Robert Scheer from Creators Syndicate

Paying for War at the Pump for 05/21/2008

Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

What's it got to do with the price of gas? Would some reporter with access to the Republican presidential candidate please ask John McCain why he wants to continue President Bush's Mideast policy when it has proved so ruinous for American taxpayers? Because McCain is determined to ignore our economic meltdown and shift the debate to foreign policy, shouldn't he have to explain why an open-ended ...

Updated: Wed May 21, 2008

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Where Is the Outrage? for 05/28/2008

Wed, 28 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Are we Americans truly savages or merely tone-deaf in matters of morality, and therefore more guilty of terminal indifference than venality? It's a question demanding an answer in response to the publication of the detailed 370-page report on U.S. complicity in torture, issued last week by the Justice Department's inspector general.

Because the report was widely cited in the media and ea ...

Updated: Wed May 28, 2008

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McCain's Troubling Nature for 06/04/2008

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Will the real John McCain stand up? Actually, I don't expect him to, now that he is the Republican presidential candidate, pandering to the irrationalities that drive his party. Nor is it likely that the fawning mass media will pressure him to the point of clarity. But I remain genuinely confused as to what makes him tick.

McCain is the most confounding of candidates, veering as he does ...

Updated: Wed Jun 04, 2008

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Blame Rising Oil Prices on Bush for 06/11/2008

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Wow, a lot of people must have bought Hummers last week. How else to explain the spike in oil prices? No, I'm not being silly — they are. And by "they," I mean the gaggle of media pundits and other administration apologists abetted by some green zealots who want to explain our energy crisis by reference to profligate consumers.

Sure, in the long run, we consumers, particu ...

Updated: Wed Jun 11, 2008

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Is Clinton the Ticket for Obama? for 06/18/2008

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Why not Hillary? Not my first choice — Al Gore is — but I find all of the pro-and-con debate about Hillary Rodham Clinton to be beside the point. She is, as Barack Obama said, likable enough, and the Dems are not likely to pick anyone better.

It is certainly a great asset to have a formidable female vice presidential candidate, whose victory would further a legitimate aspirat ...

Updated: Wed Jun 18, 2008

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Mutually Assured Destruction for 06/25/2008

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Remember Curtis LeMay, the Air Force general parodied to chilling effect by Sterling Hayden in the 1964 movie "Dr. Strangelove"? If you're too young for that reference, you probably don't recall when the concept of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) dominated our military posture toward our Soviet enemy. I bring this up because the mid-air refueling tanker that the MAD warrior LeMay com ...

Updated: Wed Jun 25, 2008

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Iraq Oil Pact Debases Our Nation for 07/03/2008

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

As we head into the Fourth of July weekend of patriotic bluster and beer swilling — but before we are too besotted by ourselves — might we also for once consider our imperfections? Why not take a moment to heed the cautions of our founding father, George Washington, whose true legacy will most likely be ignored during the flag-waving weekend?

Washington's "Farewell Addre ...

Updated: Thu Jul 03, 2008

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Taiwan Declares Peace on China for 07/10/2008

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

You can't trust the Chinese. I don't care if you're talking about those communists on the mainland or the other guys on Taiwan — they just won't follow the war-games script that our weapons hawks had counted on. Their mutual passion runs not to matters of tired politics but rather on the lust of venture capitalists. To the Chinese, irrespective of past allegiances, the prospect of war has ...

Updated: Thu Jul 10, 2008

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How About 'Tough Love' for Bankers? for 07/16/2008

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Sen. John McCain's campaign co-chair Phil Gramm is right: We have "become a nation of whiners." But who is whining more than the bankers that former Sen. Gramm's financial deregulation legislation benefited? The very bankers, like those at UBS Investment Bank, where Gramm found lucrative employment, who now expect a government bailout.

As chair of the powerful Senate Banking Co ...

Updated: Wed Jul 16, 2008

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A Campaign Driven by Fear for 07/24/2008

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Barack Obama is betraying his promise of change and is in danger of becoming just another political hack.

Yes, just like former maverick John McCain, who has refashioned himself as a mindless rubber stamp for the most inane policies of the miserably failed Bush administration. Both candidates are embracing, rather than challenging, the fundamental irrationality of Bush's "war on ter ...

