Tikun Olam-תקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

George Bush today made the ‘momentous’ announcement that he’s calling a Mideast conference for later this year including Israel, the Palestinians (that is, the ‘Abbas version’ of Palestinians–not the Hamas version) and unspecified other Arab countries (presumably Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt). My reactions: YAWN! And after yawning, I’d ask: what does he [...]

That wasn’t me asking. That was Mark Foley cruising for prey among the male Congressional page corps. The revelations just keep coming from Mark Foley’s predatory past. Sunday’s Washington Post reveals some of his tactics and strategies in winning the confidence on male Congressional pages:
They met on the House floor. He was [...]

I was reading the New Israel Fund’s NIF Blog yesterday which featured a column by Larry Garber, the executive director. I have nothing but respect and admiration for NIF and Larry. But I was taken aback by his recommendation of a Washington Post article about Israel’s campaign of targeted killings against Palestinian militants: [...]

Steven Green, accused rapist and murderer; your tax dollars at work in Iraq (photo: Patrick Schneider, The Charlotte Observer)
This is rich. Steven Green–the U.S. soldier accused of raping 15 year old Abeer Qasim Hamza and then killing her and three other members of her family including a 7 year old child in Mahmudiya four [...]

Markos Moulitsas, better known as Kos, has taken to the pages of the Washington Post to tell the world why Hillary Clinton is a dud of a presidential candidate. After reading his column, I have to say that I share an intense dislike of Hillary as a candidate and will not vote for her [...]

(cartoon: Stuart Carlson/Milwaukee Sentinel)
Mary McCarthy was fired today by the CIA for allegedly being Dana Priest’s source for a Washington Post article revealing the agency’s policy of extraordinary rendition: kidnapping terror suspects and whisking them to foreign prisons for torture and other holiday fun. The NY Times reports:
The C.I.A.’s inquiry focused in part on [...]

The parallels between the Bush Administration’s approach to Iran as the latter steams ahead to create a nuclear weapon and its approach to Saddam Hussein in the runup to the Iraq war are eerie, ominous and frightening. First, Bush appears to give diplomacy a chance by working with the UN and allies to influence [...]

The Jerusalem Post and Washington Post report that the House Foreign Relations Committee passed a modified version of Palestinian Anti-Terrorism bill (HR 697) in a 36-2 vote. While President Bush seems to have won significant easing of the restrictions on U.S. aid to the Palestinians and preserved some presidential flexibility in its disbursement, there [...]

Pulling a Murtha. I think I’ve just coined a political neologism. Actually, it wouldn’t be a neologism since I didn’t coin a word, but you get my drift.
Congressional Democrats have long been known for their courageous willingness to take on Republican presidents bent on mischief. So I waited with baited breath to [...]

I couldn’t believe the puffery in today’s NY Times’ Republicans Hail Colleague Who Fought Bush on Ports (the article is nowhere to be found on the Times website nor in Google News so I don’t have a link; by the way, I’ve never seen such a thing happen before at Nytimes.com. UPDATE: there is [...]