AltWeeklies Wire
Drop the Drones: Remote Attacks Inflame Afghan Anti-Americanism
To Afghans on the ground, drones symbolize American callousness and project a smug sense of superiority -- because they protect us at the Afghans' expense.
The Afghan War: Too Illegit to Quit
Eight years. We've been in Afghanistan longer than any other war in American history. The party of the president who invaded Afghanistan has been repudiated at the polls. Yet we still haven't altered the flawed strategy that allowed uneducated tribesmen with outdated weapons to defeat us year after year.
Obama is More Hoover than FDR
It's 1933. This time, however, Hoover got reelected. Can we hold out until 1937 for a president who understands that we need 10 million new jobs, and that we need them yesterday?
Build Stuff ... Then Leave Afghanistan
Now it's time to fight the war for hearts and minds the way it ought to have been done from the start -- instead of hostile troops, Afghanistan needs civil engineers.
Why Are Insurers Blocking H1N1 Treatment Prescriptions?
I got swine flu. Five days later, I was at death's door -- because my evil insurance company wouldn't honor my doctor's prescription. Memo to future revolutionaries: if you require a firing squad for the executives of the Health Insurance Plan (HIP) of New York, I'm handy with a rifle.
Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's Impotent Dictator
How many Americans will continue to see Hamid Karzai as viable -- and be willing to continue to pay the price of propping him up?
The Collapse of ObamaCare is Rooted in Unclear Communication
A poll says that 67 percent of Americans don't understand Obama's healthcare plan. I'm one of them.
We Have Met the Nazis, and They Are Us
Godwin's Law be damned -- it's impossible to read the newly-released CIA report on the torture of Muslim prisoners without thinking of the Third Reich.
Animated Cartoon: Terror Yokelsnew
Lampooning the new trend in radical Islamist terror: rural cells of wannabe jihadis in the sticks.
Tags: War on terror, terrorism
What If They Gave a War and Nobody Knew Why?
Eight years after invading Afghanistan, the U.S. government is still struggling to explain why. If you can't figure out if you're winning or losing, you're losing.
Lay Off Layoffs
U.S. employers hire and fire workers at will. Other countries give workers lifetime employment contracts--and have higher productivity.
Admit It: You Hate the Cops, Too
The Gates incident has illuminated some basic, strange assumptions about our society. Cops think they have a constitutional right to be treated deferentially. And black people think cops are nice to white people. Yeah, well, take it from a white guy: we don't like cops either.
Maui Time |
Ted Rall |
07-29-2009 |
Race & Class
Creating Jobs, Unfortunately, Doesn't Seem to be an Obama Priority
Obama's plan is Reaganomics redux. Give trillions of dollars to big corporations, he argues, and they'll use it to capitalize new ventures, hire workers, and unclog the credit markets. Eventually.
Obama Covers Up a Dozen My Lais
Obama sort of announces kind of an investigation of Bush's biggest single war crime. It's more of the same for a story the media has ignored for six or seven years.
Why Can't Obama See He's the New Robert McNamara?
Like McNamara, Obama doesn't understand a basic truth: you can't successfully manage an inherently doomed premise. Colonialism is dead. Occupiers will never enjoy peace. Neither the Afghans nor the Iraqis nor the Pakistanis will rest until we withdraw our forces.
