McCain VP Pick Has History of Clashes

By Jason Leopold
August 30, 2008

The political career of Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain’s vice presidential pick, has been marked by conflicts, score-settling and her own claim that she faces “enemies – powerful enemies.”

Read on.

How the Republicans Win

By Robert Parry
August 29, 2008

Barack Obama made it across the tightrope of the Democratic National Convention, gaining solid endorsements from Bill and Hillary Clinton and giving a rousing speech before some 80,000 supporters at Invesco Field in Denver. But now comes the time when the Republicans win elections.

Over the past four decades, Republicans have dominated the outcomes of presidential races by mixing negative campaigning in public with illicit dirty tricks behind the scenes, as I’ve recounted in my last two books, Secrecy & Privilege and Neck Deep.

Read on.

Should Clinton Backers Back McCain?

By Mary MacElveen
August 28, 2008

In her clarion-call to the Democratic convention, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton reminded ALL of her supporters, “You haven’t worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership.”

She also said to her supporters, “No way. No how. No McCain.” So, listen to her.

Read on.

Bush Escalates Tensions with Russia

By Ivan Eland

August 28, 2008

The U.S. missile defense program, which contributed to the deterioration of U.S.-Russian relations that helped generate the Russian-Georgian conflict, has benefited from that conflict and may cause a further downward spiral in the relationship between these two great powers.

Along with the recognition of Kosovo’s independence from Serbia and repeated rounds of an expanding NATO — a Cold War alliance the Russians perceive as hostile — to Russia’s doorstep, the unilateral U.S. abrogation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty to pursue missile defense humiliated a weakened Russia.

Read on.

Double Standards on Russia-Kosovo

By J. Victor Marshall
August 27, 2008

In Russia even more than in America, “Kosovo” rhymes with “I told you so.”

Many Americans don’t realize that the former Serbian province of Kosovo, which broke away in 1999 after US-led NATO forces bombed Serbia for 78 days, helped set the stage for the recent conflict between Russia and neighboring Georgia.

Read on.

Court Rebuffs White House Immunity

By Jason Leopold
August 27, 2008

Facing a new reversal in federal court, the Bush administration is finding its options narrowed in its effort to stop congressional testimony from former White House counsel Harriet Miers and chief of staff Joshua Bolten regarding the firing of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006.

The administration had asserted a blanket claim of executive privilege in the face of congressional subpoenas, but U.S. District Judge John Bates rejected that claim as unprecedented and, on Tuesday, denied the Justice Department’s request for a stay pending an appeal.

Read on.

Democratic Divisions & a World to Win

By Brent Budowsky
August 26, 2008

The lion in winter brought tears to the eyes and a convention to its feet as Ted Kennedy passed the torch to Barack Obama. Michelle Obama brought light to the eyes of Democrats with an all-American story about dreams that do come true.

The battle has begun in earnest.

Read on.

What a McCain Victory Would Mean

By Robert Parry
August 26, 2008

In judging the shape of a future John McCain presidency, there are already plenty of dots that are easy to connect. They reveal an image of a war-like Empire so full of hubris that it could take the world into a cascade of crises, while extinguishing what is left of the noble American Republic.

McCain has made clear he would continue and even escalate George W. Bush’s open-ended global war on Islamic radicals. McCain buys into the neoconservative vision of expending U.S. treasure and troops to kill as many Muslim militants as possible.

Read on.

Curious Rules for Convention Parties

By Michael Winship
August 24, 2008

Another humid August, a long time ago, and I was working in my father’s small town drugstore, the last summer before my first year of high school.

Today, cash registers are as computerized as ATM’s and tell you everything instantly, from the change owed and the status of inventory to the date, time and wind chill factor in Upper Volta.

Read on.

Making Money on a New Cold War

By Morgan Strong
August 23, 2008

The Russia-Georgia clash has generated heated anti-Moscow rhetoric from John McCain and U.S. neoconservatives about a new Cold War, a prospect that most people might see in a negative light but which many military contractors surely view as a financial plus.

One unstated reality about revived tensions between Washington and Moscow is that it will mean a bonanza in military spending – billions of additional dollars for anti-missile weapons systems, larger armies, construction of new bases in Eastern Europe, etc.

Read on.