Tag Archives: George W. Bush

Our Tortured History

4/23/2009 – 12:07 pm

The weird thing about the torture memos in the news this week is that I can’t stop thinking about Harry Potter.
In those books, the bad guys – the wizards and witches that had been drawn to the Dark Side – make their case thusly: This isn’t about good and evil, it’s about power and the [...]

By floegel | Posted in Civil Liberty, Commentary, Iraq Invasion | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Who’s Anti-War Now?

4/2/2009 – 1:49 pm

I am. Principles aren’t principles unless they’re consistent. Now that the White House and Congress have changed hands since 2006, it’s interesting to see politicians and pundits on both sides of the ledger flipping and flopping.
Still, the world is not two-dimensional and those who pretend it is do an injustice to reality. [...]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary, Iraq Invasion | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Smart is Not Enough

1/15/2009 – 11:07 am

I’m in Washington, DC this week and the town reels already with inauguration fever, even as the temperature plunges. As I type, a flatbed truck bearing 12 port-o-sans drives past the window, headed for the National Mall, there to await the expected millions next Tuesday. At least this week, the capital’s homeless will [...]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary, Electoral Politics | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Where Things Used to Be

11/20/2008 – 11:35 am

I’ve been driving around southern Louisiana this week. It’s my first visit in three years, since I was here in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina. Life has changed here. I’m not sure if Louisianans live in the future while the rest of us live in the present or if they live in [...]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary, Global Warming | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

“My Hot Little Hand”

9/25/2008 – 8:29 am

It was an evening in the mid-1970s and I was riding with my dad in his pickup. The AM radio was tuned to 1180 WHAM and Ed Hasbrouck’s talk show was on. The topic was the American economy, which at that moment wasn’t doing very well.
Ed was recalling the bank failures of the [...]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary, Economy, Electoral Politics | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)

The Watershed

9/18/2008 – 11:28 am

Come gather ‘round people wherever you roam
As we prepare to bury the life we have known
And accept that from now there’ll be no going home
Your money’s no longer worth saving
The meat is all gone, we’re left nothing but bones
For the times, they are a changin’
Apologies to Bob Dylan, but my mind has been rewriting the [...]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary, Economy, Energy, Global Warming, Iraq Invasion, Nuclear Energy | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)

State of the Race

9/11/2008 – 12:06 pm

The front page of today’s New York Times says George W. Bush in July gave orders for American forces in Pakistan to carry out operations without notifying the Pakistani government.
Nearly a year ago, in a Democratic debate, Sen. Barack Obama said that if he is elected president and has a chance to capture or kill [...]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary, Electoral Politics | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (1)