I keep harping on politicians' quickness to fault the Iraqi people themselves for the chaos wrought by invasion and occupation. It's an abhorrent excuse, and its bipartisan popularity is sickening.

This morning Hillary Clinton was booed by the "hard left" (nice touch, ABC) at the Take Back America conference for passing the buck on Iraq:

"The American military has succeeded. It is the Iraqi government, which has failed to make the tough decisions that are important for their own people."

Clinton's not the only Democratic Presidential candidate to rationalize much-needed withdrawal by putting the onus on those suffering most...   Read More »

There's some easy ways to buy blue and green for the holidays...just thought I'd pass these along.   Read More »

Photos from September 24th march on Washington, interview with Medea Benjamin here

300 Communities Throughout the U.S. to Hold "Downing Street Memo" Events on Saturday, July 23, to Mark the Infamous Memo's Three-Year Anniversary

On Saturday, July 23rd, members of Congress and activists around the country are organizing a day of action to call attention to the explosive evidence of government manipulation revealed in the Downing Street memo. The day of action coincides with the 3rd anniversary of the controversial British intelligence minutes which verify that "intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy" to justify the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq.   Read More »

John Tierney of the NYT is in denial once again, this time trying to co-opt John Lennon’s vision of a world without war in his column “Give Peace a Chance.”

He puts forth a caveat which completely devastates his argument—notwithstanding the genocide in Darfur and the occupation of Iraq(which constitute only some the most horrifying examples of violence on the globe), the level of “organized violence” has dropped in recent years. What about “disorganized” violence—manifest in bombings, stemming from social inequality and frustration over U.S. hegemony—the brand of violence the “war on terror” purports to be combating, and so ineptly addresses?

This column is just another one of his desperate attempts to convince people that “freedom is on the march,” similar to his hairbrained notion that the news media is blowing violence in Iraq out of proportion, and that naturally the logical solution is to cease reporting on the violence. Sure, if there’s a war in a forest and there’s no one around to document it, it probably isn’t happening. See no evil, hear no evil--Iraqis are handing soldiers flowers.

Tierney has imbibed Julian Simon and the other irrational cornucopians from Cato. Their favorite argument is essentially that “the globe is a hollow sphere filled with oil, and the dynamic duo of the market and human ingenuity will save us even if we suck it dry.” This makes me want to tear my hair out:

“‘I predict that the incidence of war will decline,’ [Simon] told me in 1996, two years before his death. He based his prediction on the principle that there is less and less to be gained economically from war. As people get richer and smarter, their lives and their knowledge become far more valuable than the land, minerals and natural resources they used to fight over.”

I’ve really come to resent this blind idealism—it’s weakly supported by economic theory that neglects any of the external factors that exist in the real world. “The market will set us free,” “the market will lift all boats”…assuming your boat’s a yacht.

(more after the jump)   Read More »

Progressive students at Stanford start the
Roosevelt Institution.

Read more in the Chronicle