No End in Sight
by Bob Herbert
February can’t end soon enough for Senator Hillary Clinton.She may still end up winning the Democratic presidential nomination, but a month’s worth of television images and front-page photos of Barack Obama basking in the glow of a series of easy caucus and primary wins is potentially devastating. |
US customs agents can examine, copy data from searched laptops
by David Edwards and Mike Sheehan
Customs agents have the prerogative to examine and even copy data from travelling citizens' laptops they search, CNN's American Morning reports."A new alert for travellers: be careful what you store on your laptop or your BlackBerry when entering the United States," warns CNN's John Roberts. "Customs agents can examine your computer and even keep your private information." |
Company seeks tax exemption for bribes
by AP
Some companies request tax deductions for philanthropy, others for restaurants bills. But one Israeli business tried to push the envelope by asking to deduct nearly $860,000 it paid in kickbacks.A Tel Aviv district court rejected the petition on Feb. 8. |
Army Buried Study Faulting Iraq Planning
by Michael R. Gordon
The Army is accustomed to protecting classified information. But when it comes to the planning for the Iraq war, even an unclassified assessment can acquire the status of a state secret.0211 01That is what happened to a detailed study of the planning for postwar Iraq prepared for the Army by the RAND Corporation, a federally financed center that conducts research for the military. |
U.S. military to seek death penalty in Gitmo's kangaroo court
by Mary Shaw
As the New York Times reported yesterday, "Military prosecutors have decided to seek the death penalty for six Guantanamo detainees who are to be charged with central roles in the Sept. 11 terror attacks."If anyone deserves harsh punishment, it's the people responsible for 9/11. But those are my emotions talking. Justice is supposed to be a sober matter, not an emotional one. |
The Mother of All Rip-offs: “Get ready for a real hosing”
by Mike Whitney
Low interest credit and “financial innovation” have proved to be a deadly-combo. They knocked the banking system for a loop, clogged the credit markets with billions of dollars of subprime sludge, and left the real estate market sprawling on the canvas. Still---even though $2 trillion of capitalization has been wiped-out from falling home prices; and even though the financial system is in a terminal state of paralysis---no one has been held accountable. In fact, not one trader, mortgage lender, rating's-agency official, fund manager, or investment banker has been indicted or even charged with criminal wrongdoing. |
Bush is the Symptom - Conservatism is the Disease
by Alicia Morgan
As many of us have predicted, the Republican presidential candidates are in a knock-down, drag-out battle to claim the mantle of 'the most conservative ever'. McCain, indeed, is labeled by the other candidates as a 'liberal', the pinnacle of epithets. 'Pedophile' would not be a more derogatory, insulting term. You might as well call him a 'Satanist who bites the heads off of blastocysts' and get it over with. |
Defending David Shuster
by Cenk Uygur
I understand why people are angry over David Shuster's comments. Let me list some of the reasons:1. There has been a history of objectifying women in this country (and almost all other countries) and we are not quite done with that history. Some younger men and women might not remember how hard the fight was to get women the same rights as men. As Senator Clinton pointed out recently, women didn't even have the right to vote when her mother was born. So, that history is not yet history. |
Stomping on Their Children's Dreams
by Robert Parry
One painful irony of the Obama-Clinton showdown is that it could end up with middle-aged women – who are determined to elect the first female president – stomping on the dreams of their own children, who have shaken off years of political apathy to rally behind Barack Obama. |
Surge in Spending on Nukes a Grave Error
by Frida Berrigan
For many Americans, nuclear weapons bring up old memories and forgotten associations — the duck and cover drills of the 1950s, President Reagan’s exhortations against the “evil empire,” and the plot lines of countless straight-to-video political thrillers. It may then come as a surprise that in 2008 the United States is considering a huge new investment in nuclear weapons. |
Obama and Progressive Change
by Dave Lindorff
I don't want to overstate the case for Barack Obama, who has been fairly circumspect about his intentions if elected. While saying he is against the Iraq War, he has not acted very forcefully to help bring it to an end. And he certainly has not called for any downsizing of America's bloated military budget or any end to its imperialist foreign policy--absolutely essential if there is to be any progressive change of consequence in the US. |
Tales of whoa!
by Ed Naha
America went through yet another pallid political punch-out last week, if these stories clogging my Internetz tubes are any indication.ROMNEY QUITS RACE - STUNNED POPULACE ASKS "WHO?"As millions of Americans ignored him, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney dropped out of the Republican presidential race last Thursday, before an audience gathered at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. "This is not an easy decision," he stated. "I hate to lose." |
Pennsylvania Avenue Freeze-Out: Punished by Perino?
by Eric Brewer
The following is the second White House report from Eric Brewer, who will periodically attend White House press briefings for Raw Story. Brewer is also a contributor at BTC News. He was the first person to ask about the Downing Street memo at a White House briefing. |
Death of Reform, Birth of Reform: Clinton Democrats Face the Obama Future
by Tom Hayden
Between 1968-1972, when Hillary Rodham and Bill Clinton began their political journey, the Democrats were gripped by a great wave of change, propelled mainly by young people, from the bottom up. The Chicago convention protests were a mirror into this transition. In these pivotal years, young people could not vote and most delegates to the convention were chosen in backrooms by party bosses. By 1972, the so-called McGovern reforms led to the displacement of the old guard and the seating of people like Rev. Jesse Jackson in place of Mayor Daley’s cronies. Most important, unlike before, rank-and-file Democrats were empowered to vote for their preferences in presidential primaries. |
U.S. deficit running at twice last year's
by AP
The federal budget deficit is running at a pace that is more than double last year’s imbalance through the first four months of the budget year.In its monthly review of the government’s finances, the Treasury Department said Tuesday that the budget was in surplus in January, but the deficit totals $87.7 billion so far this budget year, double the $42.2 billion imbalance recorded during the same period in 2007. The new budget year started last Oct. 1. |
Two Car Bombs in Baghdad as Violence Rises in Iraq
by Steve Lannen
Violence is increasing in Iraq, raising questions about whether the security improvements credited to the increase in U.S. troops may be short-lived.0212 05Car bombs in Baghdad on Monday killed at least 11 people and injured a prominent leader of one of the country’s most influential American-allied tribal militias. |
Obama makes threepeat out of DC, Maryland, Virginia
by John Byrne
A variety of TV news networks have called the Potomac primaries in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC for Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), just after polls closed at 7 pm ET and 8 pm ET respectively.At an address at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Obama's victory speech aimed a barb at Washington insiders and played up what he implied was the universal appeal of his campaign around the United States. |
