Tell us your "source," Judy Not published in The New York Times
The only thing more evil, small-minded and treasonous than the Bush Administration's jailing Judith Miller for a crime the Bush Administration committed, is Judith Miller covering up her Bush Administration "source."
I thought I'd be pleased when the American public finally caught on. It happens, eventually. The George W. Bush Mutant Death Festival, so popular for several years, has finally lost its appeal. Mark my worms, Paris Hilton is next. Not that there's much difference. Two debutantes mincing their various ways across the world stage, one clad in swimsuit, selling cow, the other clad in flight suit, selling bull; Americans bought both of 'em for a while.
How the war on terror is eroding our civil liberties
Heading for Oakland from Seattle to see my grandkids last week, the Alaska Airline check-in machine refused to give me a boarding pass. Directed to the ticket counter, I gave the agent my driver's license and watched her punch keys at her computer.
It was François-Marie (Pappy) Arouet, writing under the nom de plume (name of the feather) 'Voltaire', that said, "to hold a pen is to be at war". I couldn't agree more, albeit retrospectively. I'm at war, pen-fashion, with what I regard to be a sweeping tide of superstitious, retrogressive, vengeful, dimwitted anti-intellectual goat-spanking that has swept the United States like a tide. But I also know, because I periodically dip into that fusty old thing they call literature, there's little to be said anew that Voltaire didn't say back when he was running around in wig and garters getting banished from Paris.
Many male readers have come to me asking, "what can I do to bring the romance back into my special relationship?" The only question I am asked more often is "how do I get bloodstains out of automobile upholstery?" It is possible that the first question would obviate the second, if only someone would explain all about what women like. Here is a simple list that will help you reignite the spice in your lady friend's heart.
When most people hear the word 'filibuster', they automatically think of Philip Armbruster, inventor of the steam banjo and the self-ladling tureen. In fact the filibuster is a vital tool in the legislative sabretache, used to ensure that a minority group, such as the American public, does not have its best interests steamrolled by the marching jackboots of the majority in power. And yet, there is a fierce Republican effort to do away with this ancient tradition. What is a filibuster, you ask stupidly? I groan. The word 'filibuster' comes from the Dutch vrijbuiter, from which we also get 'freebooter'. The original sense of the word was that of a mercenary, someone inclined to take hostages. It came into its modern sense when officially condoned in 1872: the exercise of the right to 'unlimited debate' to literally talk legislation to death, sheer loquacity grinding legislative business to a halt.
I heard it. I knew I would. John Kerry said it. George W. Bush said it. And myriad others will join the chorus.
They told us it’s now a time of healing. But, I don’t want to heal, and I don’t intend to be healed. “Healing” is merely code for shutting up and allowing the President to do whatever it is he plans to do. But we did that for four years.
"It's appalling that this story got out there," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on her way back from Iraq.
What's NOT appalling to Condi is that the US is holding prisoners at Guantanamo under conditions termed "torture" by the Red Cross. What's not appalling to Condi is that prisoners of the Afghan war are held in violation of international law after that conflict has supposedly ended. What is NOT appalling to Condi is that prisoner witnesses have reported several instances of the Koran's desecration.