It is force, not opinion, that queens it over the world, but it is opinion that looses the force.
— Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) French mathematician, philosopher

Photo from New York Daily News
The vice president of the United States of America is hunting at a private club that flies the Confederate flag, the symbol of a society built on the backs of enslaved people, the descendants of whom the vice president is supposed to represent.
But hey, Cheney’s minions are saying it doesn’t […]

The Republican Party’s macho bluster and apparently endless appetite for war makes it seem counter-intuitive to think of them as cowards. And yet, seven years into the Bush regime, it is clear that the GOP has become dependent on fear to keep itself in power — and to support this addiction the party leadership has […]

Education is a weapon whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.
— Josef Stalin (1879-1953) ruler of the U.S.S.R.

Immoral Relativism: George Bush’s nomination of Michael Mukasey for U.S. attorney general — once thought to be smooth sailing — is experiencing a bit of turbulence. The problem is, Mukasey can’t bring himself to say whether or not waterboarding is torture:
“I don’t know what’s involved in the techniques. If waterboarding is torture, torture is not […]

Rightwing big thinker Charles Krauthammer trashes Reagan’s 11th Commandment, “Thou shalt not speak ill of other Republicans,” by picking at the weakness of the GOP’s ‘08 field — and then speaks ill of Reagan too, for good measure:
Major grumbling among conservatives about the Republican field. So many candidates, so many flaws. Rudy Giuliani, […]

In case you’re just tuning in to this story, last Tuesday, Oct. 23, as the wildfires raged in Southern California, FEMA held a news conference that was broadcast by the cable newsers. Within hours, however, it was revealed that the entire news conference was fake. That’s right — good ol’ gubmint propaganda:
The Bush administration was […]

Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is.
– Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, in April 1999, referring to the war in Kosovo

On Friday, while former Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld was visiting France, human rights groups based there and in the United States filed complaints against him, charging him with approving torture:
Rumsfeld is accused of authorizing torture at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
The French complaint accuses Mr. Rumsfeld of authorizing torture […]