McCain-Palin Put 'Country Last'

By Robert Parry
October 9, 2008

Once Barack Obama emerged as a viable candidate for President – given the nation's grim history of violence toward African-American political figures – the worries began about Obama’s safety, and they have not gone away.

Read on.

GOP Judges Aid White House Cover-up

By Jason Leopold
October 7, 2008

A Republican-dominated federal Appeals Court panel has blocked the enforcement of a congressional subpoena, effectively guaranteeing that George W. Bush will leave the White House without his senior aides having to explain the firings of nine prosecutors.

Read on.

Election '08: Here Comes the Sludge

By Robert Parry
October 6, 2008

Sarah Palin’s charge that Barack Obama is “palling around with terrorists” may mark the descent of Campaign 2008 into the sewer that has marked so many other recent U.S. elections. But her comments operate on another level, too, continuing to brand anyone who criticizes George W. Bush’s neoconservative foreign policy as un-American.

Read on.

Alaska GOP's Last-Ditch Palin Defense

By Jason Leopold
October 5, 2008

Only days before the scheduled release of an investigative report on whether Sarah Palin abused her power as Alaska’s governor in the “Troopergate” case, six pro-Palin lawmakers have lodged an emergency appeal asking the state Supreme Court to shut down the inquiry.

Read on.

Neocon Desperation Is Showing

By Robert Parry
October 3, 2008

The neoconservatives and their Republican allies did all they could after Thursday’s vice presidential debate to turn Sarah Palin’s peppy, personable but ultimately goofy performance into a turning point for another four-year lease on the White House.

Read on.

Wall St. Bailout: 'Plan B' for Buffett

By Brent Budowsky
October 3, 2008

Plan A is Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s plan to spend about $50 billion a month buying distressed assets for resale later. With current law – and with the Paulson bill as written – the government can increase the odds of success by simultaneously executing a Plan B that tracks the recent moves of America’s most respected investor, Warren Buffett.

Read on.

John McCain v. The Truth

By Robert Parry
October 2, 2008

John McCain’s greatest character flaw as a potential President may be his brash self-righteousness, often expressed in a combative manner that shows little tolerance for even well-founded criticism.

Read on.

New Witness Said to Implicate Palin

By Jason Leopold
October 1, 2008

A key witness in the “Troopergate” investigation of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has backed off an earlier defense of Palin and now says the governor’s associates applied pressure to deny workers compensation to her estranged ex-brother-in-law, according to three state officials briefed on the case.

Read on.

To Joe Biden: Time for Confession

By Ray McGovern
September 30, 2008

Dear Senator Biden,

I don’t have to remind you of the importance of this Thursday’s debate from a political perspective. But as you prepare, I invite you to spare a few minutes to look at the opportunity from a moral and religious perspective.

Read on.

Debate Evades Dark Realities

By Robert Parry
September 27, 2008

Perhaps it’s unrealistic to expect a U.S. presidential debate to deal substantively – and honestly – with wrongful actions by the American government, even at the end of George W. Bush’s eight-year reign as one of the planet’s preeminent rogue operatives.

Read on.

Wanted: Another Franklin Roosevelt

By Michael Winship
September 26, 2008

We thirst for leadership, vision, someone who can speak to us in a way that refuses to avert its eyes from the crisis but shines a light of truth upon the problem, then offers hope and possible solutions.

Read on.

Alaskan Officials Allege Palin Cover-up

By Jason Leopold
September 26, 2008

An attorney for Alaska’s legislative investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin says John McCain’s presidential campaign is seeking to derail the inquiry because its findings could “cause serious damage to the Republican ticket.”

Read on.

America Pays the Piper, Big Time

By Robert Parry
September 24, 2008

After a 28-year binge of drunken optimism and blind nationalism – often punctuated by chants of “USA, USA!” and “We’re No. 1!” – Americans are waking up with a painful hangover, facing a grim “morning in America,” not the happy vision that Ronald Reagan famously sold them on.

Read on.

Rich Reign: Wall St. to Yankee Stadium

By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
September 22, 2008

From our offices in Manhattan, we look out on the tall, gleaming skyscrapers that are cathedrals of wealth and power – the Olympus ruled by the gods of finance, the temples of the mighty, the holy of holies, whose priests guard the sacred texts of salvation – the ones containing the secrets of subprime lending and derivatives as mysterious and elusive as the Grail itself.

Read on.

Will International Law Reach Bush?

By Peter Dyer
September 21, 2008

Q: What do Radovan Karadzic, former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, and George W. Bush have in common? A: Each lives under the slowly growing shadow of a body of international criminal law.

