while shiites and sunni representatives working on iraq's draft constitution may be able to agree on much, it appears both groups are on the same page on at least one issue. they both wanna dump the requirement by which women are guaranteed 25% of the seats in iraq's national assembly. they've obviously learned more than we might have realized from american politics cuz these guys got the whole majority vs minority anti-quota schtick down pat. check this out: "Since men and women are...

it's not often i'm able to applaud the words and/or actions of republican party officials (sad, cuz i can remember a time when it happened much more frequently).   as of thursday, i found myself doin it for the second time in two days on 7/14/2005 (thursday  in other words), in a speech delivered to this year's annual naacp convention in milwaukee, republican national committee chief ken mehlman came clean bout one of the party's dirty lil not-so-secrets.    ...

consider this part 3 of an ongoing lewis carroll-inspired peek at events and policies through the looking glass (parts 1  Link   and 2 Link .) if karl rove did nothing illegal or innapropriate as regards novak's announcement that valerie plame worked for the cia and was married to ambassador joe wilson, wouldn't it have been easier on everyone if he'd stepped up to a microphone 2 years ago and let us know that was the case?  as one of gwbush's closest associates (if no...

this is the second of what may easily become a series of observations predicated on the possibility the 'real life' we're living is actually the product of lewis carroll's imagination as he pens a new work entitled 'washington through the looking glass'.    new york times reporter, judy miller, is spending her first night as an involuntary guest of the federal detention center in alexandria, va., after being held in contempt of court by us federal district justice thomas hogan ...

although that headline might seem to be a clash between plural and singular, the subject of that title isn't plural (like more than one liberal) but the singular word 'liberals'.     how does it disengage brains?   i dunno.  it has something to do with its use as the subject of a simple sentence.  as in 'liberals _________________________  a normal brain will then make the effort to fill in the blank with a predicate and pos...

this is over a week old but it blew me away--especially after seeing gwb last night explaining how iraq (which the cia reportedly has now designated as the main global location for training and motivating islamic terrorists) is so crucial to the war on terror. apparently the opinions of the rest of the world (or parts of it anyway) and international law really do matter--much more that previously acknowledged--to  this administration and its new cia director.   time ...

a suggestion which occured to me while perusing current article titles.

i'm guessing most of yall have read 'alice in wonderland' or seen the disney translation and will remember the croquet game in which the rules were constantly being redefined according to royal whim? the progression that led to our current quandry in guantanamo proves that life imitates art. first of all, let's consider how it is we have a base in guantanamo...and how it became a prison.  after 'liberating' cuba from its spanish colonial masters, the us forced (as in there ...

the argument that we invaded iraq in order to take advantage of its oil resource cannot meet the results test.  nobody is benefitting much from iraqi oil because it iraq is only producing slightly more than half the oil it did prior to the invasion.  even if seen as a consequence of (or even more evidence for) an abysmal lack of planning by the administration, the fact is we're being hurt rather than helped. we?  well not all of us. to keep us from goin...

the united states senate showed its true pitiful self yesterday when it permitted a democratic minority to prevail in a symbolic gesture and pass a resolution that effectively ended senate tolerance of a tradition dating back to precolonial times.  in so doing, they slammed the door shut,  effectively denying  millions of deserving ameicans any chance of achieving parity with a grossly over-represented--and dismaying ungrateful--ethnic minority group. 42 of the 44 democrats in the senate (in ...

  about damn time too! scroll down       no the original image is notta pic of the aftermath of an attack.  according to the source: The example picture above shows a throng of Iraqi Shiite Muslims who cut their heads with swords in a ritual of shared suffering with Imam Hussein in Karbala, Iraq. Source: A. B. Woodall, Washinton Post, April 23, 2003.

as fiercely as it disputes the left being the political faction which represents all mankind, in the depths of its frozen solid stone heart, the right knows this to be the truth. the evidence is overwhelming and undeniable. as those on the right stagger from one episode of debilitating overwhelming outrage to the next--an infliction that seems to strike on average seven times in any 24 hour period--a little-undestood autonomic self-pr...

gulag. amazing that one small word can be so powerful or evoke such a horrific response.  i first became familiar with the concept while reading 'one day in the life of ivan denisovich' by alexander solzhenitsyn when i was still in grade school (clearly my recreational reading tastes were a bit precocious as well as extreme).  for a week during the summer between 7th and 8th grade, i shivered in the heat and humidity of late july in da motah city as ivan and i--convict slave la...

according to the daily telegraph, a 23-year old woman, whose name was regrettably not disclosed, received 9 months in the slam for raping a man in bergen, norway.  she was also ordered to pay him 40,000 kroner ($6,380 dollars) in damages. the victim claimed he'd been drinking with the woman's boyfriend, passed out and awoke to find her going down on him while her boyfriend took pictures. falling back on one classic rapist defense, the perp claimed the guy was awake and&nb...

By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled; Here once the embattled farmers stood; And fired the shot heard round the world. The foe long since in silence slept; Alike the conqueror silent sleeps, And Time the ruined bridge has swept Down the dark stream that seaward creeps. On this green bank, by this soft stream, We place with joy a votive stone, That memory may their deeds redeem, When, like our sires, our sons are gone. O Thou who...