission. Yes, that is the same commission that exposed widespread fraud in the 2009 vote...The Electoral Complaints Commission adjudicates violations and will play an important role in the September vote for a new Parliament. By law, it has five members: three non-Afghans appointed by the United Nations and two...

In the latest news from the war in Vietnam Afghanistan, General Westmoreland's McChrystal's strategy of "winning the hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese Afghani people took a hit over the weekend as another 33 civilians, including women and children, were blown away by an "errant airstrike". General Westmoreland McChrystal immediately issued an apology to President Nguyen Van Thieu Hamid Karzai."One day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai made an impassioned plea for American-led forces to do...

Sen, Jim DeMint, this past Thursday at CPAC (which he read from a teleprompter):"Now let's talk a minute about the Presidential race in 2012. I hope Americans will expect more from their next president than a great speech. You can't govern from a teleprompter."  Apparently Mitt Romney didn't get that memo:Neither did Dick Armey:  Or Liz Cheney:Or Papa Cheney the war criminal:Really, Dick. How difficult is it to remember, "I love me some waterboarding."...

Title 18, U.S. Code 2340 defines torture as "an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering...upon another person within his custody or physical control;"USC 2340A defines the penalties:"Whoever outside the United States commits or attempts to commit torture shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both, and if death results to any person...

President Obama, in the name of the Nobel Peace Prize, put a stop to this, NOW:"MARJA, Afghanistan -- An errant American rocket strike on Sunday hit a compound crowded with Afghan civilians in the last Taliban stronghold in Helmand Province, killing at least 10 people [the number now stands at 12], including 5 children, military officials said....The strike came after American Marines and Afghan soldiers had been taking intense small-arms fire from a mud-walled compound...

The latest scheme to make the Wall Street fat cats even fatter (with our money, of course), courtesy of their friends at the Federal Reserve:"During the financial crisis, it [the Fed]  bought hundreds of billions of dollars of real-estate loans and securities from banks to reduce mortgage rates and ease the pressure on bank balance sheets.  This, in turn, pumped hundreds of billions of new dollars into the economy, which has helped the banks-and bankers-to...

I think most people who live in the real world (leaving out the gutless wonders who inhabit Washington, D.C.) will agree that if we ever hope to get our fiscal house in order some tough choices will have to be made. David Pauly has a piece at Bloomberg today with 9 suggestions:1) Restore all income taxes to the pre-President George W. Bush level, not just those for people earning $250,000 or more. 2) Tax the...

It's no secret by now that I've been disappointed in some of the actions of the Obama administration. None more so than their continuation of the Bush/Cheney policies of dealing with those accused of terrorist activities. I expected much better from a president who professed to be something of a Constitutional scholar, and the administration bowing to pressure over the weekend from those who are against trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 4 others in New...