In yet another example of the Government Accountability Office (or GAO) being one of the best and most vicious agencies in the American government, a report about exactly how much money the Pentagon is wasting on countless programs and just how bad those programs are for the US military. One of the programs was the replacement for Marine One, the ( Read more... )

Sorry for lack of rants, managed to pull a couple of muscles ranting. I'm just that good. But, tonight, we marked the sad anniversary and grim milestones that 5 years of American war in Iraq and 4000 American soldiers killed in Iraq. That doesn't count other coalition deaths, Iraqi civilian deaths, nor does it include exactly how many terrorists we ( Read more... )

A word of warning, this post is a little lachrymose and a very verbose, and full of big words. Today, William F. Buckley, Jr. died, very fittingly, in his study writing. He was 82 years old and was diagnosed with emphysema. He is best known for the past five decades for his very conservative opinions and founding of the conservative bible National ( Read more... )

No link since it's gonna be obvious this is written hours before the Super Tuesday primaries take place. In 24 hours, we will all know who will have won the majority of the states at stake. A month ago, a smart person could have predicted Clinton and Huckabee taking first in these states, possibly with Giuliani and Edwards nipping at heels. Now, ( Read more... )

Yes, another state of the union, and there was nothing great that happened and nothing great he put forward. He had no real bold visions for the future, but seemed to be visions of the past. Granted, they were visions of HIS version of the past, including his bringing up discredited "terrorist plots". He did mention all the key events of the past ( Read more... )

Here we are on the day before Bush's final State of the Union address (yes, tomorrow will be the great big recap of it all here on MidnightRanter). It is always interesting to see powerful people at the end of their time. Queen Elizabeth in her final days did her damndest to not appoint a successor while all those around her kept trying to ( Read more... )

President Bush is finishing up a six day tour of the middle East. He visited Saudi Arabia for the first time in his presidency, as well as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Egypt, Israel and Palestine. He brought his usual banter of being aware of Iran being Iran (which, these countries already knew that, but he had to say it but it also ( Read more... )

Holy crap, it's a special bonus edition of MidnightRanter! Except at noon! I'm not changing my name to MiddayRanter, but there needed to be some kind of comment about the other political news of last night, that is the Nevada Democratic Debate. Even before the debate began in earnest, it was the subject of much controversy because MSNBC barred ( Read more... )

In the reporting of so many wars, we lose track, real track, of the human cost, and benefits, of war. To that end, I offer this sad lament.

I have no other words. He was a better man than I could dream to be.

Edit: the link has been fixed to the proper article. Further explanations tonight.

Well, here are on New Hampshire eve, and as this is dated, the nation's first primaries will betaking place at the stroke of midnight. Given these towns have a combined population of about 100, counting the votes won't take long. And like fleas on a dog, all the political junkies (myself included) will be waiting to feed off the results to see what ( Read more... )