Opinion-Columns.com

Dow Chemical Continues an Ad Campaign in Poor Taste

It's an interesting corporate decision to ‘reintroduce’ a hundred year-old company with great fanfare and a $20 million annual budget. Since Dow bought Union Carbide, it may well need a reintroduction. Union Carbide was responsible for a continuing disaster in Bhopal, India, after it released 27,000 tons of MIC gas from a pesticide plant in 1984.

Why the Farce Continues Without Impeachment

There are those, and I am among them, who are amazed that this administration has yet to run afoul of an impeachment effort in the House of Representatives. The difficulty is that we who are in favor see the issue as one of necessary justice and the absolutely critical defense of the Constitution, while Nancy Pelosi sees it in terms of what is possible.

Getting in the Game, When Representative Government No Longer Works

Every special interest is in the game. Boeing and Microsoft, Wall Street and the pharmaceutical industry, everything from agriculture to zen has its lobby in the halls of the Congress of the United States. On a moment’s notice, the gun lobby or casino of your choice can marshal a quorum of lawmakers to get stuff done.

A National ‘American Idol,’ Boring Us to Death

The run-up to the primaries—still an agonizing six months away—has become a political parody of American Idol, with pasted-together faux ‘debates’ blindsiding a dozen wobbly candidates with questions like ‘all those who believe God created the earth, raise their hands.'’

Peter Pace and Colin Powell, a Commonality of Failure

Civilian leadership of the military is an American iconography, nurtured since our inception as a nation and serving us well in war and peace. So, why has it all gone so wrong? Is it the thrust of the modern Pax Americana, or an unfortunate coming together of wrong men at a very wrong time?

Is Alberto Gonzales Approaching His Wolfowitz Moment?

Paul Wolfowitz’s moment of truth and (effectively) his firing, wasn’t even remotely connected to paying big bucks to his girlfriend. Wolfie’s real downfall was predicated on gross mismanagement at the World Bank and, as usually happens with a mis-manager, the thorough trashing of subordinates.

‘Tarting Up’ Hasn’t a Thing to Do With Couric

Lesson #1 is, when you have no real defense, then change the basis of the argument. That’s what Leslie Moonves, the president (and tarter-in-chief) of CBS, did in response to a Dan Rather rant, but what can you expect of a guy named Leslie?

Clearing Off My Desk--Again

My periodic effort to keep my head above water. It’s been two and a half months and time now to clear off my desk again with brief acknowledgments and commentary on the stuff that was important to me and got run down by more immediate headlines.

Stop Me Before I Self-Destruct Again

Like lemmings headed off a cliff, Ford, Chrysler and General Motors sent their emissaries to Congress, demanding equal rights among themselves to pound the final nails into their collective coffins. Lacking a sensitivity for irony, no one among the various Senators being strong-armed handed out ‘Been There, Done That’ tee shirts.

The Washington Post With Egg on its Editorial Face

Ignorance is bliss. Sounding as if it were ghost-written for the Post editorial board (as indeed it may have been) by Robert Kagan, their neocon-attack-dog-in-reserve, the piece had its own  excesses of cynical mockery. He (it, they) continues,