Read on.

Palin's 'Troopergate' Battle Rages

By Jason Leopold
September 20, 2008

As Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin works to derail a legislative inquiry into her firing of the public safety commissioner, state officials are vowing to finish a report on the controversy by Oct. 10 and to weigh contempt proceedings against Palin’s husband early next year.

Read on.

Lipstick on Polar Bears

By Michael Winship
September 16, 2008

Where would politicians be without the Titanic? As metaphors go, it's far more majestic than putting lipstick on pigs or pit bulls.

Read on.

Palin Claims Right to See All State Files

By Jason Leopold
September 14, 2008

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is maneuvering to stop an investigation into an alleged abuse of power, in part, by claiming that she has an unlimited right to pry into the personnel records of all state employees, including the state trooper who divorced her sister.

Read on.

Will McCain-Palin Lies Hurt Them?

By Robert Parry
September 13, 2008

Despite all the chatter about how “historic” Campaign 2008 has been, it is the McCain-Palin ticket that it is truly testing the limits, not of race or gender politics, but whether the United States is ready to enter into a new dimension of political lying.

Read on.

The Truth and Sarah Palin

By Robert Parry
September 12, 2008

When Sarah Palin was plucked from obscurity, we didn't focus on her personal life; we zeroed in on her record -- and discovered a very different reality from what was first reported. September 12, 2008

Read on.

A 9/11 'What-If?'

By Peter Dyer
September 11, 2008

What if we had never gone to war? What if, after the shocking crimes of September 11, 2001, the United States had pursued a different course?

Read on.

Did al-Qaeda Succeed?

By Robert Parry
September 11, 2008

Ten years after the neoconservatives laid out plans for permanent U.S. global dominance – and seven years after the brutal 9/11 attacks gave them the opening to carry out those plans – the neocons instead have guided the United States onto the shoals of a political/military disaster and the prospect of rapid decline.

Read on.

Iran's Road Less Traveled to Nukes

By Ray McGovern
September 10, 2008

Thomas Fingar, the U.S. government’s top intelligence analyst, in a public speech on Sept. 4, repeated the intelligence community’s key judgment that Iran’s work on the “weaponization portion” of its nuclear development program “was suspended” in 2003.

Read on.

Mocking Constitutional Rights

By Nat Parry
September 10, 2008

On the third day of the Republican National Convention, GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin mocked Barack Obama for believing that individuals accused of terrorism actually have rights under the law.

Read on.

Fox Guest Attacks Rachel Maddow

By Brent Budowsky
September 10, 2008

Even by the low standards of the Republican News Network, a.k.a. Fox News, the attack on Rachel Maddow, as a "Lesbian Air America host," was a despicable new low.

Read on.

Palin's Strange Probe of a Trooper

By Jason Leopold
September 9, 2008

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin – collaborating with her husband Todd and several senior aides – conducted what amounted to a rogue investigation into suspicions that her ex-brother-in-law was faking a job-related injury as a state trooper, according to state documents, law enforcement officials and former aides to Palin.

Read on.

The Rising Cost of the Iraq 'Surge'

By Robert Parry
September 9, 2008

Since Jan. 10, 2007, when George W. Bush announced his troop “surge,” more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers have died in the Iraq War – about a quarter of the total war dead – but now an even higher cost may loom ahead, the indefinite continuation of the conflict under President John McCain.

Read on.

Storm Troopers at the RNC

By Ray McGovern
September 8, 2008

Ten days ago, as the nation focused attention on the hurricane nearing the Mississippi delta, another storm was brewing far upstream in St. Paul, Minnesota — a storm far more dangerous, it turned out, but one by and large overlooked by the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM).

Read on.

Bush Still Fights House Subpoenas

By Jason Leopold
September 8, 2008

The Bush administration still is resisting a congressional subpoena seeking testimony from former White House counsel Harriet Miers on the firing of nine federal prosecutors in 2006, taking the unprecedented executive privilege battle to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Read on.

Sarah Palin's Media No-Show

By Mary MacElveen
September 7, 2008

During the GOP national convention, Republicans were openly hostile towards the news media.

Read on.

Palin's 'Trooper-gate' Cover-up

By Robert Parry
September 6, 2008

Ripping a page from George W. Bush’s playbook on obstructing investigations, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her senior aides are maneuvering to thwart an abuse-of-power investigation that Palin initially vowed to assist.

Read on.

