Robert Scheer

Contributing Editor

Robert Scheer, a contributing editor to The Nation, is editor of Truthdig.com and author of The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America (Twelve) and Playing President (Akashic Books). He is author, with Christopher Scheer and Lakshmi Chaudhry, of The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq (Akashic Books and Seven Stories Press.) His weekly column, distributed by Creators Syndicate, appears in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Currently

  • McCain and W.

    October 8, 2008

    McCain's not a perfect replica, but Oliver Stone's Bush bio-pic reminds us they're two spoiled screw-ups who divided and conquered the country for their high-rolling pals.

  • Boston Tea Party, 2008

    October 1, 2008

    Fear-mongering pundits and pols question the patriotism of lawmakers and taxpayers who oppose the bailout. They've got it all wrong.

  • Financial Fascism

    September 24, 2008

    Henry Paulson isn't proposing the nationalization of private corporations--he wants a corporate takeover of government.

  • Obama: Find Your Inner Populist

    September 17, 2008

    To win this election and save the country, Obama must renounce the scoundrels from both parties who plunged us into economic crisis.

  • McCain and the Mortgage Meltdown

    September 10, 2008

    John McCain's fingerprints are all over our current financial crisis.

  • Alaska's Windfall Profits

    September 3, 2008

    Why is it a good thing for Alaskans to get a cut of exorbitant oil company profits, but not the rest of us, if we are all part of one nation?

  • The Cold War President

    August 27, 2008

    He lacks the chops to deal with our economic crisis, so McCain's best strategy is to run as the President who'll fight the next cold war. Scary thing: he might win.

  • McCain's Warped Worldview

    August 20, 2008

    His irrational mix of patriotic swagger and blindness to reality is proving disturbingly successful with millions of uninformed voters.

  • Georgia War: A Neocon Election Ploy?

    August 13, 2008

    Connecting the dots between Georgia's confrontation with Putin and the presidential ambitions of John McCain.

  • Anthrax Killer: The Enemy Was Us

    August 6, 2008

    Our default defense is to blame the deranged outsider, but in this case, one of our own was to blame.

  • A Bipartisan Lovefest With Bankers

    July 30, 2008

    This is a time to condemn the banking industry, not embrace it. So what do McCain and Obama think they're doing?

  • Obama on the Brink

    July 23, 2008

    Barack Obama is betraying his promise of change and is in danger of becoming just another political hack. Please prove me wrong.

  • Tough Love for Bankers

    July 16, 2008

    Our current financial disaster is the real legacy of the Reagan Revolution. So why don't we let the deregulated banking industry sink or swim?

  • Taiwan Declares Peace on China

    July 9, 2008

    You can't trust the Chinese. I don't care if you're talking about those communists on the mainland or the other guys on Taiwan; they just won't follow the wargames script that our weapons hawks had counted on.

  • Happy Oil Dependence Day

    July 2, 2008

    We're drowning in pretended patriotism used to cover the lies that got us into Iraq, the defense of torture and violation of our basic liberties.

  • Wasteful Weapons and the Pols Who Love Them

    June 25, 2008

    An Air Force contract to build an obsolete B-2 refueling tanker has suddenly become a campaign issue--and the Democrats are on the wrong side.

  • Likable Enough for VP

    June 18, 2008

    If Obama's looking for a right-of-center running-mate, Hillary's the best option out there.

  • Empire or Republic?

    June 12, 2008

    Imagine the benefits if we could make significant cutbacks in military spending.

  • Just Blame Bush

    June 11, 2008

    Sure, greedy consumers play their part. But George W. Bush is responsible for the five-fold increase in the price of oil.

  • Will the Real John McCain Please Stand Up?

    June 4, 2008

    He is the most confounding of candidates, whose inconsistencies speak more of crass opportunism than a real maverick's impulses.

  • Where Is the Outrage Over Torture?

    May 28, 2008

    The muted response to revelations of torture raises the question of whether Americans are truly savages or simply tone-deaf on matters of morality.

  • Praying for War at the Gas Pump

    May 21, 2008

    How have the Saudis thanked George W. Bush for protecting their sorry oil well of a country? Just check the price of gas.

  • The Tortured Law on Torture

    May 14, 2008

    Those confessions elicited from Gitmo detainees are proving legally worthless--and an enduring indictment of the moral bankruptcy of George W. Bush.

  • Battle of the Hawks

    May 7, 2008

    In the increasingly unlikely event of a McCain-Clinton election, people who care about peace have serious reason to worry.

