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Chris Matthews Disgracefully Uses Sen. Byrd's Death To Bash Bush
It goes without saying that Monday's Media coverage of Sen. Robert Byrd's (D-W.V.) death was predictably sycophantic on a disturbing number of levels. However, the award for most disgraceful use of a politician's passing to further one's agenda has to go to MSNBC's Chris Matthews who ended last night's "Hardball" memorializing a senator he had great esteem for by bashing former President George W. Bush. "Let me finish tonight with a tribute to a U.S. senator who shared my deep...

The Obama Analogy Trap
In the couple of days between the arrival of that fateful Rolling Stone article and President Barack Obama's firing of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, one pundit after another asked if this would be Obama's "Truman-MacArthur moment." It was just the latest in a long line of historical analogies into which people attempted to fit Obama. While it would be hard to prove with any certainty, it does seem that this presidency has seen more historical analogizing than those of the past. Why is...

Good Riddance, Robert Byrd
When Robert Byrd was a young man, he organized a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in his hometown of Crab Orchard and at the young age of 24 rose to the high office of “Exalted Cyclops.” He quickly climbed the KKK ranks, ascending all the way to “grand Kleagle,” a powerful recruitment head. Once he became a prominent Democrat in the Senate, he had to mitigate his mistake of joining the Klan. As a former Exalted Cyclops and kleagle, it was hard for him to portray himself...

Robert Byrd - senator, fiddler and champion of W.Va. - dies at 92
Washington — Robert C. Byrd, a conservative West Virginia Democrat who became the longest-serving member of Congress in history and used his masterful knowledge of the institution to shape the federal Budget, protect the procedural rules of the Senate and, above all else, tend to the interests of his state, died at 3 a.m. Monday at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Virginia, his office said. He was 92. Byrd had been hospitalized last week with what was thought to be heat exhaustion, but more...

Three Questions for Petraeus
Senate hearings are now underway to confirm David Petraeus as the new top American commander in Afghanistan. (See Mark Thompson's curtain-raiser here .) Here are three questions I'd love to see the general address: -- Was Marjah a mistake? The main event in the war this year was the offensive to flush the Taliban from the Marjah district of Helmand Province. The offensive was meant to be a demonstration of how Counterinsurgency, complete with "government in a box," could be implemented in ...

Stephen Kinzer, BP's First "Spill"
[ Note for TomDispatch Readers: To check out the most recent review of my book, The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obama’s , which just went up at Mother Jones magazine's website, click here (“...as in his daily dispatches, he takes on our war-possessed world with clear-eyed, penetrating precision... ”).  For all those of you who, in return for a signed copy of the book, sent in a contribution of $75 or more online by last Thursday -- and there...

Sacking McChrystal: Testimony to a Lost War
Johnson was also uneasy, telling his close friend, Senator Richard Russell, that he faced a Hobson's choice saying: "I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't," the former being Impeachment if he quit, the latter certain defeat that destroyed him. After three heart attacks, he died a sick, broken man, four years after he left office, two days before Richard's Nixon's second inauguration, a man soon to face his own moment of truth, omitting what should have brought him down and his...

Farewell to Another 'Legend'
By James Taranto Nearly 64 years after his First Election to public office in 1946, Sen. Robert Byrd is dead. Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat, was "a legend who many in the state and elsewhere consider one of a kind," according to the Washington Post . His career is reminiscent in many ways of that of another "legend," longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas, who "retired" earlier this month. Like Thomas, Byrd was a "legend" chiefly for his longevity--not just biological but...

Loose-Cannon Leftist Randi Rhodes Resorts to Hate Speech to Malign Mark Levin
Libtalker Randi Rhodes can't hold a candle to conservative radio host Mark Levin when it comes to Constitutional Law.

Spy Novel Plot Under Our Noses
I’d like to introduce you to “Richard Murphy,” “Cynthia Murphy,” “Donald Howard Heathfield,” “Tracey Lee Ann Foley,” “Michael Zottoli,” Patricia Mills,” “Juan Lazaro,” and “Vicky Pelaez.” One alleged Canadian citizen is still at large, “Christopher R. Metsos.” They’re all on the hot seat for felony violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 , and what looks like...

Bruce Fein Schools Henry Kissinger
How selfish! Should we just sit by while Nazis kill People? Don't we have a responsibility to intervene militarily? Fein thinks not, and thinks our nations' founders thought not: "Liberty stands at the apex of the Constitution. But the Founding Fathers knew with a certainty that the liberties of American Citizens would be crippled by any attempt to spread freedom abroad through Military force. That mission would concentrate all power in the President and subordinate every liberty to National...

The Prisoner of Gen. Petraeus
President Obama is being hailed for toughness in his firing of Gen. McChrystal and brilliance in his replacing him as Afghan field commander with Gen. David Petraeus, who managed the George W. Bush "surge" in Iraq that saved this nation from an ignominious defeat. Herewith, a dissent. By firing a fighting general, beloved of his Troops, Obama just took upon himself full responsibility for the McChrystal Plan. The general is off the hook. As of now, the plan is not succeeding. And...

Noriega goes on trial in France
AFP Panama's ex-dictator Manuel Noriega went on trial in Paris on Monday, accused of Laundering Colombian drug Money in French banks, in a case that could land him in jail for another 10 years. The 76-year-old general, who ruled Panama from 1981 to 1989, looked frail as he stood before judges and gave his name, two months after he was extradited to France from the United States, where he spent two decades in jail. His three daughters were seated nearby as three days of hearings started, the...

