Down But Not Out: Empire Burlesque Returns
We were out of circulation for about a day due to a major technical upgrade that should make Empire Burlesque smoother, faster and more secure. (The website, that is, not necessarily the author.) But here’s a quick round-up of items that we might have covered more in-depth today if not for the upgrade.
Rug, Meet Broom
Josh Marshall has another entry in his series of Bush “disappearing acts” of public information. This time, Bush Admin Makes White House Visitor Records Disappear.
Thug Bones in Bushland and Babylon
Updated below.
George Bush lauded the hanging of Saddam Hussein as a hallmark of Iraq’s efforts to create "a society governed by rule of law." But as both Steve Gilliard and Juan Cole note, Saddam was not actually hanged by the "sovereign" Iraqi government at all; he was turned over to the Mahdi Army militia of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, religious Chekists
CYA for the USA: The Coverup of Complicity Continues
Rush to Hang Hussein Was Questioned (New York Times)
(Updated below. See Update II and III as well.)
This is a very curious story. Some of it is probably true, some of it is patently false – and all of it is a massive, panicky CYA job by American officials. However, through the heavy fog of this assemblage of spin, it seems fairly obvious what has really happened: the same group of dim-witted fools, ideological cranks and violent sectarians who have driven the whole misbegotten enterprise
The Enduring Legacy of Gerald R. Ford
I believe that the picture below tells us all we need to know about the lasting impact the presidency of Gerald R. Ford has had on the United States of America, the nation he so proudly led for a couple of years after pardoning the man who was at that time the biggest criminal ever to occupy the Oval Office:
Yes, it was Gerald R. Ford who took those famously amoral and criminally incompetent backroom operators, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, out of
Loose Talk: Bush Redefines His Global War to Encompass a New Range of Enemies
Wise man Robert Parry, who has been a light shining in the darkness for decades now, identifies an important – and entirely sinister – change in Bush’s description of the “Long War” that he has initiated around the world. This semantic shift portends an even greater level of bloodshed, state terrorism and tyranny than we have
Escalation and Expansion: Bush’s “Great Leap Forward” Into Hell
The outlines of Bush’s “New Way Forward” or “Great Leap Forward” or “Long Walk Off a Short Pier” in Iraq is now fairly clear. It has three general thrusts: a large increase in troop numbers; a direct assault on
the forces of Motqada al-Sadr; and, if possible, an expansion of the war beyond Iraq’s borders through a military strike on Iran.
The troop increase is now certain (if indeed it had ever been in doubt). In the
House Un-American Activities: Founding Fathers Refute Bigoted Congressman
Juan Cole — or rather, the Founding Fathers of the United States — take down the bigoted belchings of U.S. Representative Virgil “Uber-Goober” Goode, in this essential piece. Excerpts:
uslim representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will 
Last Bad Deal Gone Down: War Profits Trump the Rule of Law
I. The Wings of the Dove
Slush funds, oil sheikhs, prostitutes, Swiss banks, kickbacks, blackmail, bagmen, arms deals, war plans, climbdowns, big lies and Dick Cheney – it’s a scandal that has it all, corruption and cowardice at the
highest levels, a festering canker at the very heart of world politics, where the War on Terror meets the slaughter in Iraq. Yet chances are you’ve never heard about it – even though
A Chronicle of Escalation Foretold: The Red Crescent Assault
This is my latest article for Truthout.org. Links to follow later.
Less than a mile from where British Prime Minister Tony Blair was gripping and grinning during a surprise visit to Baghdad on Sunday, agents of the extremist factions that he and George W. Bush have empowered,
paid and heavily armed were raiding the offices of the Iraqi Red Crescent Agency and rounding up some of the few remaining relief workers in the country who attend to the suffering of all
Let It Come Down: Forcing the Constitutional Crisis of Liberty
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast…
The order is rapidly fading
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’
Nat Hentoff, one of our great champions of civil liberties, uncovers the ugly truths behind the Bush Regime’s plans for a Nuremberg-in-reverse