  • No Country for Old Men

    April 30, 2008

    Age is a factor in this race and nowhere is it so important as in McCain's vice-presidential choice.

  • The Intemperate Candidate

    April 23, 2008

    Hillary Clinton's intemperate remarks about "obliterating" Iran cloud her primary win with questions about her judgment.

  • The Man Who Would Be Bush

    April 16, 2008

    As millions surrender homes and sacrifice our nation's political reputation to the caprices of Bush and Cheney, a majority of voters say they might vote for John McCain. What are they thinking?

  • Painful Performance

    April 9, 2008

    By urging lawmakers to stay the course in Iraq, General David Petraeus remained loyal to his President, but failed the American people.

  • An Unreported Scandal

    April 2, 2008

    The Bush Administration has presided over the highest run-up in military spending since World War II. As our economy collapses, why can't the media connect the dots?

  • War of The Word

    March 26, 2008

    Why the fuss over Obama's pastor when Bible-based damnations for bad behavior is made in both black and white churches?

  • The Idiot's Grin

    March 19, 2008

    Presiding over a disastrous war and an unconscionable taxpayer bailout of Wall Street, why is George W. Bush still smiling?

  • Spitzer's Shame is Wall Street's Gain

    March 12, 2008

    Why should we get all worked up over the revelation that the New York governor paid for sex?

  • Iraq's Iranian Lovefest

    March 5, 2008

    Ahmadinejad's triumphal visit to Baghdad highlights the abject failure of the Bush doctrine. But US media yawned.

  • McCain and the Media

    February 27, 2008

    It's absurd for the New York Times to cast him as a tool of corporate media, when he's been in the forefront of trying to rein it in.

  • Castro and the Colossus

    February 20, 2008

    He caused the Cuban people much suffering, but the giant to the north bears even greater responsibility for the island's plight.

  • Big Oil's Banner Year

    February 13, 2008

    They're reaping the profits, we're paying the price.

  • Bush's Budget Legacy

    February 6, 2008

    Curb your enthusiasm. No matter who wins, we can't reverse the damage of Bush's bloated military budget.

  • Obama, Clinton and the War

    January 30, 2008

    Ted Kennedy's endorsement of Barack Obama sheds some needed light on Hillary's hawkishness and the real differences between the candidates.

  • Playing Politics with Bankers

    January 23, 2008

    Now that Dennis Kucinich is out of the presidential debates, don't expect Clinton or Obama to hold unregulated bankers accountable for the global economic meltdown.

  • Those Ungrateful Saudis

    January 16, 2008

    After all he's done for them, why is it that Bush only gets a 12 percent favorability rating in Saudi Arabia?

  • Play the Class Card

    January 9, 2008

    Hillary Clinton may claim that her gender makes her the unmistakeable agent of change--but what's radical about voting for a corporate lawyer?

  • Charlie Wilson's War--and Ours

    January 2, 2008

    Unlike the plot of the latest Tom Hanks film, the blowback price of our incessant meddling could prove quite high. And even Hollywood can't put a pretty face on that one.

2007

  • Waterboarding Democracy

    December 12, 2007

    Why did four key members of Congress failed to inform the public and the 9/11 Commission about the use of torture on terror suspects?

  • Bush on Iran: Fool Me Twice

    December 5, 2007

    Despite new evidence on Iran's nuclear ambitions, President Bush is sticking to his story--an inflated threat assessment some leading Democrats have bought into.

  • A Good Week for the Saudis

    November 28, 2007

    Their boy Nawaz Sharif's back in Pakistan, oil prices are soaring and the Bushies continue to do their bidding.

  • Cheering for Ron Paul

    November 21, 2007

    It takes a libertarian Republican to shame Democrats into acknowledging the true cost of this war for ordinary Americans.

  • Bush Stands By His Dictator

    November 14, 2007

    Bush's coddling of Pervez Musharraf defies all reason--and bears some unsettling similarity to his own offenses and misteps as President.

  • Our Man in Pakistan

    November 7, 2007

    Gen. Pervez Musharraf turns out to be just another crummy dictator. But he's our dictator--using the $10 billion in US aid to jail judges and lawyers, and give shelter Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Thanks, George.

  • Cashing In on Terror

    October 31, 2007

    What a boondoggle 9/11 has been for the merchants of war.

  • America's Empty Pockets

    October 24, 2007

    The President is determined to bankrupt the nation, morally and financially. And who in Congress has the will to stop him?

