We won a war against Islamic terrorists before. In 1936 the Phillipine Muslims asked to remain part of the US, rather than become independent with the rest of the Phillipine Islands. Because we didn't honor that request, we are still providing support to the Phillipine Islands government against Islamic hotheads on the Island oF Mindinao. There are is only one fast food answer to Iraq. We could glass it, but that would be a horrific war crime. So would abandoning the good people of Iraq to the terrorists. The right way is the slow way, the middle way- to support local self government, to fight terrorists and outside agitators.

Makes a good point that taxes really double the cost of everything, and further that half your money is also taken in taxes. The benefit of fair tax or flat tax it that it would reduce tax induced inefficiency which is roughly 50 percent at present. The combination of taxes, tax cost, and regulatory inefficiency now forces a family who earns 100,000 dollars a year to live off no more than 12,500 equivalent consumption. Fair or flat tax would improve life so that the same family would be able to live off 25,000 dollars of equivalent consumption. Not as nice as libertarian theory, but a significant improvement!

It should be noted that George W. Bush joined the only Air National Guard unit which served in Vietnam, and trained as a fighter pilot. The F-102 was not sent to Vietnam. As Vietnam wound down, combat experienced pilots returned to the US, and displaced the non-combat experienced F-102 pilots, as the F-102 was being phased out. By comparison, John F. Kerry joined a Navy unit which escorted deep water vessels, and after he was assigned, was redirected to riverine warfare. My notion is that signing up is the brave part, and the rest is luck and follow through. I suggest that the Guardian do a quick Google search on "boat People" and "re-education camp". Of course that is the kind of thing that the Guardian supports as normal. To ... More »

Aside from the usual snark about Bush, the rest appeared to be straight news. This almost passes for reporting!

It missed out on the fact that IEDs kill Iraqi civilians 29 times out of 30. There is no necessity for the terrorists to murder civilian noncombatants. But they do, and this is covered up as much as possible by the media.

I hope that Hizbollah will die in the last ditch defending the land they have bought. And soon!

We use Bunker C, gasoline, kerosine, and diesel in our engines because it is hard to ignite outside engines. Religious fervor doesn't change the physics of phase and the chemistry of combustion.

The fly paper strategy is working. The Jihadists cunning plan is to kill muslims in Iraq first. If they kill enough muslims in Iraq,......what would they do? Our allies outside of Iraq are under less pressure from the Jihadis in their midst, as such jihandist travel to Iraq to die. One can wind a war with Islamic suicides just as Chrisitians were able to win a demographic struggle with nunneries and monastaries. Tell me, is Allah that dumb? Of course not! Was Mohammed that dumb? Of course not! It took the spoiled son of wealth, who had never accomplished anything in his life to come up with this strategy, that deprives Muslim society of their best and brightest.

This is rather like blaming the kidnap victim for having a rich relative. Why not accuse local witch doctors of malpractice? Because they don't have government backers who are willing to use the coerced tax millions to pay off the kidnappers.

In general, stock prices go up, and down. Therefore any stock sale will be both before, and after price movement. Claiming that any sale comes before a stock movement is a classic unfalsifiable statement. Funds are fungible. All dollars must be equivalent. All stock shares of a given class must also be equivalent. When you withdraw money from your bank, by the logic of this article, you have taken bribes from terrorists, and therefore should be prosecuted, or else you "have a high tolerence for coincidence."

So, was the report on science, where politics should not intrude? Or was it on policy, which is certainly a matter of politics. If policy, then one would expect and demand that a politically appointed aid would block any report that recommended policy that was opposed to administration policy. Certainly poor people have been hurt by past attempts to "help" by subsidizing certain classes of health care. Subsidizing health care increases prices. Higher prices hurt poor people.

It says she died of lung cancer. Guess she missed out on the health risks of smoking... Perhaps the people who got AIDS more had more homosexual sex?

Nearly everyone is poor when they are young. After many years of work, and inheritance from a few older wealth relatives, you are no longer poor, or you made some bad choices (like getting sued by John Edwards). Well, you wouldn't want a President who was dumb enough or crazy enough to be poor in the US. Lincoln was a heck of a lawyer, having placed a lien on the property of a railroad, for a bill not paid. Hillary's family was wealthy enough to put her through Yale... and support her as she was an intern.

Rather odd to report surveys of presidential approval, and be silent when the approval rates of Congress are half that of the President. Ooops, not odd at all for a partisan hack.

