Courtesy of Jenny, an interesting advice column from salon.com entitled "Should I leave grad school to be an activist?" [subscription, or watch a short ad to get access]. In a nutshell, what we have here is a philosophy grad student coming to grips with what most of us realize at some point in the course of our Ph.D. programs: academia is not some idyll within which people sit around in smoky cafes airily debating Revolution (or Being or Truth...

US District Court Judge John Jones ruled today that the policies passed by the old Dover PA school board forcing the teaching of Intelligent Design are unconstitutional. (For the full-text of the judgment click here.) Halleluiah. The best part about the ruling is that it is written by a Bush appointed judge who personally advocates Intelligent Design, so hopefully that little tidbit of information will help head off the inevitable call that the...

A hypothetical conversation between Kristol and Schmitt.Kristol: Gary, this is bad. What can we come up with in a few days?Schmitt: Well, Bill, I've got some arguments sitting around about how the President actually has unlimited powers in times of crisis...Kristol: Is it the old "Commander-in-Chief" argument? Everyone's making that one.Schmitt: Sort of. You know the President's oath?Kristol: I think I can remember. How does it go again?Scmitt:...

I have very little to add to the just hues and cries of outrage after Bush's press conference. Kieran Healy nails the narrative. Ezra Klein overviews the deceit:So Bush's only justification for his program is speed. Fine. Which is why this can't be said enough: FISA allows for immediate wiretapping without the consent of a judge. All you need to do is, three days later, go get a warrant.Let's put this another way. Say Bush gets word of a...

Did you catch the President tonight? I cannot believe he did not specifically address the issue of domestic spying, though I realize it was the subject of Saturday's radio address. Before long, he may regret both yesterday's defiance and today's silence. We'll see.In any case, the President did make some interesting comments. For example, it is noteworthy that despite appearances, Bush apparently doesn't mind criticism -- so long as the critics...

More outrage from conservatives and liberals alike. Tony Arend rounds out some of the legal issues. It becomes more clear by the hour that Bush's actions were illegal, despite the spinning (and weaving, and dodging) of his defenders (hit tip: LGM).The current line of counterattack is twofold. First, impugn the integrity of the New York Times (not the most difficult task these days). Second, call the people who are leaking information about our...

President Bush acknowledged this morning that he ordered illegal surveillance of US citizens.In a rare live radio address, Bush defended the practice as a "vital tool" in defending the United States against another such attack.The presidential order was first reported in The New York Times on Friday. The report said the order allowed the National Security Agency to track international telephone calls and e-mails of hundreds of people without...

So many things going on in the world right now that I'd like to comment on, but can only link to. On top of grading and writing it looks like my sister-in-law could be having her first child any minute now. With that in mind I thought I would recommend some reading this morning. Enjoy.Pelosi Hails Democrats' Diverse War Stances: Democratic House leader Pelosi is ethused by the lack of a coherent position on an Iraq War exit strategy by...

Reuters:Say what?Did Bush say, in effect, "I'm to blame for the bad intelligence"? Is he taking the blame for using bad intelligence? I know he didn't take the blame for Iraq's enduring struggle against poor intel.Turns out, none of the above:"It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong. As president I am responsible for the decision to go into Iraq, and I am also responsible for fixing what went wrong by reforming our...

Holiday preparation, grading and related work has seriously cut into the hard-hitting, serious analysis of international political events that I would like to do right now (and I suspect that goes for my fellow members as well as posting has have been a bit slow lately). So for the time being I am forced to vent on that warrior of Christ, Bill O'Reilly.The Daily Show just did a typically hysterical bit on the conservative pundit's 'War on...

It appears Rob and I have much in common. From the Which Historic General Are You test (via Curzon at Coming Anarchy):You are...Julius CaesarYou scored 53 Wisdom, 73 Tactics, 59 Guts, and 45 Ruthlessness!Filed as: diversion

Chilling story in the Washington Post this morning on the lack of free speech in Afghanistan four years after the US invasion and toppling of the Taliban regime. What's so disturbing is that it's the type of story I expected to read before we brought down the Taliban.Additionally, Rodger has a post on the seemingly delusional Senator Mitch McConnell who stated that the transition in Iraq has been "rather smooth". Rather smooth? Compared to...