Terrorists and Criminals

Wed Nov 18, 2009 3:24 PM EST

I've been reading a lot the past few days about the decision of the Attorney General and the President to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and a few of his fellow terrorists in federal court in New York City.

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politics, obama, terrorism, security, new-york-city, guantanamo, trail, holder, khalid-sheikh-mohammed, federal-court

Catholics, Abortion, and Health Care Reform

Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:42 AM EST

Senate Democrats will presumably get their act together and bring a health care bill to a vote someday. Whether the Senate bill includes some form of a public option is not the only issue that may cause the bill to fail.

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politics, congress, senate, house, abortion, health-care-reform, catholic-church

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

Mon Nov 9, 2009 5:23 PM EST

Today is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The event has special meaning for me since I was living and working in Berlin when it happened. I had been there for over a year when The Wall came down, and I stayed for almost a year afterward.

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politics, soviet, gorbachev, the-wall, fall-of-the-berlin-wall, east-germany-west-germany

Dreams and Audacity

Mon Nov 9, 2009 4:41 AM EST

I've read both of President Obama's books,* Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope. I recommend them to anyone who has an interest in politics generally or Barack Obama in particular.

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politics, obama, the-audacity-of-hope, dreams-from-my-father

Kinky and Political Theater

Wed Nov 4, 2009 11:05 AM EST

The most delicious political news is that Kinky Friedman is running for governor of Texas again! He'll be running in the Democratic primary, and he's convinced that he can beat either incumbent Governor Rick Perry or Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, depending on which of them wins …

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politics, kinky-friedman, virginia, new-jersey, texas, elections, v, stimulus, obama

Obama the Incrementalist

Sun Nov 1, 2009 4:30 PM EST

Obama the incrementalist is the headline of a column written by Howard Kurtz in The Washington Post a few days ago.

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politics, obama, afghanistan, leadership, decision-making

Politics and the Public Option

Mon Oct 26, 2009 9:01 AM EDT

There hasn't been a lot of clarity in the sturm und drang over the so-called public option in current health care reform schemes. The best discussion of the public option I've read is in a column by Robert J. Samuelson in The Washington Post.

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politics, health-care-reform, obama, democrats, republicans, public-plan, public-option, partisanship

The Faux Golden Boy

Tue Oct 20, 2009 11:05 AM EDT

I've watched President Obama through the campaign and during his first nine months in office. I've read and watched the mostly adoring press coverage.

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politics, obama, failure, promises, afghanistan

The Answer for Africa

Sun Oct 18, 2009 10:38 AM EDT

People dying from hunger. The victims of genocide and war dying at the hands of murderous militias or their own governments. Huge numbers of people dying from curable diseases, including the inexorable AIDS epidemic.

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politics, africa, un, united-nations, foreign-aid, usaid, development-assistance, millenium-challenge

The Travails of Air Travel

Wed Oct 14, 2009 4:50 AM EDT

I'm sitting in the Munich, Germany airport writing this, en route from the U.S. to Serbia. This trip, like every trip to one degree or another, leaves me with less than a positive attitude toward airlines.

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travel, airlines, security-checks, united-airlines, lufthansa

Afghanistan - Vietnam Redux?

Sat Oct 10, 2009 9:47 AM EDT

I made the point in Vietnam and Afghanistan that we're in danger of repeating the mistake we made in regard to the Vietnam War -- sending more and more troops into a war we were inevitably doomed to lose.

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politics, afghanistan, vietnam, obama, troop-levels, escalation

Obama's Nobel Peace Prize

Fri Oct 9, 2009 4:55 PM EDT

When I heard the report that President Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize, my reaction was two questions: "Huh?" and "What for?" I suspect that many millions of other people had the same reaction.

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politics, obama, nobel-peace-prize

The Transparency Conundrum

Tue Oct 6, 2009 2:19 PM EDT

Seems there's a lot of opposition among Democrats in Congress over the idea of posting bills online for 72 hours before they're voted on.

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politics, obama, congress, legislation, health-care-reform, online

Generals and Politics

Sat Oct 3, 2009 1:45 PM EDT

When President Obama was in Copenhagen, unwisely risking the prestige of the presidency on Chicago's Olympics bid, he managed a hasty 25-minute meeting with General Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan.

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politics, obama, mcchrystal, afghanistan, strategy

Parasites and Health Care

Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:48 PM EDT

The parasites in question are trial lawyers, particularly those who specialize in medical malpractice lawsuits.

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politics, health-care-reform, tort-reform, medical-malpratice, democrats, trial-lawyers

The Church and the Holocaust

Sun Sep 20, 2009 7:54 AM EDT

There has been a lot of speculation about the actions of the Catholic Church and Pope Pius XII in regard to the Holocaust during World War II.

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politics, holocaust, hlond, innitzer, stepinac, pius-xii, catholic-church

Vietnam and Afghanistan

Thu Sep 17, 2009 12:25 PM EDT

In late 1965, I was in Kontum, Vietnam as a pilot in a helicopter crew sent there for a few days to support U.S. Special Forces operations. I was quartered in a Vietnamese Army compound, a fairly nice facility left over from French military days.

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politics, vietnam, afghanistan, bernard-fall, taliban, terrorism

Obama's Speech to Students

Tue Sep 8, 2009 3:05 AM EDT

I just read the full text of President Obama's planned speech today to students in schools all over America. It's obvious that the conservatives and Republicans who generated so much controversy about this speech should have read it before they complained.

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politics, obama, students, school-children

Would JFK Be a Democrat Today?

Sat Sep 5, 2009 7:58 AM EDT

I've always considered myself a Democrat in terms of party preference. I came to that position in the context of the ideas and policies of people like John F. Kennedy and other liberals and Democrats of that era (such as Daniel Patrick Moynihan).

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politics, democratic-party, democrats, jfk, john-f-kennedy, moynihan

Interrogation Success

Sun Aug 30, 2009 11:39 AM EDT

In How a Detainee Became An Asset, The Washington Post provided objective information on the success achieved using enhanced interrogation techniques in the case of Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

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politics, khalid-sheik-mohammed, 9-11, interrogation

The Legacy of Ted Kennedy

Thu Aug 27, 2009 8:01 AM EDT

The death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy is a sad event. It should make us all reflect on the reality that no matter how far we go in life, no matter what we may accomplish, in the end we all face the same fate.

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politics, kennedy, chappaquiddick, legacy, justice, law

Madonna in Belgrade

Wed Aug 26, 2009 9:22 AM EDT

Madonna brought her "Sticky and Sweet" tour to Belgrade, Serbia on August 24. According to local press reports (here and here), there were about 30,000 people in attendance. I was there, too, along with a friend who's also a close friend of Cat, my domestic guardian.

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entertainment, madonna, sticky-and-sweet, belgrade, music, concert

Beating a Woman in Malaysia

Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:59 AM EDT

Anyone following the news lately has heard of the case of Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, a young woman in Malaysia who has been sentenced under Sharia law to be "caned" for having a beer. This is a young woman, 32 years old, with two young children.

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politics, shukarno, malaysia, caning, islam, muslim, sharia-law

Politics and Packin' Heat

Fri Aug 21, 2009 5:23 PM EDT

Just about 10 percent of our presidents have been assassinated while in office. Of those four, three were shot with handguns and one with a rifle (or rifles, depending on which conspiracy theory you prefer).

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politics, president, gun-control, threat, secret-service, armed-protesters