Convention Police Bust the Press

By Michael Winship
September 5, 2008

Chronicling his life as a journalist in the colonial British Raj, a young Winston Churchill wrote that “nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.” Nor, I’d add, is there anything in life quite so discombobulating as to turn a corner and unexpectedly walk into a wall of tear gas.

Read on.

McCain-Palin: 'Phonies Squared'

By Robert Parry
September 5, 2008

The Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin has been dubbed “Maverick Squared,” with much of the U.S. news media hailing the pair as reformers who are above partisanship and eager to challenge corrupt Washington.

Read on.

The Anti-Obama Hate-Fest

By Robert Parry
September 4, 2008

The Republican Party, which has defined modern-day negative politics, was back at it again, bashing Barack Obama and the news media in an ugly display that rivaled the old days of Nixon-Agnew – or George W. Bush’s last convention where GOP operatives passed out “Purple Heart Band-Aids” to mock John Kerry’s war wounds.

Read on.

Palin's 'Reformer' Myth

By Jason Leopold
September 3, 2008

When John McCain trotted out Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate, his campaign and much of the U.S. news media depicted the Alaska governor as an ethics “reformer” whose meteoric political rise came from her confronting corruption within her own state Republican Party.

Read on.

Supposed Reformer Secured Earmarks

By Brent Budowsky
September 3, 2008

Now John McCain learns, as we do, that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin sent a 70-page memo to Sen. Ted Stevens, another Alaskan Republican, in February seeking $200 million for new Alaska earmarks. As mayor of the village of Wasilla, she lobbied hard for and won more than $26 million of earmarks.

Read on.

Did Palin Family Feud Affect Troopers?

By Jason Leopold
September 2, 2008

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s vendetta against the state trooper who divorced her sister may have spilled over into a broader retaliation against Alaska’s police with more than $2 million slashed from their budget as well as the elimination of temporary staff positions and the firing of the public safety commissioner, according to police representatives.

Read on.

Palin's Trouble with the Police

By Robert Parry
September 1, 2008

You have to admire the Republican chutzpah. Still confronting a national scandal about packing the Justice Department with “loyal Bushies,” they pick a vice presidential candidate who – in her two executive jobs in Alaska – ousted top law-enforcement officials because they were insufficiently loyal or not malleable enough.

Read on.

McCain VP Pick Has History of Clashes

By Jason Leopold
August 30, 2008

The political career of Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain’s vice presidential pick, has been marked by conflicts, score-settling and her own claim that she faces “enemies – powerful enemies.”

Read on.

How the Republicans Win

By Robert Parry
August 29, 2008

Barack Obama made it across the tightrope of the Democratic National Convention, gaining solid endorsements from Bill and Hillary Clinton and giving a rousing speech before some 80,000 supporters at Invesco Field in Denver. But now comes the time when the Republicans win elections.

Over the past four decades, Republicans have dominated the outcomes of presidential races by mixing negative campaigning in public with illicit dirty tricks behind the scenes, as I've recounted in my last two books, Secrecy & Privilege and Neck Deep.

Read on.

Should Clinton Backers Back McCain?

By Mary MacElveen
August 28, 2008

In her clarion-call to the Democratic convention, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton reminded ALL of her supporters, “You haven't worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership."

She also said to her supporters, "No way. No how. No McCain." So, listen to her.

Read on.

Bush Escalates Tensions with Russia

By Ivan Eland
August 28, 2008

The U.S. missile defense program, which contributed to the deterioration of U.S.-Russian relations that helped generate the Russian-Georgian conflict, has benefited from that conflict and may cause a further downward spiral in the relationship between these two great powers.

Along with the recognition of Kosovo’s independence from Serbia and repeated rounds of an expanding NATO — a Cold War alliance the Russians perceive as hostile — to Russia’s doorstep, the unilateral U.S. abrogation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty to pursue missile defense humiliated a weakened Russia.

Read on.

Hillary's Still-Angry Supporters

By Robert Parry
August 28, 2008

Hillary Clinton gave an eloquent speech calling for Democratic Party unity, but some of her supporters are making clear that they so hate Barack Obama that they would prefer that John McCain extend neoconservative rule in the United States rather than let Obama into the White House.

Some of these die-hard Clinton backers claim they have suffered various slights, such as receiving inferior hotel rooms in Denver or finding the Obama campaign insufficient in its ardor courting their support. Others blame Obama for examples of sexism and unfairness that arose in the long primary campaign.

Read on.

Double Standards on Russia-Kosovo

By J. Victor Marshall
August 27, 2008

In Russia even more than in America, “Kosovo” rhymes with “I told you so.”

