That’s not a snub, the PM’s protecting his base. Bush understands that.

Whether Iraq is in a civil war or battling an insurgency is not a matter of semantics, it’s a question of strategy. If a bunch of rebels are fighting established authority we should continue training and equipping the Iraqi army. If no one is really in charge, and the combat is between different factions or [...]

NBC says the Iraq conflict has become a “civil war.” The White House says it hasn’t. Since there’s a disagreement, media should follow Bush’s lead. Otherwise they could be accused of misunderestimating his skill with the English language.

Losing the midterm election didn’t deter Bush from taking care of business. His USDA quickly pronounced a genetically altered rice safe without the usual tests, after it contaminated the U.S. crop. The farmers who have been losing export business can still sue the company that made the seed herbicide resistant, and Bayer can count on [...]

While the Baker group and the military scrounge for ideas about what to do in Iraq, Iraq’s prime minister says leave it to him. Mark Moyar, Marine Corps University prof, says we should let him try because a similar effort in Viet Nam might have changed that war. Since everyone else seems to be concentrating [...]

Once public and business interests could share the name “national,” then business went global, and left the people behind. Wittingly or not, government kept giving big corporations what they wanted, saying it was in the “national interest.” Those bi-partisan mistakes make Bush’s war look like a minor mishap. The last election focused attention on extricating [...]

We said “don’t go.� He went anyway. We said “send more troops.� He refused. We said “bring the troops home.� He said, “we can’t.� We said “this isn’t working.� He said “what’s your plan?� We said “punt.� He kicked the ball to Baker.

The Baker commission impressed Bush, and he promised not to “prejudgeâ€? their report. Later he told reporters he would not talk to Iran, one of the commission’s expected proposals, until that country stopped enriching uranium. “Our focus of this administration is to convince the Iranians to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions.â€? Apparently the president [...]

Harry Reid, soon to be senate majority leader, urged lame duck Republicans to focus on an offshore oil drilling bill; legislation to prepare for a flu pandemic; a nuclear agreement with India; and and a package of popular tax breaks. He also suggested finishing up the spending bills, but didn’t mention purging them of unwarranted [...]

After two days of talking about raising the minimum wage, Democrats switched to “fixing� the Alternative Minimum Tax ― i.e. repealing the automatic increase that will begin to take back the cuts Bush gave to taxpayers making about five times the median family income. Democrats call these folks “middle class,� but they’re in the top [...]

Given the restraints imposed by gerrymandering this election was clearly just anti-Republican. Democrats were hired as firemen, not architects. Fix the major Republican errors ― encourage military commanders to speak freely, then listen, end earmarks, let Medicare negotiate drug prices. Pass the laws the public already wants, don’t seek compromises that please no one, don’t [...]

Touchscreen voting often leaves no messy paper trail, or anything to count again, but don’t expect elected officials to do anything to fix that. Only losers are concerned.

Joy engulfs nation as phones and negative ads plunge into silence. The public isn’t as stupid, and he’s not as smart as Karl Rove thought. “Madame Speaker� sounds refreshing, suggests move toward polite politics.

Microwave ovens set out to revolutionize cooking, settled for popping corn and warming leftovers. Perhaps poll workers can be taught to use touchscreen voting machines to help tabulate paper ballots.

My phone rings every few minutes with news about some awful act by a despicable candidate, or a poll: “if you knew this…how would you vote?” or shocking statistics about a voting record. I knew the country was in trouble, now I know why, and I’m convinced by TV commercials and robocalls no matter who [...]

I believe in god, not God ― the god in us that makes us care and varies in amount on a normal distribution curve. I think God is god commercialized ― a product sold under many brands, each with its own accessories and instruction book. I don’t want to ban any product, but since individual [...]

Absentee ballots quash negative commercials― good for everyone.

A Warning Mr. Bush, beware of an inner voice telling you to act, to make religion a part of the state, to favor the rich and punish the poor. Beware of the belief that you are God’s tool meant to change the world. The voice you heed as though coming from God may in truth [...]

A school bus driver in Seattle was fired for flipping a finger at President George W. Bush. The dismissal wasn’t political, she just set a bad example for middle school passengers. True, but the superintendent should consider the difficulty of resisting the temptation.

The president apparently gave control over our military to prime minister al-Maliki. Our efforts to find a kidnapped soldier in Sadr City stalled traffic, so he made us open our check points. As the barbed wire came down, and we delayed the search for the GI, the streets filled with jubilant Iraqis. Too bad Bush [...]