War: It’s About Who’s Left, Not Right
Posted on April 15, 2012 in Political Cartoons
Truer words have never been spoken.
Was Bush Right?
Posted on April 15, 2012 in Articles
The Article: Bush Was Right by Gary Gambill in Foreign Policy Magazine.
The Text: When mass demonstrations began spreading across the Arab world early last year, conservative commentators lost no time in singing the praises of George W. Bush, the first U.S. president to aggressively push for democratization in the region.
Today, with Islamists dominating politics wherever tyrants have stumbled or fallen, many of those who waxed eloquent about Bush’s Freedom Agenda have either fallen silent or taken to arguing that Islamist ascendancy will prove to be a temporary setback on the road to liberal democracy. Those who were critical of it all along are having a field day.
In fact, even if the Arab Spring constitutes “an unshackling of Islam, not an outbreak of fervor for freedom in the Western sense,” it is proof positive that the Bush administration correctly diagnosed the causes of Arab political dysfunction and made extraordinarily sound — if short-lived — policy changes to combat it.
How Was I Supposed To Know You Were My Heartbreaker?
Posted on April 14, 2012 in Videos
Alabama Shakes’ bluesy beaut “Heartbreaker” off their new album Boys and Girls.
Bill Gates On Gender Equality
Posted on April 14, 2012 in Political Cartoons
He knows a thing or two about making it to the top; Saudi Arabians should listen to him.
The Liberal Betrayal Of Bradley Manning
Posted on April 14, 2012 in Articles
The Article: The Liberal Betrayal Of Bradley Manning by Glenn Greenwald in Salon.
The Text: More than three years into the presidency of Barack Obama, it’s almost a cliché now to ask: What if George W. Bush did it? From dramatically escalating the war in Afghanistan to institutionalizing the practice of indefinite imprisonment, Obama has dashed hopes he would offer a change from the Bush’s national security policies – but he hasn’t faced a whole lot of resistance from liberals who once decried those policies as an affront to American values.
Like those on the right who now crow about fascism but spent the Bush years gleefully declaring left-wing celebrities “enemies of the state,” many of those on the liberal-left treat issues of war and civil liberties as useful merely for partisan purposes. When a Democrat’s in power those issues become inconvenient. And usually ignored.
Former dean of the Yale Law School Harold Koh, for instance, used to rail against the imperial presidency, speaking of the horror of torture and “indefinite detention without trial.” Now a legal adviser for the Obama State Department, he recently declared that “justice” can be delivered with or with out a trial. Indeed, “Drones also deliver.” Don’t expect much more than a yawn from Democratic pundits, though, much less any calls for impeachment. It’s an election year, after all. And what, would you rather Mitt Romney be the guy drone-striking Pakistani tribesmen?