Many Americans don’t realize that the former Serbian province of Kosovo, which broke away in 1999 after US-led NATO forces bombed Serbia for 78 days, helped set the stage for the recent conflict between Russia and neighboring Georgia.

Read on.

Court Rebuffs White House Immunity

By Jason Leopold
August 27, 2008

Facing a new reversal in federal court, the Bush administration is finding its options narrowed in its effort to stop congressional testimony from former White House counsel Harriet Miers and chief of staff Joshua Bolten regarding the firing of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006.

The administration had asserted a blanket claim of executive privilege in the face of congressional subpoenas, but U.S. District Judge John Bates rejected that claim as unprecedented and, on Tuesday, denied the Justice Department’s request for a stay pending an appeal.

Read on.

Democratic Divisions & a World to Win

By Brent Budowsky
August 26, 2008

The lion in winter brought tears to the eyes and a convention to its feet as Ted Kennedy passed the torch to Barack Obama. Michelle Obama brought light to the eyes of Democrats with an all-American story about dreams that do come true.

The battle has begun in earnest.

Read on.

What a McCain Victory Would Mean

By Robert Parry
August 26, 2008

In judging the shape of a future John McCain presidency, there are already plenty of dots that are easy to connect. They reveal an image of a war-like Empire so full of hubris that it could take the world into a cascade of crises, while extinguishing what is left of the noble American Republic.

McCain has made clear he would continue and even escalate George W. Bush’s open-ended global war on Islamic radicals. McCain buys into the neoconservative vision of expending U.S. treasure and troops to kill as many Muslim militants as possible.

Read on.

Curious Rules for Convention Parties

By Michael Winship
August 24, 2008

Another humid August, a long time ago, and I was working in my father’s small town drugstore, the last summer before my first year of high school.

Today, cash registers are as computerized as ATM’s and tell you everything instantly, from the change owed and the status of inventory to the date, time and wind chill factor in Upper Volta.

Read on.

Making Money on a New Cold War

By Morgan Strong
August 23, 2008

The Russia-Georgia clash has generated heated anti-Moscow rhetoric from John McCain and U.S. neoconservatives about a new Cold War, a prospect that most people might see in a negative light but which many military contractors surely view as a financial plus.

One unstated reality about revived tensions between Washington and Moscow is that it will mean a bonanza in military spending – billions of additional dollars for anti-missile weapons systems, larger armies, construction of new bases in Eastern Europe, etc.

Read on.

Conyers Questions Iraq 'Forgery'

By Jason Leopold
August 21, 2008

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has asked current and former White House aides and ex-CIA officials to respond to questions about an alleged scheme to create a bogus letter in late 2003 linking Saddam Hussein to al-Qaeda.

Read on.

Mixed Truth of the Russia-Georgia War

By Ivan Eland
August 21, 2008

Despite significant U.S. and Georgian culpability in the crisis in Georgia, most U.S. politicians and media painted Russia as the diabolical “evildoer.”

As if the Russian military incursions into Georgia, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia — the latter two are autonomous regions of the former that do not want to be part of that country — happened out of the blue, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice implied that Russia was attempting to bring back the Cold War.

Read on.

McCain's Ties to Neocon Hard Lines

By Jason Leopold
August 20, 2008

Randy Scheunemann, one of John McCain’s top foreign policy advisers, represents a key link in neoconservative strategy that seeks simultaneously to remove hostile regimes in the Middle East and to box in Russia through an expanded NATO that incorporates former Soviet bloc countries.

Scheunemann has come under scrutiny in recent weeks for his past lobbying work on behalf of the government of Georgia, even while he was advising McCain who vowed to bar lobbyists from his campaign.

Read on.

Musharraf, Not Bush, Follows Nixon

By Ray McGovern
August 20, 2008

Most of the fawning corporate media (FCM) coverage of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s resignation Monday was even more bereft of context than usual.

It was as if Musharraf looked out the window and said, “It’s a beautiful day. I think I’ll resign and go fishing.”

Read on.

The Limits of American Power

By Michael Winship
August 20, 2008

In a letter written in 1648, the Swedish statesman, Axel Oxenstierna, chancellor to both King Gustavus Adolphus and Queen Christina, counseled, “Know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed.”

The fighting between Russia and the former Soviet republic of Georgia is an unnerving reminder of that, and of how quickly the balance of global power can be tilted from unexpected directions with barely a warning.

Read on.

