Newsday

Inside the mind of former Secretary of State James A. Baker III:

They are finally starting to listen to me on Iraq. My, what a difference eight months makes. Back in December, when Lee Hamilton and I -- plus eight other sturdy pillars of the establishment -- issued our Iraq report, we thought we were doing the Bush administration a favor.

That is, we were offering the White House -- which had just gotten its butt kicked in the midterm elections precisely… more

For 231 glorious years, America has survived and mostly flourished.

But just as we were not guaranteed those first 231 years -- we had to win our freedom, then defend our freedom -- neither are we guaranteed a bright future in a cloudy world. So let’s look back, before we look ahead.

In every era of our history, some Americans have been actively engaged in promoting our survival -- while others have not.

During the American Revolution, for example, the 13 colonies were… more

The recent terrorist incidents in the United Kingdom need to be considered alongside the controversies in the United States over homeland security and immigration.

To put it bluntly, two great countries are under threat. Some people want to do something about the threat, others want to do nothing.

Let’s start with the attempted car-bombings across the Atlantic. All the suspects in the case appear to be Muslim; at least one is named "Mohammed." As the "7/7" bombings -- which killed 52 innocent… more

Remember, back in the ‘90s, when then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was peddling the "politics of meaning"? Well, government-provided therapy is back in the White House once again, this time brought to you by President George W. Bush.

But there is a difference. When Clinton, guided by Rabbi Michael Lerner, spoke of "the politics of meaning," she was hooted off the national stage. But when Bush offers his vision of soulcraft, a majority of the Senate seems eager to go along… more

Michael Moore’s new documentary, Sicko, which opens tomorrow, is coming along just in time to get credit for launching a national debate on health care. But the irony is that the biggest single factor in the renewed push toward national health insurance is coming not from Moore’s advocacy but from the Iraq war, which Moore loathes so much.

Without a doubt, "Sicko" will have an impact. House Democrats, for example, held a mock hearing in which Moore and Sicko were the… more

If a leading American presidential candidate -- and her husband, an ex-president -- seem to have unnaturally close connections to foreign companies interested in draining away American jobs, should that be of interest to Americans?

Some, including campaign rival Barack Obama, say yes, this should be a big story. But the mainstream media seem to say no. Why this media lack of interest?

For the past six years -- since Bill Clinton left the White House, since Hillary Clinton entered the U.S.… more

Today, it looks like the immigration issue is ripping apart the Republican Party. But tomorrow -- 2008 -- could be a different story.

Specifically, it’s George W. Bush who is ripping up Republican unity. Reflecting his own rich kid Texas roots -- doesn’t everyone own a ranch, requiring lots of nonwhite people to do the work? -- Bush is determined to bring the benefits of the Tara Plantation lifestyle to more of his fellow millionaires. But what about the middle class,… more

John Edwards, the millionaire turned populist, suggests that the Paris Hilton case bolsters his argument that there are "two Americas." Of course, for presidential candidate Edwards, targeting the left end of the Democratic Party, everything proves that there are two Americas.

Certainly, Edwards himself proves there is more than one America. After all, not too many of us put their millions into overseas investments, are paid $500,000 a year to advise a hedge fund and enjoy $400 haircuts.

But what about the… more

This week, the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War is bittersweet. Yes, Israel enjoyed a remarkable military victory, but in the decades since then the geopolitics of the region -- ethnic, religious, nuclear -- have grown ever more ominous.

So it was time for a new perspective -- or better yet, an old perspective. I went to my Ouija board and summoned up the ghost of the most famous political strategist of them all: Niccolò Machiavelli.

"Call me Nick," he said.

Worriedly,… more

Here are two reasons the American people don’t trust the federal government to keep them secure -- and why the immigration deal is likely to fail, cracking up on the rocks of public mistrust.

Consider the case of Andrew Speaker, the tort lawyer turned TB carrier. Diagnosed in January with a dangerous form of tuberculosis, the Atlantan was warned against flying but flew around the world anyway, potentially jeopardizing millions.

Federal officials were sufficiently alert to put him on a do-not-let-him-re-enter-the-country "watch… more