  • Listen to the Troops

    October 17, 2007

    As Iraq veterans speak out against a war in shambles, leading Democrats are wavering about quickly removing our troops from this deepening quagmire.

  • The Martyrdom of Che Guevara

    October 10, 2007

    The CIA's role in his assassination managed to turn a failed--and flawed--guerrilla fighter into an enduring symbol of resistance to oppression.

  • The State Department's Hired Guns

    October 3, 2007

    Why did the State Department tolerate--and pay to conceal--the crimes of its Blackwater guards in Iraq?

  • Biden One-Ups Bush

    September 26, 2007

    Instead of spending even more money armoring soldiers' vehicles, he should work harder at trying to end the war.

  • The Mercenary Factor

    September 19, 2007

    Who elected Blackwater and other hired guns to rule the world? The banning of Blackwater in Iraq sheds more light on the checkbook imperialism fueling Bush's state of perpetual war.

  • A General Dissembles

    September 12, 2007

    Of course, Gen. David Petraeus sees tangible progress and predicts success in the Iraq war. What wonders couldn't generals achieve with more troops and more time?

  • Bush's Deceitful Smiles

    September 5, 2007

    A deceitful President, masking the chaos his $3 trillion war has unleashed with photo-ops from Iraq, now confronts cynical Democrats in Congress poised to write another check, willfully blind to the waste of US and Iraqi lives.

  • A Legacy of Torture

    August 29, 2007

    The dark legacy of Alberto Gonzales--torture and a tainted judiciary system--will live on long after he leaves government.

  • The Real Iraq Progress Report

    August 22, 2007

    The parade of political tourists to Iraq in recent weeks suggests that this murderous adventure will continue well into the next presidency.

  • Hillary Pushes the Button

    August 15, 2007

    What in the world was Clinton thinking when she attacked Obama for pledging not to use nuclear weapons in the hunt for Osama bin Laden?

  • The Terror America Wrought

    August 8, 2007

    Take a moment to remember the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, connecting the dots between that attack and US actions in Iraq sixty-two years later.

  • Keeping Enemies Close--and Saudis Closer

    August 2, 2007

    What are Bush's real motives for the $63 billion Mideast arms deal to Israel, Egypt and Saudi America?

  • A War Not Worth Fighting

    July 25, 2007

    Public sentiment is solidly against the war; when will the President and political leaders of both parties have the courage to end it?

  • King George W.: James Madison's Nightmare

    July 18, 2007

    This is the bellicose imperial presidency the authors of our Constitution warned us about.

  • Bush's Pakistan Paradox

    July 11, 2007

    He invaded Iraq, which had no connection to WMDs or terrorist threats against the US, while coddling the military junta in Pakistan, which was guilty on both counts. Go figure.

  • Independence Day for Libby

    July 4, 2007

    Liberated from having to serve time for his crime, he shares a perch with Bush and Cheney, somewhere high above the law.

  • Taxpayers Lose, Halliburton Gains

    June 27, 2007

    A new report on Halliburton's role in the failed reconconstruction of Iraq documents how profits of the merchants of death are rising.

  • Hamas Holds the High Cards

    June 20, 2007

    It's too late for the corrupt remnants of the PLO to make any credible claim of leadership, even if the US, Israel and EU throw aid dollars their way.

  • President Lieberman: A Cautionary Tale

    June 13, 2007

    What would have happened if, by some twist of fate, Sen. Joe Lieberman had ended up in the White House instead of George W. Bush?

  • Iraq: The New Korea

    June 6, 2007

    Bush's proposal to model America's presence in Iraq is as outlandish as it is alarming.

  • Welcome, Baby Cheney

    May 30, 2007

    Now that Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter has presented him with a grandson, maybe it's time for Grandpa to join PFLAG.

  • Gonzales: The Dutiful Toady

    May 23, 2007

    As Congressional testimony reveals Alberto Gonzales's loathsome behavior as Attorney General, remember he was carrying out the wishes of George W. Bush.

  • Iran Nukes Call Bush's Bluff

    May 16, 2007

    Tehran's religious fanatics move closer to wreaking nuclear havoc, and what can Bush do about it? Nothing.

  • The Scum Also Rises

    May 9, 2007

    How else to explain why arrogant incompetents like Paul Wolfowitz rose to power in the Bush Administration?

  • Tenet's Treachery

    May 2, 2007

    Bush's chief spook knew the Administration's treachery on Iraq from the start. But he never revealed it to Congress or the public.

