Why are we* still observing 9-11?

By "we" I mean our government and related agencies. Even my town has some commemoration of the event. Why is that? It was 6 years ago. If memory serves, we had only one commemoration of the OKC bombing. Why was there nothing on April 19th this year? Was it the number killed? The spectacular nature of the deaths?

Don' ( Read more... )

Who shall watch the watchers?

That's the question even more so now that Congress has capitulated yet again to Bush's fear-mongering over surveillance of communications between American citizens and foreign entities. Here are the highlights:

...the law's wording -- underscored by conversations with administration officials -- shows the rules governing ( Read more... )

From his speech in Charleston, SC, yesterday:

Some note that al Qaida in Iraq did not exist until the U.S. invasion -- and argue that it is a problem of our own making. The argument follows the flawed logic that terrorism is caused by American actions. Iraq is not the reason that the terrorists are at war with us. We were not in Iraq when the ( Read more... )

so we won't have to fight them over here. Oh wait...

WASHINGTON - Al-Qaida is stepping up its efforts to sneak terror operatives into the United States and has acquired most of the capabilities it needs to strike here, according to a new U.S. intelligence assessment, The Associated Press has learned.
The draft National Intelligence Estimate is ( Read more... )

I hate the idea of a war against a tactic, but you get the idea... 

• Put our nation's full resources (ie. similar to Kennedy's call for a man on the moon) to achieving oil/energy independence. If we don't need oil, our foreign policy gets a LOT easier.
• Yank our bases out of Mecca and Medina. At the same time, once the above is close to being achieved ( Read more... )

Its been awhile, but Richard Clarke has managed in a nutshell to point out what has been my greatest complaint about how this administration has conducted its foreign policy: the opportunity cost of Iraq ( Read more... )