Being Stupid, Sounding Strong

By Stephen Crockett
August 19, 2008

The conflict between the nations of Georgia and Russia, which grew very hot last week, has very long historical roots and has been potentially ready to explode since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The comments of John McCain on the recent outbreak of war has demonstrated the close connection between “sounding strong” for domestic political considerations and “being stupid” in the execution of American foreign policy.

Read on.

A Book Written to Defeat Obama

By Beverly Bandler
August 19, 2008

“The goal is to defeat Obama,” author Jerome Corsi said in a telephone interview. “I don’t want Obama to be in office.”

Books used to be written to educate, inspire, or entertain. These days they are written to serve as political weapons. And the intellectual standards of book publishers appear to have been degraded significantly.

Read on.

McCain's 'Cone of Silence' Caper

By Robert Parry
August 18, 2008

Millions of Americans who watched Barack Obama and then John McCain respond to nearly identical questions from evangelical minister Rick Warren were surely impressed by McCain’s quick and sharp answers. Supposedly he had been in a “cone of silence” while Obama was getting grilled during the preceding hour.

However, as it turned out, TV viewers and other Americans were misled. McCain had not been in any “cone of silence” shielding him from hearing Warren’s questions and Obama’s answers.

Read on.

John McCain's Party of Hate

By Brent Budowsky
August 16, 2008

As Campaign 2008 unfolds, it is increasingly clear that the Republicans are a party with little left but hate, anger and the politics of slandering their opponent.

John McCain has become a candidate reduced to doing a Karl Rove imitation as a sleazy, divisive campaigner, while making bellicose pronouncements about war reminiscent of the childish Confederates at the beginning of “Gone With the Wind,” drinking their brandy and smoking their cigars with fantasies about the glorious war that they hunger to fight.

Read on.

Out Damn Blot: A Letter to Colin Powell

By Ray McGovern
August 15, 2008

Dear Colin,

You have said you regret the “blot” on your record caused by your parroting spurious intelligence at the U.N. to justify war on Iraq. On the chance you may not have noticed, I write to point out that you now have a unique opportunity to do some rehab on your reputation.

Read on.

WPost and the Great Disconnect

By Robert Parry
August 13, 2008

On Tuesday, the sub-head for the Washington Post’s lead editorial read, “The West confronts an unfamiliar sight: a nation bent on conquest.”

The nation in question, of course, was Russia and the “conquest” was its border clash with neighboring Georgia over two breakaway provinces that want to join the Russian Federation.

Read on.

The Lies About Obama

By Brent Budowsky
August 12, 2008

What is the responsibility of reporters, editors and publishers when a candidate for high office is the target of a campaign of attack and personal destruction employing the systematic use of lies, smears, innuendo and character assassination?

J'accuse: What is happening in the 2008 general election is that Senator McCain has (literally) hired highest level operatives who worked for George Bush and Karl Rove (this is simply a fact) and is employing the carbon copy tactics that Rove used against his political opponents (including McCain himself).

Read on.

Neocons Now Love International Law

By Robert Parry
August 12, 2008

It’s touching how American neoconservatives who have no regard for international law when they want to invade some troublesome country have developed a sudden reverence for national sovereignty.

Apparently, context is everything. So, the United States attacking Grenada or Nicaragua or Panama or Iraq or Serbia is justified even if the reasons sometimes don’t hold water or don’t hold up before the United Nations, The Hague or other institutions of international law.

Read on.

The Tense Standoff in Palestine

By TheRealNews.com
August 11, 2008

The fighting between Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, has calmed down for the time being, but the deadly conflict continues to reverberate.

Read on.

WPost Admits Bungling Obama Quote

By Robert Parry
August 10, 2008

The Washington Post’s ombudsman says the newspaper’s original source for a quote that was used to portray Barack Obama as a megalomaniac now disputes the Post’s negative interpretation that has spread across cable TV, the Internet and even into a John McCain attack ad.

Post ombudsman Deborah Howell also acknowledges that neither Post reporter who relied on the misleading quote spoke directly with the source, checked out its accuracy, or made any independent effort to determine the context of the remark, which was made to a closed Democratic caucus meeting on Capitol Hill on July 29.

Read on.

Where's Al Gore?

By Brent Budowsky
August 9, 2008

Anyone can champion the Earth when it's easy, yet too many remain silent when it's hard.

The forces behind oil are taking charge in the great energy debate – and the issue of global warming has virtually disappeared from the political campaign, with barely a word from its strongest advocate.

Read on.