  • Bush Blames the Troops

    April 25, 2007

    Bush is hiding behind the fiction that officers in the field are calling the shots.

  • Heck of a Job, Wolfie

    April 18, 2007

    Wolfowitz is in trouble. The World Bank leader got his girlfriend a pay raise, lied about it and alienated his staff. But don't worry--Bush still thinks he's doing a bang-up job.

  • Iraqis Finally Unite--Against the U.S.

    April 11, 2007

    According to Lieberman, the sight of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis chanting anti-American slogans at a protest in Najaf is proof that the surge is working.

  • Leave Your Morals at the Border

    April 4, 2007

    A Supreme Court ruling turns a blind eye to torture and human rights violations, as long as they're done offshore.

  • Pentagon Cowers Behind Tillman's Heroism

    March 28, 2007

    Outraged by a Pentagon report on the cover-up of Pat Tillman's friendly fire death, Tillman's parents finger Rumsfeld as the real culprit.

  • Saddam's Last Laugh

    March 21, 2007

    A majority of Iraqis now say it's OK to attack American troops. Thanks, George.

  • Cheney, Cornered

    March 14, 2007

    As dangerous as any cornered animal, Dick Cheney now stands revealed as a man of deep corruption.

  • Edwards Gets a Boost

    March 7, 2007

    Thank you, Ann Coulter, for reviving the principled but media-neglected presidential candidacy of John Edwards.

  • North Korea: Back to the Future

    February 28, 2007

    Now that North Korea has joined the nuclear club, Bush is finally willing to negotiate. Can he try that with Iran?

  • Hillary the Hawk

    February 21, 2007

    Let's face it. Hillary Clinton is not a peace candidate.

  • Levin's Pursuit of Douglas Feith

    February 14, 2007

    Sen. Carl Levin is determined to get to the bottom of how Douglas Feith's false intelligence helped lead the US to a disastrous and illegal war.

  • The Bacon in Bush's Budget

    February 7, 2007

    Bush's military budget has less to do with running the country than with rewarding his pals and paying off his political debts.

  • Not All Lies Are Created Equal

    January 31, 2007

    Looking for reasons to impeach the President? Listen to the testimony in Scooter Libby's perjury trial.

  • The Verdict's In on Bush

    January 20, 2007

    No State of the Union message can erase the world's dismal verdict on Bush and the Iraq War.

  • Chuck Hagel Gets It

    January 17, 2007

    Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel is more forthright about what's wrong in Iraq than any Democratic candidate so far.

  • Bush's Theater of the Absurd

    January 9, 2007

    Bush is the insolent star of an absurd spectacle, seeking to escalate a failed war that Congress and the people oppose.

  • An Act of Barbarism

    January 3, 2007

    Someone has to say it: The hanging of Saddam Hussein was an act of barbarism that mocks all of Bush's posturing on Iraq.

2006

  • Addicted to War

    December 20, 2006

    Obsessed GOP hawks--and some Democrats--want to end the Iraq war by escalating it, and Bush proposes expanding the military: America is hooked on the habit of military might.

  • The Rumsfeld Legacy

    December 13, 2006

    Donald Rumsfeld pops over to Iraq to tell his final lies.

  • Jose Padilla's Ordeal

    December 6, 2006

    The systematic abuse of an American citizen charged with vague crimes related to terror has destroyed his sanity and made us into what we despise.

  • The Boomerang War

    November 29, 2006

    Bush launched the Iraq disaster, and it keeps coming back and hitting us in the head. And now he is counting on Iran to help bail us out.

  • Bush's Vietnam Analogy

    November 22, 2006

    President Bush has said many dumb things in defense of his Iraq policy. Citing the Vietnam War as a model is his most ludicrous.

  • Murtha's No Leftie: He's Right

    November 15, 2006

    As Democrats choose between a stalwart critic of the Iraq War and a proponent of Bush policies for Majority Leader, Fox News gets in the act, casting centrist Pennnsylvania Rep. John Murtha as a partisan extremist. Huh?

  • Bush's Rough Justice

    November 8, 2006

    Bush insisted that Saddam Hussein's trial be held in Iraq so that an international tribunal would never expose America's history of support for the tyrant.

  • What Bush Has Wrought

    November 1, 2006

    We are now led by a false warrior who acts the simpleton, while playing to his version of what Middle America wants. To stop the madness, on November 7 voters must soundly repudiate what Bush has wrought.