An odd bit of speculation on the relationship between the US president and vice president. The closest they get to a source is a fired cabinet member, who serves at the pleasure of the President. Oddly, Whitman blames the Vice President. Less oddly, (this is the Guardian!) the author believes her.

Where the fairness doctrine is still needed is in the Public Schools..............I will suggest that the Fairness doctrine was unconstitutional, but had some rationale when there was only 2 radio shows, and one television chanel in many markets. It remains unconstitutional, and has no rationale when there are 250+ television channels on cable or sattelite, and far more radio stations and pod casts than that.

Although Sadr is the son of a famous cleric, he doesn't have the background and education to be a cleric himself.

Kind of odd that an unconstitutional act of the FDR administration is treated as holy writ, while the Article 1 of the Constitution which gives no authority to the national legislature to regulate communications is ignored. Further, freedom of speech and of the press as mentioned in the 1st Amendment would seem to indicate that federal regulation of the airwaves is illegal. The spectrum was created by the people who invented radios, and it is they, their heirs, and their corporations who should own and regulate the airwaves.

After 30 years of Shia being murdered by Sunni, the author finds that there is bad blood between them. When Sunni leaders protect Sunni murderers, the author is suprised to find Shia distrust. Well, welcome to the world. After 30 years of crap, Iraq will be knee deep in manure for a while. Of course we in the US have racial unrest, with whites smart enough to not go to Harlem NYC unless armed, and blacks clever enough to to stay out of the worst areas of Lousiana, unless armed. Iraq has been broken for a long time. The example of South Africa's Truth and Reconcilliation courts are mixed. There is no magic wand, but the US are, for now, the honest broker.

One wonders: Are there any Democrats with a plan to win the war? If their intent is to act to make sure that we lose the war, to the great gain of our enemies, foreign and domestic, is that not grounds for charges of Treason?

One wonders if the atheists or the Star Tribune have heard of the Islamic doctrine that lets Muslims lie to gain advantage. Such behavior is not only permitted, but commanded. One example of such a lie: The Iraq occupation ended in June of 2004.

I don't doubt that Rep. D Kucinich, (Nutball-Ohio) said and predicted the things that are presented here. What makes me wonder is that anyone listens to him. One wonders if "Crazy K" realizes that the Vice President would preside over his impeachment trial, if it came to that.

Reasonable take on continuing job growth, wage growth, and deficit reduction. Politics aside, happy news for working people. A little bit of snark about the usual suspects who see a sunny day and anticipate rain in the future, because they sell umbrellas and galoshes, but that is clearly labeled as snark.

We nearly voted in Kerry, a trophy husband... But Thompson's wife is more accomplished than Kerry, unless you count Kerry's treason as a plus.

So, an abortion activist is saying Thompson, as a lawyer, managed to lobby for abortion without leaving behind any billing records? So, obviously Thompson is smarter than Hillary whose billing records eventually did show up. Now does that mean the abortion activist says that Democrats should support Thompson because his support for abortion is good? Or is it the usual Democrat smear? Well, since it is the LA Times that answer is clear on its face.

The average Muslim is not my worry. It is the 10 percent nutters that we have to watch. Hey Admiral Woolsey, have you gotten that meeting with Clinton yet?

Gosh, imagine that, the US has laws to prevent illegal immigrants from sucking down healthcare that costs US taxpayers money. Imagine that, an homosexual infects his third world boyfriend with AIDS and expects the US taxpayer to foot the bill for his dirty deed. So, when they go to Canada, I expect the wait for government health care will get a bit longer.

Author presumes fear. He has no data, so makes it up, and doesn't have the verbal skills to explain it, so invents straight line graphs, that apparently being the limit of his mathematical acumen. All and all, a waste of 5 minutes.

To the NYT, Judges should have the right to change the law at whim, setting aside legal dates for filing appeals, and mandating an appropriate racial mix, because that is what they want. After all, Judges (when appointed by Democrats) know what is in our best interest, and the mere law, constitution and personal preference be hanged. When Chief Justice Roberts says "The way for the government to not discriminate by race is for the government to not discriminate by race" this seems too much for the NYT Editorial board to stomach. We must remember that the southern plantation system depended on government inforcement of racial discrimination, and any attempt to reinstitute racial discrimination by the government would move us back ... More »

Fact error in the first line. The Occupation has been over for years. Sovereignity was returned to the Interim government of Iraq in 2004. We are now fighting as allies against the terrorists. Apparently the LA Times wants the terrorists to win. May the terrorists and their allies in the LA Times be confounded. Quelle Suprise: the Iraqi government and its coalition partners hire Iraqis in addition to foreign contractors. When you combine the hired Iraqis with the foreign contractors, you get a number larger than the number of US forces. To a reasonable man, this would indicate that the US footprint is small, too small for an "Occupation" but more along the lines of a military assistance operation.