A Novel Approach to Politics

By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
August 9, 2008

ABC News’ political blog, “The Note,” points out this week that Paris Hilton is issuing policy statements while John McCain nominates his wife for a topless beauty contest. The world’s turned upside down.

Who could blame a person for thinking that chronicling such oddness is beyond the skills of simple journalists? This is a job for the novelists.

Read on.

The Hamdan Principle and You

By Robert Parry
August 7, 2008

The U.S. military commission’s split guilty verdict on Ahmed Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden, has drawn praise from the Bush administration and criticism from civil rights groups, but what has been overlooked is the chilling message that “the Hamdan principle” sends about future prosecutions in the “war on terror.”

This new principle holds that anyone – regardless of how tangential a connection to actual acts of terrorism – can be prosecuted through the kangaroo court of the military commissions and be sentenced to a long prison term (or even death). Though Hamdan is a Yemeni, the principle would seem to apply to U.S citizens, too.

Read on.

McCain Adopts Cheney's Energy Plan

By Jason Leopold
August 7, 2008

John McCain, who once was regarded as a top Republican ally of the environmental movement, has embraced an energy plan nearly identical to Vice President Dick Cheney’s National Energy Policy, which was drafted largely by industry executives and which pushed their desire for more oil drilling and nuclear power.

Now echoing those views, McCain declares repeatedly, “We need to drill here and we need to drill now.” Beyond opening up large tracts of protected coastal waters for oil exploration, McCain has called for a massive expansion of nuclear power.

Read on.

McCain's Future Wars

By TheRealNews.com
August 6, 2008

Energized by the supposed success of the Iraq War troop “surge,” John McCain now sees the neoconservative vision of a Long War against Islamic extremists back on track.

Read on.

Why McCain May Well Win

By Robert Parry
August 6, 2008

It might seem unlikely that the United States would elect John McCain to succeed George W. Bush when that would ensure continuation of many unpopular Bush policies: an ill-defined war with the Muslim world, right-wing consolidation of the U.S. Supreme Court, a drill-oriented energy strategy, tax cuts creating massive federal deficits, etc., etc.

But there are reasons – beyond understandable concerns about Barack Obama’s limited experience – that make a McCain victory possible, indeed maybe probable.

Read on.

We Don't Need a 'War on Terror'

By Ivan Eland
August 5, 2008

Many opponents of the Bush administration's invasion and occupation of Iraq have always argued that this conflict is an irrelevant and even counterproductive sideshow to the real "war on terrorism" in Afghanistan.

In fact, Barack Obama led the parade to initiate a troop surge in Afghanistan after having opposed it in Iraq. The more hawkish John McCain, not to be outdone by a weak-kneed Democrat, proposed that even more troops be sent to Afghanistan.

Read on.

Readers' Comments

August 4, 2008

Editor’s Note: Readers had thoughts about the news media’s treatment of Barack Obama, why the energy crisis has grown so bad over the past three decades, and other serious challenges facing the United States.

Read on.

CIA Accuses Pakistan of Terror Links

By TheRealNews.com
August 4, 2008

During a visit to Washington this past week, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had an exclusive meeting with CIA chief Michael V. Hayden, who reportedly presented him with accusations that Pakistani intelligence agencies were involved in jihadi activities.

Read on.

McCain, Anthrax & the Afghan Blunder

By Robert Parry
August 3, 2008

The scene of John McCain – during the anthrax attacks in October 2001 – opining to David Letterman that Iraq might be responsible underscores McCain’s central role in what may go down as one of the biggest strategic blunders in U.S. military history, the premature pivot from Afghanistan to Iraq.

Not only has it been clear for many years that McCain’s speculation about Iraq’s role in the anthrax attacks was reckless – made even more apparent by the FBI now pinning the crime on dead U.S. bio-defense scientist Bruce Ivins – but McCain also told Letterman in that Oct. 18, 2001, interview that “the second phase is Iraq.”

Read on.

Tax-Factless Wall Street Journal-omics

By Alice Cherbonnier
August 2, 2008

On July 29, the Wall Street Journal forfeited a full half page of op-ed space to a specious article called "Obamanomics Is a Recipe for Recession," written by Michael J. Boskin, a Stanford University economics professor and "senior fellow" of the Hoover Institution. Boskin chaired the Council of Economic Advisors under President George H. W. Bush.

Read on.

Justice Probe Still Threatens Gonzales

By Jason Leopold
August 1, 2008

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will face new legal jeopardy when the Justice Department’s Inspector General issues his next report on how the Bush administration let politics influence prosecutorial judgments, says ex-U.S. Attorney David Iglesias.