  • Enron's Enablers

    October 25, 2006

    Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling would have remained small time crooks were it not for the energy industry deregulation measures they effectively purchased from Bush I and II.

  • The Killing Fields of Iraq

    October 18, 2006

    The carnage the US has visited upon Iraq in the name of fighting terror has taken more than 600,000 lives. We are not building democracy, we are creating mayhem.

  • Just Blame Bill

    October 11, 2006

    Instead of pursuing real diplomacy with North Korea, the Bush Administration chose a my-way-or-the-highway approach. Rather than face up to the mess they made, it's easier to blame Bill Clinton.

  • The Real Cover-Up

    October 4, 2006

    Far more important than the Foley affair is the Bush Administration and the GOP have molested Lady Liberty while pretending to guard our national security.

  • A Distinct Lack of Intelligence

    September 26, 2006

    If George W. Bush took the latest National Intelligence Estimate seriously, he would end the ineffectual "war on terror" model and treat terrorism as a pathology to be clinically and relentlessly excised.

  • Render Unto Syria

    September 20, 2006

    Will anyone in the somnambulant White House press corps dare ask the President why he would "render" a Canadian to Syria to be tortured and imprisoned without charges?

  • Failing the Test

    September 13, 2006

    President Bush was correct when he said that not since the cold war has the nation been so tested. But the test lies not in the terror threat but in his Administration's incompetence.

  • Gaping Holes Remain in the 9/11 Story

    September 11, 2006

    It's no wonder so many Americans are examining alternative explanations that range from the plausible to the absurd.

  • High on Opium, Not Democracy

    September 6, 2006

    In Bush-liberated Afghanistan, billions in drug profits are financing the Taliban, proving the President is better at starting wars than winning them.

  • Clinton's Blindness on Welfare Reform

    August 30, 2006

    You'd think Bill Clinton doesn't know the difference between getting mothers and their children off the welfare rolls and getting them out of poverty.

  • Truth Time for Democrats

    August 23, 2006

    Democrats must transcend all their intraparty squabbles over the war in Iraq and focus on the obligation of politicians to be honest with the public.

  • Old Threats, New Fears

    August 16, 2006

    Investigators have known for a decade about terrorist plots to bring down passenger jets with liquid explosives. So why, all of a sudden, did Bush ban most liquids on flights?

  • Why We Don't Know Our Enemy

    August 9, 2006

    Hysteria over the barbarians at the gate has destroyed republics from Rome to Germany. A new book explains why Bush's post-September 11 America may meet a similar fate.

  • Israel's Dependency on the Drug of Militarism

    August 2, 2006

    The Jewish state's diehard supporters in the White House, Congress and the media seem unable to understand Israel can't bomb its way to security.

  • Labor Pains of a Stillborn Foreign Policy

    July 26, 2006

    By saying that the Israel-Lebanon crisis simply represents the "birth pangs of a new Middle East," Condoleezza Rice underscored the Bush Administration's blindness to the disastrous effects its foreign policy has wrought.

  • Open Mike, Closed Mind

    July 19, 2006

    Bush's boorish comments at the G-8 summit revealed more than his ignorance of the Mideast: His policies have made the US a helpless bystander as the entire region burns.

  • Channeling Nixon

    July 12, 2006

    If Tricky Dick could tame the grizzled Mao, then certainly Bush could butter up Kim Jong Il with some of that frat boy charm. Who knows, Dearest Leader might even join Bush's shaky "coalition of the willing."

  • Stop the Waffling

    July 5, 2006

    Democrats should take a page from the GOP playbook and back candidates willing to stand up for their values, rather than wasting their money, time and votes on those who won't.

  • The President's Jihad

    June 28, 2006

    The Bush Administration's jihad against newspapers that reported on a secret program to monitor the personal-banking records of unsuspecting citizens is more important than the original story.

  • Hillary's Hypocrisy

    June 21, 2006

    Hillary Clinton's dissembling on Iraq has become a fatal embarassment for her presidential ambitions and for anyone who looks to her for leadership.

  • DeLay's Mission Continues

    June 14, 2006

    What is the born-again East Texas word for chutzpah? Whatever it is, Tom DeLay displays enormous amounts, as he exits Congress and faces corruption charges.

  • Stooges for the Establishment

    June 7, 2006

    Five unrepentant media giants, complicit in the hidden agendas of government leakers, now pay the price for their unethical reporting on Wen Ho Lee.