Another sufferer of Bush Derangement Syndrome heard from. This is not journalism, it is psychosis. The President uses his constitutional power to correct an injustice, and the madding crowd shouts impeachment.... again. Perhaps someday Fitzgerald will be investigated for his continued investigation, which continued on after he found out that Richard Armitage was actually the "leaker", at least to the extent that Armitage could leak information that was also in "Who's Who", and that Plame was not covered by the applicable law. What Libby did was counter the lies told by Joseph Wilson IV, and for that, the psychotics at Democratic Underground, Daily Kos, and Smirking Chimp want blood, or at least rape............... ... More »

This report attempts to show the Arab view that Israel has benefited from its friendship with the US, just as the US has benefited. Somehow, it sees this as a problem, compared to the hostility and harm inflicted by Arab/Muslim oil embargos and terrorism. When Jordan and Egypt occupied sections of Palestine, and used that occupation to launch terrorist attacks, the author has no problem, but when Israel uses its occupation to prevent terrorism, the author is offended ............................................................................................................................ Perhaps someday the Arab/Muslims will focus their efforts on developing products and services that better mankind. When that happens, they ... More »

I wonder, since the US buys legal opium from Turkey and India for use in medicine, if the US could set up a similar system for legal purchase of Opium from Afghanistan, our ally in the War on Terror.

If Valarie Plame wanted to keep her identity secret, perhaps she should have not had Joe Wilson IV put her details in "Who's Who". That was the "research" by which Novak confirmed the Armitage leak. The Vice President is President of the Senate, and shares a small part of the President's Executive authority. If the Vice President is impeached, he presides over his own Senate trial. By executive order of the President, Cheney has complete authority to declassify information, so a minor league bureaucrat can't play "gotcha" in a meaningful way anyways.

The Author must have been standing on his head. Article suggests that the SCOTUS guts the "Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education" decision that ended racial discrimination because this decision also forbids racial descrimination. One wonders, when will the racists stop trying to use the Government coercive power to force their particular view of racial bliss on the people. I guess they won't stop trying, but it is possible, thankfully, for them to fail to get the Supreme court to join in their racist agenda. I have three children with my first (white) wife, and 2 with my second (black) wife. There is no reason for any of my children to be blocked from attending any particular school based on their putative race. There is only ... More »

Rather odd that the Guardian has just figured out that the Carbon Offset scam is corrupt in the third world. Next they will report that Albert Gore Jr didn't win the 2000 US Presidential election. Sun rises in east. Carbon offsets are always corrupt in three ways: 1. They collect real money, and offer forgiveness for imaginary sins. There is no shortage of imaginary sins but a real shortage of real money, so forgiveness points will naturally be manufactured as long as suckers seek forgiveness. 2. Global Warming is caused by the sun. The earth acts pretty much as a black body, and any amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can not increase relative absorbtion beyond that of a black body. 3. Global warming is actually a ... More »

After years of being given Keyesian economics, (higher taxes are the way to prosperity), Kinsey social science (immorality and perversion are the way to virtue), and ever more laws, and regulations are the path to greater freedom..... Yes, despite my 3+ college degrees, I am skeptical about many so called scientific studies.

Ed has a good comment: If you think the Government should do X, then when anyone asserts that the Governement should not do X you will think them oddly cruel, that they would not seek to have the X problem solved by Government. Others who think the Government makes problems bigger will be shocked that voters who want to turn even more power over to the Government will also be disgusted with the stupidity of the pro-government voters.

We have two parties in the US, the Stupid Party and the Evil Party. Would it be too much to not have the Stupid Party making Polish jokes about themselves? Really, better the Stupid party and the Evil Pary to argue and not accomplish anything, than for them to get together and pass laws that are both Stupid and Evil.

Rather odd to assert that the "unitary executive" is a right wing doctrine when the first words in Article II Section 1. are "The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America." Perhaps we should note:"a" is a singlar pronoun. The unitary executive is, therefore a Constitutional doctrine. Now I, myself, would like to eliminate the executive role in the writing of regulations, because of the obvious conflict of interest in having the same group of people write the regulations, enforce them, and judge the citizen's compliance with them. It is the proliferation of regulations that have led to the requirement to have government on the hop all the time, as new regulations will always be required to ... More »