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Berg: No good in al-Zarqawi's death DOVER, Del. - The father of Nicholas Berg, a U.S. contractor believed to have been beheaded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq, said Thursday that he doesn't see any good coming from al-Zarqawi's death. "I see more death coming out of al-Zarqawi's death," Michael Berg told The Associated Press after learning a U.S. air strike had killed the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. Al-Zarqawi is believed to have beheaded two American civilians in 2004: Nicholas Berg, a 26-year-old businessman from West Chester, Pa., and Eugene Armstrong, a 52-year-old contractor from Hillsdale, Mich. Jack Hensley,...

Is nothing sacred to her? (Of course, I kid.)Behold the momentous tidings from the latest Code Pink press release:Susan Sarandon, Cindy Sheehan, Randi Rhodes, Dolores Huerta, and Patch Adams Will Lead 24-Hour Mother’s Day Peace Vigil at White HouseMothers nationwide call for peace in Iraq and IranSAN FRANCISCO / WASHINGTON - May 11 - This weekend, on May 13-14, 2006, celebrities, peace activists, mothers and families will gather in front of the White House from 3pm on Saturday until 3pm on Sunday to call for an end to the war in Iraq and stand against a military attack on Iran....

If you were to ask me for a position on Social Security, I would tell you that it is an illegal government program maintained by an unconstitutional administration that forcibly transfers wealth from employers and employees operating on the exact same principle as a pyramid scheme (outlawed in all 50 states). I might add the State has no business meddling with an individual’s retirement, the program’s demographic defects will cause it to hemorrhage in red ink in the trillions of dollars, and it is on the road to bankrupting the country. Of course, the only glimmer of hope for me...

WASHINGTON -- The CIA's decision to fire a top intelligence analyst accused of leaking classified information became a political issue almost immediately after it became public last week. The officer was a senior analyst nearing retirement, Mary O. McCarthy, who the agency said leaked information to news organizations about a secret network of CIA prisons. McCarthy was once responsible for guarding some of the nation's most sensitive secrets as a senior aide for the National Security Council, The New York Times reported in today's editions, citing several current and former government officials. In that role, McCarthy often focused on ways...

LIMA, Peru - Carlos Santana quoted his old friend Jimi Hendrix in an anti-war message here Monday and said his philosophy is the antithesis of President George W. Bush's. "I have wisdom. I feel love. I live in the present and I try to present a dimension that brings harmony and healing," the 58-year-old rock icon said. "My concept is the opposite of George W. Bush." Santana, speaking to Peruvian journalists ahead of a Tuesday concert, said young people's opposition to the war in Iraq is reaching the dimensions of the anti-Vietnam war sentiment in the 1970s. "There is more...

AUSTIN, Texas (Creators Syndicate) -- President Bush has once more undertaken to explain to us "Why We Fight," which is also the title of an excellent new documentary on Iraq. According to the president, "Our goal in Iraq is victory." I personally did not find that a helpful clarification. According to the president, we are doomed to stay in Iraq until we "leave behind a democracy that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself." That's not exactly getting closer every day. But, the Prez sez, "A free Iraq in the heart of the Middle East will make the American...

George Soros' Open Society Institute is preparing to dole out a goodly sum to ensure that all the positive, fawning coverage Hurricane Katrina's death and destruction has been receiving finally gets balanced out a bit with the hitherto unheard bad news: The Katrina Media Fellowships, sponsored by The Open Society Institute (OSI), will support media makers working in print and radio journalism, photography, and documentary film and video to generate and improve media coverage of critical issues of poverty, racism, and government neglect in the Gulf Region that were laid bare by Hurricane Katrina. This one-time fellowship will be awarded...

One of the biggest problems confronting higher education is the fact that most students entering colleges and universities lack basic social science skills and knowledge. In a recent survey of college students in Buffalo, for example, almost half did not know who George Pataki is. Eighty percent had no idea, correct or incorrect, as to what communism is. Nearly the same number of students couldn’t define capitalism. For whatever reason, social science education in America has collapsed at the high school level. For a democracy that relies on an informed electorate, such ignorance is toxic.

Jay Bennish is a teacher who collects paychecks for teaching Colorado high school students about geography. Here is a sample from one of Bennish’s classes: “Do you see how this economic system [capitalism] is at odds with humanity? At odds with caring and compassion? It is at odds with human rights. Anytime you have a system that’s designed to procure profit, when profit is the bottom motive, money, that means money is going to become more important potentially than what? Safety, human lives, etcetera.” According to Tustin Amole, Public Information Officer for the Cherry Creek School District, the above statement...