  • Kenny Boy's Connections

    May 31, 2006

    Despite the President's denials, connections between Enron's corporate criminals and the Bush family inner circle are are deeply embedded in the policies of two Administrations.

  • Heckuva Job

    May 24, 2006

    Desperate to report progress in Iraq Bush boasts that the newest Iraqi leader has taken his phone call twice. Wow. And it only cost $200 billion and thousands of dead and maimed Americans.

  • What Bush Got Right

    May 17, 2006

    Bush has taken a sensible stance on immigration, but his plummeting credibility will prevent people from embracing his proposals.

  • The Spook in Your Phone

    May 10, 2006

    Gen. Michael Hayden, nominated by President Bush to head the CIA, is the man responsible for the most extensive attack ever on the privacy of US citizens.

  • My Mother, the Illegal Alien

    May 3, 2006

    As the May Day protests, they evoked memories of an earlier generation of immigrants who lived with the fear of deportation.

  • One More Insider Denounces Bush

    April 26, 2006

    Former CIA official Tyler Drumheller joins the parade of insiders denouncing how the Iraq war has been sold and fought.

  • Bush Blunders Go Nuclear

    April 19, 2006

    Bush's nutty nuclear braggadocio on Iran is a sign of weakness, not strength, proof that his five-year Administration is an abysmal failure.

  • Now Powell Tells Us

    April 11, 2006

    The former Secretary of State says he and his department's top experts never believed that Iraq posed an imminent nuclear threat, but this made little difference to President Bush.

  • Robert Scheer: 'Anti-Christian Conspirators' Slay DeLay

    April 5, 2006

    Tom DeLay claims to see a vast anti-Christian conspiracy in the legal troubles that forced him out of the House--though his own sins would seem to be sufficient explanation.

  • Moment of Truth

    March 29, 2006

    There is no immigration crisis in the US. But it is time America acknowledged that we need the immigrant workers as much as they need us--and treat them accordingly.

  • Comeuppance in Cleveland

    March 22, 2006

    One tough question from an elderly gentleman in Cleveland punctured the President's pretensions about the reasons for launching the disastrous Iraq war.

  • Improvised Explosive Delusions

    March 15, 2006

    As Bush continues to insist the US is bringing peace and freedom to Iraq, his latest plan to quell the insurgency spends billions more to stem the use of improvised explosive devices.

  • Mary Tillman: 'The Administration Used Pat'

    March 8, 2006

    With the Pentagon's inspector general suggesting criminal negligence in the killing of former NFL star and Army Ranger Pat Tillman, it is time to demand Congressional hearings into the way the Bush Administration cynically spun the story to serve its political purposes at the expense of the truth.

  • The Dubai Farce

    March 1, 2006

    What a farce: The Dubai Ports deal shows Bush is willing to trust the Arab-owned Dubai Ports to manage our harbors, even as he scapegoats them as culprits in his war on terror.

  • In Defense of Free Thought

    February 22, 2006

    An Austrian court sends a crackpot historian to prison for denying the Holocaust; why shouldn't Muslims protesting the Muhammad cartoons question a double standard?

  • In Your Dreams, Condi

    February 15, 2006

    Condoleezza Rice's myopic optimism mirrors that of the delusional Dick Cheney: Witness her refusal to be alarmed by rise of Moqtada al Sadr.

  • Bush's War on the Poor

    February 8, 2006

    George W. Bush's irrational governance has wrought yet another outrage: The Administration's $2.77-trillion budget request.

  • Enron's Enablers

    February 1, 2006

    As the Enron trial unfolds, it's depressing that Phil and Wendy Gramm, the company's political enablers, are going unpunished and uncriticized.

  • You've Got Jail

    January 25, 2006

    Obsessed voyeurs in the Bush Administration are poking their noses into everyone's business, with the help of Internet giants like Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo.

  • Meanwhile, Back in Afghanistan

    January 18, 2006

    It's appalingly clear Team Bush is unwilling to do the hard work it takes to make Afghanistan the functioning nation it was before cold war games tore it apart.

  • Shame of the Once-Young Republicans

    January 11, 2006

    What irony that Jack Abramoff and other once-young Republicans, who hectored their elders about defending the nation's taxpayers and security forces, should now be accused of deeply betraying both.

  • Abramoff's Sordid World

    January 4, 2006

    The unfolding Jack Abramoff corruption scandal exposes the hypocrisy of the GOP "revolution," which promised to restore morality to Washington but instead sank deepinto a cesspool of corruption.

