Ted Rall

Like Capone, Alberto Gonzales has gone down for a mere misdemeanor: firing U.S. attorneys for investigating Republican politicians.

Before 9/11 and “preventative detention” and legal torture and scary new laws like the USA-Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act eliminated habeas corpus, Padilla would have sat in jail a day or two. He might have gotten roughed up. Then he’d have walked. That was under democracy.

Zhang Shuhong was a nice boss to the end. On the last day of his life the fiftyish entrepreneur greeted his employees as they arrived at his factory and wished them a good shift. Then he went to the company warehouse and hanged himself.

Run your neighborhood through your state’s Megan’s Law database and you’ll likely conclude that sex offenders are all over the place. One is too many, but the problem isn’t as widespread as we’ve been led to believe.

It was a beautiful afternoon in early autumn, and for an instant I mistook the brightly colored lights flashing in my rearview mirror for streaks of sunlight filtering through gently turning leaves.

Desperate people are more tempted to accept a job that could cost them their lives.

On Iraq, the right was wrong. It’s a slam dunk. So why do the wrong righties keep raking in big media cash? And why aren’t lefties taking a victory lap?

The Red Mosque crisis symbolizes the devil’s bargain Pakistan’s ruling elites have struck with Islamic radicals since independence from Britain, a tacit understanding that has turned this nuclear-armed state into a terrifying cauldron of instability.

The last time I wrote from here was 1999. I filed my column from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Now there isn’t enough left of that somewhat fictional official autonomy to justify the dateline.

Ted Rall reports from Tajikistan: In Tajikistan, US runs a distant fifth in the race for hearts and minds.

Ted Rall reports from Tajikistan: Totalitarian lunacy has returned to Central Asia.

George W. Bush didn’t own a passport before 2001. Seventy-nine percent of Americans don’t have one now. Maybe they’re better off.

America’s experiment with neofascism is coming to an end.

This column isn’t about the war. It’s about logic.

Government agencies began spying on me shortly after 9/11. I have repeatedly suffered service interruptions at the hands of a government whose laughably inept phone-tapping skills match its inability to respond to a hurricane or tornado.

If I knew who was going win the presidency next year, I wouldn’t tell you. I’d place a bet.

We haven’t just lost in Iraq. For a lot of the same reasons, the US war against Afghanistan was doomed before it began.

Four years late and half a trillion dollars short. Why didn’t George Tenet tell us this stuff when it mattered — before we invaded Iraq?

Most Americans are shocked by school shootings. Not me. I’m amazed they don’t happen more often.

Did Imus have a legal right to his spot on drive-time radio in New York? Obviously not. But that’s not the point.