Commentary: Afghan quagmire
Washington, June 29 (UPI) -- "The Endless Game" cartoon in the Financial Times showed U.S. President Barack Obama and a Taliban insurgent batting back and forth a coffin-shaped projectile over the smoking ruin of a building. Another in the International Herald Tribune has U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal boarding a U.S. transport as an Afghan soldier waves goodbye. Atop a nearby mountain, one Taliban fighter says to another, "THE PULLOUT HAS BEGUN!" The two Newspapers are the world's most read...

Petraeus pledges supports exit plan for Afghan war
Washington (AP) - Gen. David Petraeus is giving a careful Endorsement of President Barack Obama's exit plan for the Afghan war. Petraeus, Obama's choice to take over the war, reminded Congress on Tuesday that the president has said the plan to bring some forces home in July 2011 isn't a rush for the exits. In his opening remarks, Petraeus did not explicitly endorse the withdrawal plan, although he has done so before. He says the US commitment to Afghanistan is "enduring," and that it will be...

Rolling Stone May Have Just Won The War in Afghanistan
This week past, President Obama relieved four-star general Stanley McChrystal of his duties in Afghanistan after Rolling Stone published an unflattering magazine article about him and his staff's feelings toward the administration's National Security team. Although the vast majority of the discouraging quotes came from his staff, Gen. McChrystal is ultimately responsible, and the president did what any commander in chief would have done under the circumstances. Neocons! He promptly...

Jeff Sessions indulges hysterical attacks on Elena Kagan during his opening arguments
You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player! DOWNLOADS: (25) PLAYS: (81) {H/t Heather] I'm not very excited about covering this Supreme Court nomination process, but I will point out Republican demagoguery over it. The gerbil-esque Republican senator from Alabam, Jeff Sessions, had quite an opening on Monday. He viciously attacked Elena Kagan on all counts and went so far as to say she was a traitor to the Troops -- and it was all considered OK, because...

Afghan troops 'overrated' by US
An independent report has found that the US has often over-estimated the capability of local Afghan Military and Police units to provide security in the country. Tuesday's findings seem to contradict recent upbeat assessments provided by foreign Military commanders in Afghanistan. Transferring power to local government is one of the crucial components of the US strategy in Afghanistan. However, the report is now likely to cast doubt on that. There is no way to tell how ready Afghan forces are...

David Brooks: our nation's premier expert warrior
(updated below - Update II) In today's New York Times , the grizzled warrior David Brooks performs a chest-beating War dance over Afghanistan of the type he and his tough guy comrades perfected in the run-up to the Iraq War.  It's filled with self-glorifying "war-is-hell" neocon platitudes that make the speaker feel tough and strong.  No more hiding like cowards in our bases.  It's time to send "small groups of American men and women [] outside the wire in...

Sen. Byrd speaks on coal-mine safety: After Sago and Aracoma, plenty of blame to go around
Here’s a Speech Sen. Robert C. Byrd gave after the Sago and Aracoma Mine disasters of 2006: Madam President, while the Senate was in recess, the State of West Virginia lost 14 proud sons. On January 2, 13 hard-working, God-fearing men were simply earning their daily bread at the Sago Coal Mine in Upshur County, WV, when an Explosion killed 1 man and trapped 12 others 260 feet below its surface. For 41 long hours, these men waited for help. They waited, they waited, they waited, and they...

NATO says increased military ops behind high death toll
Kabul — Intensified Military operations against the Taliban are behind a surge in troop Deaths in Afghanistan, NATO said Sunday, as the alliance announced the 94th fatality in a record month for casualties. NATO's International Security Assistance Force said four more foreign Soldiers had died in attacks, including two US personnel killed in gunfights. Another NATO servicemember from an unspecified country died following an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan, and a fourth in a bomb...

Hamas is a threat to the Palestinian cause
It's a pity that Israel, while substantially loosening its grip on Gaza , will continue to enforce a Blockade when, with just a little imagination, it could insist on a deal with the Activists once again steaming its way: You can proceed to Gaza if, once you get there, you demand that Hamas cease the persecution of women, institute Freedom of Religion, halt the continuing rocketing of Israel, release an Israeli hostage, ban Torture and rescind an official charter that could have made soothing...

Obama Throws In The Towel On Closing Gitmo [Reader Post]
Barack Obama has given up on closing Gitmo within his first and hopefully only term in office. Washington - Stymied by political opposition and focused on competing priorities, the Obama Administration has sidelined efforts to close the Guantánamo Prison, making it unlikely that President Obama will fulfill his promise to close it before his term ends in 2013. Of course, it’s not his fault. When the White House acknowledged last year that it would miss Mr. Obama's initial...

US strikes al Qaeda safehouse in South Waziristan
The US killed seven Terrorists in an airstrike on a known al Qaeda compound in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan. The Predator strike is the seven this month. An unmanned Predator or the more deadly Reaper fired two missiles at a compound in the village of Karikot near Wana, the main town in South Waziristan. The compound is known to be used by al Qaeda operatives in the area. Seven people were reported killed in the strike, according to Geo News . Dawn put the...

Blogger jailed over Jakarta blasts
An Indonesian publisher and blogger known as the "Prince of Jihad" has been sentenced to five years in jail for concealing information about Suicide Attacks on two Jakarta hotels last year. Mohammed Jibril Abdurahman was arrested at his Ar-Rahmah media company weeks after the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotel bombings that killed seven people on July 17, 2009. According to reports, there was no evidence that he had actively participated in the Bomb Plot, but the court heard...