2005

  • Dr. Germ and Mrs. Anthrax Set Free

    December 28, 2005

    Why is it not bigger news that these infamous Iraqi scientists have been quietly released from imprisonment without any charges being brought by their US captors?

  • Pyrrhic Victory

    December 21, 2005

    The best outcome for US policy is the hope that Shiite and Sunni fanatics can check each other long enough for the United States to beat a credible retreat and call it a victory, albeit a pyrrhic one.

  • Human Rights, Rendered Meaningless

    December 14, 2005

    The outsourcing of torture to other countries is a devilishly clever legalistic fiction that allows the Bush Administration to systematically violate basic human rights of terror suspects while claiming it does not condone or practice torture.

  • Democracy for Sale

    December 7, 2005

    A trove of new documents detailing the corruption and influence-peddling by Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed and Tom DeLay is sweeping the high-minded prophets of the Republican revolution off their pedestals.

  • Bush's Iraq Outdoes Saddam

    November 30, 2005

    Ethnic cleansing, chemical weapons, self-appointed executioners: Sound familiar? The US occupation in Iraq has created conditions just as bad--if not worse--than Saddam Hussein's ruthless regime. And the increasingly isolated George W. Bush insists on staying the course.

  • Cheney's Trouble with the Truth

    November 23, 2005

    No other modern politician has come so close as Dick Cheney has to perfecting the theater of the absurd. Even as he protests his innocence of lying about matters of state, he lies about matters of state.

  • The Big Lie Technique

    November 16, 2005

    As President Bush denounces his critics and proclaims war without end in Iraq the central front in a new cold war, he fails to acknowledge that he is responsible for handing Al Qaeda a new home base.

  • Bringing Down the Bully

    November 9, 2005

    The lesson of the defeat in California of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's referendum revolution is this: The American people will not forever be fooled. The negative message of the Republican right has lost its power to terrorize voters.

  • Lying with Intelligence

    November 8, 2005

    A newly declassified Defense Intelligence Agency document discrediting reports of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq disproves the Bush Administration's claim that they went to war using the best available intelligence.

  • How Reporters Helped Lead Us to War

    November 1, 2005

    Reporters like Judith Miller who fought to avoid testifying in the CIA leak case were knowing accomplices in the White House's attempt to punish a whistle-blower. By failing to report the truth, they bear responsibility for leading us into an illegal war.

  • Gun Industry Buys Bulletproof Political Protection

    October 25, 2005

    Congress has decided to grant the gun lobby its most fervent and irresponsible wish: blanket immunity from civil lawsuits.

  • A Misguided Crusade

    October 19, 2005

    The New York Times exposes its own misguided and unethical campaign to make a terrible reporter a First Amendment saint.

  • With Friends Like This...

    October 11, 2005

    An endorsement from James Dobson is scary enough, but the vituperative attack on Harriet Miers by the right raises other questions about why some conservatives are agitated about her nomination.

  • The Action-Figure Governator

    October 4, 2005

    Faced with an historic opportunity to give gay couples equal protection under the law, Arnold Schwarzenegger proved he was made of bendable plastic.

  • When 'Connected' means 'Corrupted'

    September 27, 2005

    The hurricane-driven windfalls for GOP-connected businesses continues, and so do the scandals of widespread corruption among George Bush's cronies. And the rest of us are played for suckers.

  • Bush Finally Sees Poor People

    September 20, 2005

    It takes a hurricane to raise awareness that the numbers of poor people are growing on George Bush's watch. Will that be enough for the President to begin to level the playing field?

  • Bush Is Fooling Nobody Now

    September 13, 2005

    Long fooled by the Bush image machine, Americans now understand that this Administration can only deliver spin, not substance; photo ops, not action.

  • The Real Costs of a Culture of Greed

    September 6, 2005

    The affluent mask of the United States has been torn away by the storm, exposing a nation that has become progressively poorer under the leadership of the party of Big Business.

  • Iraq's Fig-Leaf Constitution

    August 30, 2005

    Bush may crow about a new constitution, but he can't deny that autocrats, theocrats and terrorists are clearly in control.

  • Judith Miller: Embedded Over Her Head

    August 24, 2005

    The jailed reporter doesn't understand that a free press depends on the ability of reporters to protect honest witnesses--not to coddle government officials.