That installment is expected to address the firings of nine U.S. Attorneys in 2006 and could set the stage for criminal charges against Gonzales and his former deputy, Paul McNulty, according to Iglesias, the former U.S. Attorney for New Mexico who was one of those fired in the purge.

Read on.

Dan Ellsberg on Past, Present, Future

By Glenn Greenwald, Salon Radio
August 1, 2008

Daniel Ellsberg was the key figure in the Pentagon Papers controversy in the early 1970s – the leaking of the secret history of the Vietnam War – and today is one of the most incisive commentators on a whole variety of current political issues.

Read on.

Cameras 'Shooting Back' in Palestine

By TheRealNews.com
July 31, 2008

Under an initiative promoted by an Israeli human rights group, Palestinians were armed with 100 cameras to film real-life interactions and confrontations with Israeli settlers and troops.

Read on.

Wave of 'Capitol Crime' Continues

By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
July 31, 2008

Like the largesse he spread so bountifully to members of Congress and the White House staff -- countless fancy meals, skybox tickets to basketball games and U2 concerts, golfing sprees in Scotland -- Jack Abramoff is the gift that keeps on giving.

The notorious lobbyist and his cohorts (including conservatives Tom DeLay, Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed) shook down Native American tribal councils and other clients for tens of millions of dollars, buying influence via a coalition of equally corrupt government officials and cronies dedicated to dismantling government by selling it off, making massive profits as they tore the principles of a representative democracy to shreds.

Read on.

WPost Calls Out 'Uppity' Obama

By Robert Parry
July 31, 2008

At this pivotal moment in American history, the major U.S. news media is back to its old game of drawing sweeping character judgments about a presidential candidate based on misleading “quotes,” a sickening replay of other recent elections.

The latest example of this wearisome gamesmanship was a column by the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank, who distorted a reported quote from Sen. Barack Obama at a closed Democratic caucus and used it to prove Obama was a “presumptuous nominee.”

Read on.

McCain Lies about Obama on Troops

By Brent Budowsky
July 30, 2008

John McCain personally told Larry King that Barack Obama wanted to bring reporters, cameras and campaign aides to a meeting with wounded troops in Germany.

When he said this, John McCain was lying. Let me spell this correctly: L-Y-I-N-G.

Read on.

Is Iraq Ready to Explode?

By TheRealNews.com
July 29, 2008

Three female suicide bombers and a roadside bomb struck Shiite pilgrims taking part in a massive religious procession in Baghdad on Monday. Police said at least 32 people were killed and 102 wounded.

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McCain Spin on the 'Surge'

By Jason Leopold
July 29, 2008

Over the past several weeks, John McCain and his backers have touted his early endorsement of the Iraq War “surge” as evidence of his political courage, but it could be equally viewed as an act of political desperation, to forestall total calamity in Iraq and to avert disaster for broader neoconservative objectives in the Middle East.

McCain’s endorsement of the “surge” in January 2007 also represented a repudiation of his previous support for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s concept of using a light force of mobile U.S. troops, backed by technology and air power, to win the war.

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McCains Goes Over-the-Top Negative

By Brent Budowsky
July 28, 2008

The man who used to be John McCain is reacting to the pressures of a campaign by becoming Meat Ax McCain with low-road attacks that raise core questions of presidential temperament.

On Monday, as Barack Obama hosted a meeting with financial leaders from across America, the anger-ridden, increasingly desperate McCain campaign accused Obama of creating a future depression.

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McCains Goes Over-the-

Americans Move Left; NYT Misses It

By Jeff Cohen
July 28, 2008

The headline atop Saturday’s op-ed page was a hallowed standby for the New York Times: “Americans Move to the Middle.”

Assembled by Times “visual columnist” Charles Blow, the text of the column was dwarfed by 15 graphs tracking recent movement in American public opinion, based on Gallup polls. There was one problem: the headline totally distorted the data.

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Big Media Hectors Obama on 'Surge'

By Robert Parry
July 28, 2008

For six years, with few exceptions, the Washington press corps has been cheerleading for the Iraq War – and the pattern is continuing in Campaign 2008 with the endless demands that Barack Obama apologize for not supporting the troop “surge.”

On Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” NBC’s Tom Brokaw became the latest Big Media star to hector Obama about his opposition to George W. Bush’s troop “surge,” which the U.S. press corps and Republican John McCain credit with reducing violence in Iraq.

