In a December 31, 2007, editorial, the New York Times faulted the current president and vice president of the United States for kidnapping innocent people, denying justice to prisoners, torturing, murdering, circumventing U.S. and international law, spying in violation of the Fourth Amendment, and basing their actions on "imperial fantasies."

Um, thanks for finally noticing. What would you suggest we do about it?

"We can only hope," concludes the New York Times, quite disempoweringly, "that this time, unlike 2004, American voters will have the wisdom to grant the awesome powers of the presidency to someone who has the integrity, principle, and decency to use them honorably. Then when we look in the mirror as a nation, we will see, once again, the reflection of the United States of America."

But here's the problem (other than the pretended certainty that Bush won the 2004 election):

We urgently need your help to stop a live animal lab from taking place at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Ohio this month. The school plans on using pigs in its elective laparoscopy surgery lab. Pigs are highly intelligent, social, and sensitive animals. According to this recent article in The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Case Western has stopped using live dogs, cats, and ferrets to teach surgery and other medical courses, and it also plans to stop using pigs—but not until the next academic year. Live animal laparoscopy labs are easily replaced by inexpensive, high-quality simulators. Please urge Case Western to discontinue its live animal lab program today. Being polite is the most effective way to help these animals.

Here’s what you can do to help:

Call Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Dean Pamela B. Davis, M.D., Ph.D., at 216-368-2825 and politely ask her to end the school’s live animal lab once and for all.
Send an automatic e-mail to Dr. Davis and politely ask her to end the school’s live animal lab program now.

By all standards, the situation unfolding in Somalia is horrifically grim, and according to the UN, it is the worst crisis in Africa; worse than the crisis in Darfur that outraged the world’s conscience in an unprecedented way.

However, unlike Darfur, Washington has a role in the creation of this massive humanitarian crisis and therefore must have a role in rectifying it.

As Washington was claiming to care about winning the “hearts and minds of the Muslim world” in order to curb the ubiquitous Anti-Americanism around the world, it was stubbornly pursuing that same ill-tempered foreign policy that considers all

“Islamists”-- euphemistically understood as all Muslims who believe that their religion is a comprehensive way of life-- potential enemies; that same policy that has proven miserable failure everywhere it was implemented.

As a result, creepily emerging in the past few months was the nightmare scenario that many analysts warned against as John Bolton, the US Ambassador to the UN, in his last days, aggressively pushed for resolutions that would ultimately pave the

Many U.S. media outlets were quick to give us a primer on Islamic terrorism in the wake of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination last week, even though actual evidence points the finger far more at our ally in the war on terror, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, than it does at the Taliban or al-Qaida.

Indeed, McClatchy Newspapers recently reported that Bhutto, at the time of her murder, was in possession of evidence that Pakistan’s military intelligence agency was planning to rig the upcoming election (then scheduled for Jan. 8) in Musharraf’s favor, supplying, as if it were needed, an obvious motive for getting rid of her.

While there was some good, or at least restrained, reporting by U.S. media as the tragedy unfolded, the main sources of news for most Americans maintain what I can only call a cocked trigger of jingoism, which often goes off before the screams subside and the blood and debris are hosed into the gutter.