  • Bush's Blind Spot on Iran

    August 17, 2005

    Threatening Iran only strengthens the hand of hard-line nationalists and religious fundamentalists in Tehran.

  • Mortgaged to the House of Saud

    August 10, 2005

    More evidence that President Bush is losing the "war on terror."

  • A Welcome Return to Enforcing Labor Laws

    August 2, 2005

    The abysmal cases of slave labor in the US are both shocking and terribly mundane.

  • On China at Least, Nixon Was Right

    July 26, 2005

    Nixon had it right: A prosperous China is good for us all.

  • Iraq's Dangerous New Friend

    July 19, 2005

    Is it surprising to find the Iraqi government looking for help from powerful Iran?

  • The Real Rove Scandal

    July 12, 2005

    Truth and competence are virtues easily shed by the Bush Administration.

  • Bush Is Serving Up the Cold War Warmed Over

    July 8, 2005

    The "war on terror" is turning out to be nothing more than a recycled formulation of the dangerously dumb "domino theory."

  • Iranian Revolution Is Thriving in Iraq

    June 28, 2005

    Did those wily ayatollahs give us the purple finger again?

  • Even Bush's GOP Allies Are Breaking Ranks

    June 22, 2005

    Several Republicans in Congress now recognize that Bush's war in Iraq is only getting worse.

  • Pattern of Deception Persists in Tillman's Death

    June 14, 2005

    The White House knew more than it let on as it played the Pat Tillman story for political benefit.

  • Blaming the Messenger Fools No One

    June 7, 2005

    The Bush Administration respects Amnesty International only when doing so suits its political agenda.

  • A Cover-Up as Shameful as Tillman's Death

    May 31, 2005

    Once again, grieving relatives point out that the Bush Administration will exploit anything for political purposes.

  • A Hypocritical Church's Sex Lessons

    May 24, 2005

    The pope has minimized priests' crimes while wagging a finger at gays.

  • The US Is Its Own Worst Enemy in Iraq

    May 17, 2005

    The United States should leave the Iraqis alone and allow them to control their own affairs.

  • Nationalism's Psychotic Side

    May 10, 2005

    Even decent people can be swept along by barbarism when a nation gets sick.

  • Our Loss Was Our Gain in Vietnam

    May 6, 2005

    Thirty years after the US retreat, Vietnam is a peaceful trading partner.

  • Fiddling While Crucial Programs Starve

    April 26, 2005

    Has the United States become like ancient Rome, in love with costly conquest?

  • GOP Gays and the 'Finkelstein Phenomenon'

    April 20, 2005

    Same-sex marriage is a civil rights issue.

  • Bush Threw Us a 'Curveball'

    April 5, 2005

    A presidential commission's report shines a light on a "crazy" Iraqi informant.

  • A Con Job by Pakistan's Pal, George Bush

    March 29, 2005

    Trying to follow the US policy on the proliferation of nuclear weapons is like watching a three-card monte game.

  • Life, Death and Cynical Grandstanding

    March 23, 2005

    Thankfully, Americans see right through the exploitation of Terri Schiavo.

  • The Bankruptcy Bill: A Tutorial in Greed

    March 15, 2005

    Lesson No. 1: Campaign cash is worth more than family values.

  • Of, by and for Big Business

    March 9, 2005

  • Because It Works

    March 8, 2005

    Bush wants to break Social Security.

  • The Force Bush Won't Use on Iran

    March 1, 2005

    Bush's policies have left the leaders of Iran defending a more logical position than that of our own government.

  • What We Don't Know About 9/11 Hurts Us

    February 16, 2005

    An Administration that resisted spending the tens of millions required to fortify airline security before 9/11 is nearing the $300 billion mark on Afghanistan and Iraq.

  • Law of Unintended Consequences

    February 8, 2005

    Careful what you wish for in Iraq.

  • Now, the US Must Get Out of Iraq's Way

    February 1, 2005

    After the excellent election news, it's time for Bush to plan a pullout.

  • 1600 Pennsylvania Meets Madison Ave.

    January 25, 2005

    As a political marketing device, Bush's address was brilliant.

  • Pomp and Improper Circumstance

    January 18, 2005

    Bush will never be absolved of his immoral war.

  • Is Al Qaeda Just a Bush Boogeyman?

    January 11, 2005

    Is it possible that a vast and well-organized terrorist conspiracy does not exist?

  • Backing Gonzales Is Backing Torture

    January 4, 2005

    Is there bipartisan Congressional support for torture?

2004

2003

2002

2001

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