One of the Democratic party's leading voices on Iraq warns the strife-torn country is on the verge of civil war. His remarks tonight came during a foreign policy address at Brown University. The senator said the conflict in Iraq is more a political and economic battle than a military one. He faulted the Bush administration for failing to better develop Iraq's infrastructure, economy and government institutions.

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Addicted to oil? Just oil? You're joking? No, we're a "nation of addicts," doing what addicts do best: Denying reality. In denial the brain can rationalize anything. The more self-destructive an addict's behavior, the stronger their denial, louder their protests, arrogance, bravado, even optimism: "I'm fine, everything's under control!" So when a Texas oilman admits 295 million Americans are addicted to oil, as President Bush did in his State of the Union address, that's historic! I've worked professionally with people in and out of recovery; politicians, doctors, celebrities, rock stars, pro athletes and royalty, some in the...

A community college student in Massachusetts faces possible disciplinary action for shouting "Remember Chappaquiddick!" during an on-campus speech by Democrat Sen. Edward Kennedy. Paul Trost, 20, a student at Massasoit Community College in Brockton, Mass., says he was upset by an introduction of Kennedy given by Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., in which the congressman noted how the long-time senator overcame hardship in life on his way to success. "Lynch said Kennedy had overcome such adversity to get to the place he was, and that's a bunch of bull," Trost said of the introduction, which occurred in the school's student center...

I'm going to post something that I know will not be popular. I intend to make it civil and respectful, and hope that most of the replies (all would be too much to ask) maintain that tone. If you believe everything you read on Free Republic, most Americans are dedicated to the destruction of America. Start with the 48+% who voted for John Kerry last November, then toss in the RINOs and those who enthusiastically voted for them, the folks who are solidly conservative with single-issue exceptions like abortion, immigration or the War, anyone who works for a media outlet...

Maureen Dowd of The New York Times, while turning herself into a caricature of Maureen Dowd, has lately pushed pop-culture references and amateur psychology to previously unimagined levels of absurdity. She began the process in the 1980s when she became a reporter in Washington, discovered that issues of government bored her and determined to get the politics out of politics. Her strategy was to cast politicians in cultural fantasies. During the 1992 primaries she said that one now-forgotten Democrat was enacting a scene from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; later she said the same guy sounded like Daisy Buchanan...

An Open Letter to Bush Haters September 7th, 2005 I just want to say that, however much I disagree with you, I sympathize with your frustration. Since, in the rather restricted circle in which you move and converse (mathematicians would call it a “closed set”), everyone shares your hatred, it is hard for you to see us nodding approval at almost everything Bush does. You wonder how we can be so fatuously stupid; why can’t we see how wrong, how evil Bush is! The intensity and irrationality of your hatred—even to the point of a willing suspension of disbelief in...

This is a review of the performance of George W. Bush in tight times in this nation. It might explain the single solitary most catastrophic collapse of American government in all of our times. Mark ye well. This was the week when we turned a major American city into Haiti, and racism put its hand out and started to choke a nation, and it may not let go. With the water coming from the sky and the bottom of the sea, driving with such ferocity that a major American city, New Orleans, followed its face into the water, George W....

Rush transcript of NPR's Neil Conan, speaking by phone with Cindy Sheehan: NC: Very nice of you to be with us today. CS: [cheerfully] Oh, thank youuu! NC: I know that you were, uh, out in California last week because your mother was ill. How’s she doing? CS: Um, she’s doing better. They’re trying to keep her from having another stroke. And if she doesn’t have another stroke, she should be able to recover. NC: That’s good news. Now, tell us, a little bit about your son, Casey. CS: My son Casey was an amazing human being. He was gentle,...

Cindy Sheehan just finished her morning media event. When asked by reporters, Sheehan said she believes that while she supports the continued hunt for Osama bin Laden she believes the U.S. should withdraw from Afghanistan and “stop bombing innocent people.” She also described Osama bin Laden as being “allegedly” behind the attacks of 9/11. To those who have criticized her political stance, which includes allegations that the war in Iraq was “done for Israel” that George Bush is “the world’s biggest terrorist” and that al Qaeda may not be behind attacks on America, Sheehan said, “I know my son better...