http://www.kentucky.com/751/index.xml News, sports, and entertainment from Kentucky.com en-us Copyright 2008 Kentucky.com Joe Galloway 60 Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:31:50 EST http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's Workbench webmaster@kentucky.com http://www.kentucky.com/840/story/580315.html http://www.kentucky.com/840/story/580315.html Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:31 EST
Here's to the American people, the electorate, for finally coming to their senses and voting for something different, for someone different and for a chance to fix the multitude of man-made disasters that confront us.

By their votes, the Republican revolution and all it has wrought . an economic meltdown, two endless wars, class warfare that's enriched the very rich and beggared everyone else and a treasury bulging only with IOU's . will be crushed.

That revolution began to take root with the criminality of Richard Nixon's administration, with its paranoid enemies list. It gathered steam in the time of Ronald Reagan and with Newt Gingrich's seizure of Congress.

To be sure, there have been pauses, first during Jimmy Carter's four years and then during Bill Clinton's eight, in the GOP's rush to recover . with interest . the presidential power that Nixon lost to a second-rate burglary and assorted other dirty tricks. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/840/story/528433.html http://www.kentucky.com/840/story/528433.html Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:51 EDT
There's nothing like a 504-point free fall in the Dow Jones Industrial Average to clear the mind and lead voters to set aside debate over such critical issues as lipstick on pigs and Gov. Sarah Palin's dismissal of the man who refused to fire her state trooper ex-brother-in-law.

The country now seems ready to focus on such previously peripheral issues as the staggering economy, job losses, home foreclosures, gasoline prices and the Bush administration's wholesale gutting of the regulatory agencies that were established to protect Americans from robber barons, health hazards and the destruction of the environment.

What a difference a bad day can make. Suddenly we're treated to the spectacle of Sen. John McCain conducting another of his patented 180-degree repositionings, this time from rabid deregulator to rabid re-regulator, especially when it comes to the latest generation of Wall Street predators.

McCain demonstrates such remarkable flexibility for a man his age that he eventually may strip away the last shreds of King George's robes and run naked into the uncertain future. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/840/story/501787.html http://www.kentucky.com/840/story/501787.html Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:10 EDT
For the better part of 60 years, two old Army pilots who loved each other argued over many a meal and drink as to which of them was the second best pilot in the world.

The two shared the cockpits of old Beaver prop planes and Huey helicopters; they shared rooms in military hooches all over the world; they shared a love of practical and impractical jokes; and they shared an undying love of flying and soldiers and the Army.

They also shared membership in a very small and revered fraternity of fewer than 105 men who are entitled to wear around their necks the light blue ribbon and gold pointed star that is the Medal of Honor, America's highest decoration for heroism above and beyond the call of duty.

Their story was told in a book that my buddy Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and I wrote 15 years ago, We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young, and in the Mel Gibson movie We Were Soldiers, released in 2002. Too Tall and Old Snake were ably portrayed in the movie. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/840/story/491761.html http://www.kentucky.com/840/story/491761.html Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:25 EDT
Only someone with a tenuous grasp on reality and a poor knowledge of history and the world could have looked into the flinty eyes of a onetime colonel in the Soviet KGB and .found him very straightforward and trustworthy..

That was newly elected President Bush's pronouncement in June 2001, on his first meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin.

This week, Bush got another look into the eyes and soul of Putin, as did the rest of the world, as Putin sent Russian T-72 tanks and Su-25 fighter-bombers roaring into the independent neighboring state of Georgia.

The Georgians, whose territory was part of the old Soviet Union from its inception, previously were known primarily for giving the world one of their sons, Josef Stalin. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/751/story/480415.html http://www.kentucky.com/751/story/480415.html Tue, 05 Aug 2008 02:02 EDT
There's military slang that seemingly applies to the situation on the ground in Afghanistan today. The operative acronym is FUBAR . Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition. That first letter doesn't really stand for fouled, and the R sometimes stands for repair .

One of the sharper military analysts I know has just returned from a tour of that sorrowful nation, which has been at war continuously since the Soviet army invaded it in late 1979.

Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who retired from the Army with four stars and a chest full of combat medals including two Distinguished Service Crosses, says we can't shoot our way out of Afghanistan and that the two or three or more U.S. combat brigades proposed by the two putative nominees for president are irrelevant.

He predicts that 2009 will be the year of decision as the Taliban and a greatly enhanced presence of .foreign fighters. try to sever roads and halt road construction to strangle and isolate the capital, Kabul, and attack NATO units that are hamstrung by restrictions and rules of engagement dictated by their governments. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/840/story/479811.html http://www.kentucky.com/840/story/479811.html Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:47 EDT
There's military slang that seemingly applies to the situation on the ground in Afghanistan today. The operative acronym is FUBAR . Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition. That first letter doesn't really stand for fouled, and the R sometimes stands for repair .

One of the sharper military analysts I know has just returned from a tour of that sorrowful nation, which has been at war continuously since the Soviet army invaded it in late 1979.

Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who retired from the Army with four stars and a chest full of combat medals including two Distinguished Service Crosses, says we can't shoot our way out of Afghanistan, and the two or three or more U.S. combat brigades proposed by the two putative nominees for president are irrelevant.

McCaffrey predicts that 2009 will be the year of decision as the Taliban and a greatly enhanced presence of .foreign fighters. try to sever roads and halt road construction to strangle and isolate the capital, Kabul, and attack NATO units that are hamstrung by restrictions and rules of engagement dictated by their home governments. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/840/story/475983.html http://www.kentucky.com/840/story/475983.html Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:20 EDT
The events of last week served to underline the fact that the war on terrorism was always really about Afghanistan and Pakistan, and that President Bush's splendid little adventure in Iraq was always a sideshow, even though it siphoned off the biggest chunk of manpower and resources.

The president and his would-be Republican successor, Sen. John McCain, had barely completed even one Iraq victory lap singing hosannas to the surge when they were obliged to begin thinking and talking about how they're going to shore up a failing policy in Afghanistan.

They would do well, as would McCain's opposite number, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, to give some serious thought to what's happening, or not happening, as the case may be, in neighboring Pakistan.

Completing the trifecta of perfect storms, Obama dropped by Baghdad for a chat with Iraqi and American military and civilian leaders. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki promptly invited U.S. forces in his country to leave, sounding quite comfortable with Obama's plan to remove the last American combat troops within 16 months of his taking office on Jan. 20. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/751/story/474209.html http://www.kentucky.com/751/story/474209.html Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:04 EDT
The events of last week served to underline the fact that the war on terrorism was always really about Afghanistan and Pakistan, and that President Bush's splendid little adventure in Iraq was always a sideshow, even though it siphoned off the biggest chunk of manpower and resources.

The president and his would-be Republican successor, Sen. John McCain, had barely completed even one Iraq victory lap singing hosannas to the surge when they were obliged to begin thinking and talking about how they're going to shore up a failing policy in Afghanistan.

They would do well, as would McCain's opposite number, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, to give some serious thought to what's happening, or not happening, as the case may be, in neighboring Pakistan.

Completing the trifecta of perfect storms, Obama dropped by Baghdad for a chat with Iraqi and American military and civilian leaders. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki promptly invited U.S. forces in his country to leave, sounding quite comfortable with Obama's plan to remove the last American combat troops within 16 months of his taking office on Jan. 20. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/751/story/455294.html http://www.kentucky.com/751/story/455294.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:28 EDT
Early next week, the U.S. Senate will vote on an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with a few small amendments intended to immunize telecommunications corporations that assisted our government in the warrantless and illegal wiretapping it has grown to love.

That such a gutting of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution even made it out of committee is yet another stain on the gutless and seemingly powerless Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.

That a majority on both sides of the aisle . not least of them the presumptive nominees for president of both political parties . intend to vote for such a violation of Americans' right to privacy and of the sanctity of their personal communications is a stunning surrender to those who want us to live in fear forever.

We are living in a time when the right of habeas corpus . which simply put is your right to be brought before a proper court of law where the government is made to prove that there is good and legal reason to detain you . recently survived by a margin of only one vote at the U.S. Supreme Court. ]]>