Emboldened began as an open dialogue between friends in December 2004. While it continues to serve as an internal sounding board for its members, the blog has transformed into something more. Initially a shelter for our maturing political thoughts, it is now a beacon broadcasting outwards for any and all to see.
As a […]

Maureen Dowd finally penned a column (Times Select link) that reminds us that she’s more than just snarky pop culture jokes and trite turns of phrase. In it she writes of the violence suffered by a CBS news crew and the painful anonymity of the violence that’s ongoing in Iraq.
An American soldier was killed […]

Major news in the Emboldened world. As you may or may not have guessed, TST and I are not only co-bloggers and co-owners of Murphy, but roommates as well. It’s been a year of living in a hotbed of political, technical, and strategic discourse and, as of today, our lease is up. *sigh*
I’m moving down […]

Our pal NTodd is in need of some hits to reach some magical number before he turns into a pumpkin. Or something.
He’s literally begging for hits and I’m worried that he’ll wear holes into the knees of his jeans if you don’t stop by and visit him. Multiple times would be great and I’m […]

Congressman John Murtha, November 2005:
The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion. The American public is way ahead of us. The United States and coalition troops have done all they can in Iraq, but it is time for a change in direction. Our military is suffering. […]

The Financial Times noted over the weekend that Internet advertising is “poised to overtake national press” advertising spending. Considering that there is likely more content put up online daily than every newspaper ever printed combined this may simply be a matter of scale, but the ramifications of this development are important. That spending […]

This morning the nation’s two leading traditional print media outlets have published what can be described at best as chronic doubting and at worst, hit pieces, on Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s two most visible female politicians. The articles, written by Mark Leibovich of the New York Times and Dan Balz of […]

Bob Herbert (Times Select link):
There is no shortage of weaselly politicians and misguided commentators ready to tell us that we can’t leave Iraq — we just can’t. Chaos will ensue. Maybe even a civil war. But what they really mean is that we can’t leave as long as the war can continue to be fought […]

Mulligan of Bring It On! has posted the names of every US soldier who has died in Afghanistan and Iraq. There are 2,738 American names - almost 300 are from this year alone.
I find it hard to look at this painfully long wall of names and see the similarities between this memorial and the Vietnam […]

It’s nice that the Bush administration is no longer making any attempt to hide its anti-democratic governing ruling philosophies.
The Bush administration has asked federal judges in New York and Michigan to dismiss a pair of lawsuits filed over the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping program, saying litigating them would jeopardize state secrets.
In papers filed […]