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Assessing the Iraq Troop Surge

By TheRealNews.com
July 27, 2008

At every opportunity for the past week or more, U.S. reporters and commentators have badgered Barack Obama about his refusal to admit that he was wrong about the Iraq troop “surge” and that John McCain was right.

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Obama's Palestine Visit Was Brief

By TheRealNews.com
July 27, 2008

On his world tour, Barack Obama spent less than an hour in Palestine compared to 32 hours in Israel, prompting some Arab commentators to talk about the old U.S. political tilt toward Israel.

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Bush's Mass Pardons Predicted

By Brent Budowsky
July 26, 2008

Before leaving office George W. Bush will issue a mass pardon, the largest collection of presidential pardons in American history.

Bush will pardon himself, Vice President Cheney, and a long list of officials involved in torture, eavesdropping, destruction of evidence, the CIA leak case, and a range of other potential crimes.

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The Endless Smearing of Joe Wilson

By Robert Parry
July 26, 2008

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee reminded everyone that rules barred personal attacks on George W. Bush during Friday’s hearing on his presidential abuses, but they didn’t feel obliged to forego the lashing of a favorite whipping boy, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson.

In a continuation of what has amounted to a five-year campaign to destroy Wilson’s reputation, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, flourished two pieces of evidence that supposedly showed that Wilson was a perjurer and that President Bush was right all along when he accused Iraq of seeking yellowcake uranium from Niger.

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The Torturing Company We Keep

By Michael Winship
July 25, 2008

At one point during the five and a half years John McCain spent as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, he was tortured and beaten so badly he tried to kill himself.

After four days of this brutality, he gave in and agreed to make a false confession, telling lies to end the unbearable pain.

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Bush's 'Surge' Gets Mixed Reviews

By Jason Leopold
July 24, 2008

President George W. Bush’s Iraq War troop “surge,” which is now ending, got a mixed report card from congressional investigators, who found that many of Bush’s stated goals remain unmet.

The Government Accountability Office reported that violence in Iraq has dropped over the past year, but that the training of Iraqi security forces still lags, Sunni insurgents have not been defeated, cease-fires with Shiite militias are fragile, and political reconciliation has not been achieved.

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Rove End-Runs House Democrats

By Jason Leopold
July 24, 2008

Former White House political adviser Karl Rove, who has refused to appear before the House Judiciary Committee, ran an end-around against Democratic leaders by having his denial of sponsoring a political prosecution inserted into the Congressional Record by a senior Republican.

Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the committee’s ranking Republican, submitted a written question-and-answer exchange with Rove in which the political strategist said he played no role in the controversial prosecution of Alabama’s former Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman.

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Protecting McCain; Pounding Obama

By Brent Budowsky
July 23, 2008

John McCain, presumably advised by Karl Rove and definitely imitating the politics of George Bush, is now saying that Barack Obama would rather lose a war than lose an election.

This is a defamation; this is a slander; this is a lie. McCain should apologize to Obama.

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The Exaggeration of Terror

By Ivan Eland
July 23, 2008

After having begun a series of investigative stories criticizing the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in May 2008, CNN reporter Drew Griffin reports being placed with more than a million other names on TSA’s swollen terrorism watch list.

Although TSA insists Griffin’s name is not on the list and pooh-poohs any possibility of retaliation for Griffin’s negative reporting, the reporter has been hassled by various airlines on 11 flights since May. The airlines insist that Griffin’s name is on the list.

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Little Progress Seen in Iran-Nuke Talks

By TheRealNews.com
July 22, 2008

U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns left Geneva without making a public comment on the talks he witnessed between Iran and European negotiators about Iran’s nuclear program.

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McCain's Afghan Strategic Blunder

By Robert Parry
July 22, 2008

John McCain has denounced Barack Obama as being “completely wrong” on Iraq, but it was McCain who advocated what turned out to be the fundamental strategic blunder in the post-9/11 conflicts, the hasty – and premature – pivot from Afghanistan to Iraq.

Only weeks after the Taliban were routed from Kabul and the remnants of al-Qaeda had fled from bases in Tora Bora, McCain took the lead in urging the Bush administration to turn its attention toward Iraq.

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Iraqi Resistance to US Bases Grows

By TheRealNews.com
July 21, 2008

Iraqi political resistance to the indefinite presence of U.S. troops is growing, limiting what the Maliki government can do and what the Bush administration can expect.

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Obama's National Security Challenge

By TheRealNews.com
July 20, 2008

What kind of movement and leader would it take to really try to change America’s very rigid national security state – and how might Barack Obama measure up to that challenge?

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