Updated: Thu Jul 24, 2008

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Banking Expertise We Don't Need for 07/30/2008

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

This is a time to condemn the bankers, not to embrace them. They are the scoundrels who got us into the biggest economic mess since the Great Depression, lining their own pockets while destroying the life savings of those who trusted them. Yet both of our leading presidential candidates are scrambling to enlist not only the big-dollar contributions but, more frighteningly, the "expertise&q ...

Updated: Wed Jul 30, 2008

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Weapons Too Dangerous for Others for 08/06/2008

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The terrorists find all sorts of reasons to hate us. On Tuesday came word that the deadliest biological assault on the United States may be linked to the rejection of the terror suspect by a Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority sister decades ago. That is offered as an explanation of why the accused U.S. Army bio-warfare scientist made a seven-hour roundtrip from his home to mail anthrax-laced letters fr ...

Updated: Wed Aug 06, 2008

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Georgia War Is a Neocon Election Ploy for 08/13/2008

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Is it possible that this time the October surprise was tried in August, and that the garbage issue of brave little Georgia struggling for its survival from the grasp of the Russian bear was stoked to influence the U.S. presidential election?

Before you dismiss that possibility, consider the role of one Randy Scheunemann, for four years a paid lobbyist for the Georgian government, ending ...

Updated: Wed Aug 13, 2008

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This Old Soldier Never Learns for 08/20/2008

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The world according to John McCain is one in which America is triumphant at home and abroad thanks to the Bush legacy, rolling to victory internationally and mastering its domestic economic problems. If daily news, like the 10 French soldiers killed by a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan and the imminent government nationalization of much of the U.S. mortgage-lending industry, would seem to deny ...

Updated: Wed Aug 20, 2008

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McCain Can Win Only as a War President for 08/27/2008

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Just great! Nuclear-armed Pakistan is falling apart, Iran's nuclear program is unchecked, and congressional legislation on cooperation with the Russians on controlling nuclear proliferation is now dead in the water. Horrid news except for Sen. John McCain, who thrills to a repeat of the danger lines of the Cold War, and now stands a good chance of being our next president.

A very good ch ...

Updated: Wed Aug 27, 2008

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Palin's State Reaps the Windfall Profits McCain Decries for 09/03/2008

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Welcome to the People's Republic of Alaska, where every resident this year will get a $3,200 payout, thanks in no small measure to the efforts of Sarah Palin, the state's Republican governor.

That's $22,400 for a family of seven, like Palin's. Since 1982, the Alaska Permanent Fund, which invests oil revenues from state lands, has paid out a dividend on invested oil loot to everyone who h ...

Updated: Wed Sep 03, 2008

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She's Clueless; He's Worse for 09/10/2008

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Ignorance is bliss, which perhaps explains Gov. Sarah Palin being so confidently wrong about the root cause of the federalization of most of the nation's mortgage market. But what is Sen. John McCain's excuse? Both act as if the financial meltdown of the U.S. economy has nothing to do with the policies of the political party they represent — but she at least may not know any better.

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Updated: Wed Sep 10, 2008

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McCain's Sudden Conversion to Economic Populism for 09/17/2008

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Gag me with a spoon, as Valley girls used to say. Did you see that McCain-Palin ad promising "tougher rules on Wall Street to protect your life savings; no special interest giveaways?" Just how dumb do they think we are?

Seriously, 20 minutes of Google searches should be sufficient to convince all but the dimwits among us that McCain has been a master of the special interest gi ...

Updated: Wed Sep 17, 2008

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A Fox to Protect the Henhouse? for 09/24/2008

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Does it really matter which party is in charge when it comes to bailing out the Wall Street hustlers whose shenanigans have bankrupted so many ordinary folks? Not if the Democrats roll over and cede power to the former head of Goldman Sachs, the investment bank at the center of our economic meltdown.

What arrogance for Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson — who the year before Presiden ...

Updated: Wed Sep 24, 2008

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Pundits Side With Wall Street Over Main Street for 10/01/2008

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

How dare you throw that tea in Boston Harbor! Such is the anti-democratic arrogance of the fearmongering pundits and politicians who tell us if we taxpayers don't instantly give the Wall Street banking bandits a $700 billion bailout, then we are destroying America. Instead of applauding representatives from both parties who, for once, heeded the public rather than the fat cats, the established ...

Updated: Wed Oct 01, 2008

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