General Odom Calls for Withdrawal

May 2, 2006

I don’t usually lift articles whole, but in this case, I’m making an exception. Lieutenant Geneal William Odom is senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and professor at Yale University. He was director of the National Security Agency from 1985 to 1988. From 1981 to 1985, he served as Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence,

Professionalize Arizona’s Legislature

May 2, 2006

I have a modest proposal: let’s pay for a professional full-time legislature and then expect to get one. It is politically and, in many cases, ideologically difficult for our legislature to raise their own pay to a livable wage. Currently the job pays a mere 24,000 a year, plus per diem, which I understand can

Powell Positioning for GOP Run in 2008?

May 1, 2006

Link: Powell Forces Rice to Defend Iraq Planning Gen. Colin Powell gave an interview to ITV (a British network) in which he charged that as Secretary of State he gave the Administration specific advice in 2003 to utilize a substantially larger force when invading Iraq, and was ignored. Powell now joins the ranks of former

Patriot Change: The UniTax

April 30, 2006

A long-time shibboleth of Conservative philosophy has been the institution of a flat tax. Every Conservative ideologue worth his salt has seriously toyed with idea. One of the most offensive things to Conservatives about our current income tax system is its progressivity; it takes a larger percentage bite as your income rises. Many Republicans just

The Man Who Tried to Hold Back the Cold War

April 29, 2006

Having started reading a biography of Henry Agard Wallace out of sheer curiosity, I was surprised to find his political biography to be eerily relevant to our current political environment. Wallace was a scientific breeder and farmer whose family owned a popular Iowa farmer’s newspaper. He wrote for and edited the paper and later founded the Pioneer Hy-Bred corporation, which sold hybrid corn, chickens and other produce, which became a multi-billion dollar concern (an entrepreneurial capitalist irony that will become richer as the story proceeds). He was originally a Republican, like his father, Henry C. Wallace, who served as Secretary of Agriculture under Harding. The inaction of the Republicans in the face of the terrible suffering of the Great Depression drove Henry A. Wallace into the arms of more the pragmatic and experimental New Dealers within the Democratic Party.

If you are like most people, the name Henry Wallace might be familiar, but you aren’t sure exactly why. Henry Wallace became Secretary of Agriculture in the first two Roosevelt Administrations, where he presided over some of the largest and most influential New Deal programs. In 1940, Wallace joined the Presidential ticket to shore up Roosevelt’s left wing. As Vice President, Wallace was unusually active in war planning and setting policy, and headed the Economic Warfare Board. Heading into the 1944 Presidential season, Roosevelt decided to run for a fourth term, despite his failing health, and Wallace was his heir apparent, polling the far beyond any other contender for the Presidency in 1948. But due to political maneuvering still not fully understood, but clearly approved of by the ailing Roosevelt, Wallace was dumped from the ticket and Truman was chosen instead.

Tony Snow Will Be White House’s Lying Propaganda Hack

April 25, 2006

Everyone says Tony Snow is getting a new job. He is said to be switching from Fox News to the White House Press Secretary. But that’s not changing employers so much as just changing cubicles. Same bullshit, different podium. Now that Scott McClellan has squandered all his available credibility fronting for the Bush White House,