Independent since 2002 Issue No. 1102 Week of November 7, 2026 Get the free email dispatch →

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Guest Commentator

Daniel N. White

BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentator, Daniel N. White, has lived in Austin,Texas, much longer than he figured he would. He reads more than most people and a whole lot more than we are all supposed to. He recommends all read his earlier piece in BC, 1975 Redux, which is still, in his estimation, the best piece on the Iraq surge anybody printed when it started. He is still doing blue-collar work for a living - you can be honest doing it - but is fairly fed up with it right now. He invites all reader comments, and will answer all that aren’t too insulting. Click here to contact Mr. White.

8 pieces

Guest Commentary

The Footprints and Shadow of LBJ

By Daniel N. White Guest Commentator

Living in Austin, Texas, you still, this many years on, are living in the shadow of LBJ. His footprints are all over this place, if you know what to look for. I doubt that’s the case for most other presidential stomping grounds, certainly isn’t from what I’ve seen of other presidents’ home towns. Austin, current…

Living in Austin, Texas, you still, this many years on, are living in the shadow of LBJ. His footprints are all over this place, if you…

Continue reading 18 min

Commentary

New Year’s Resolution

By Daniel N. White Guest Commentator

BC“s call for New Year’s Resolutions that I’m making for myself, or that I’d want someone else to make for themselves has me in a bit of a pickle. I hardly ever bother with New Year’s resolutions – in my younger days I’d generally pick something grandiose that wouldn’t ever get done or happen, and…

BC“s call for New Year’s Resolutions that I’m making for myself, or that I’d want someone else to make for themselves has me in a bit…

Continue reading 4 min

Guest Commentary

Obama’s Plan for Afghanistan

By Daniel N. White Guest Commentator

Obama’s plan for a military escalation in Afghanistan is bad news for Afghanistan and the United States, and for the peoples in both countries, and really for the entire world. Something this stupid this violent this wrong this futile this doomed can’t conceivably do anyone anywhere in this world any good, outside the US” munitions…

Obama’s plan for a military escalation in Afghanistan is bad news for Afghanistan and the United States, and for the peoples in both countries, and really…

Continue reading 4 min

Commentary

Both Forgotten and Misread – Part 2: Robert Taber’s The War of the Flea

By Daniel N. White Guest Commentator

Taber, in his War of the Flea: The Classic Study of Guerrilla Warfare, shows himself a first-rate analyst of political situations, both past historical ones and (then current) ones. Back when Flea was written, the United States, and other countries, Mao’s China foremost, were infatuated with the notion of guerilla wars and wars of national…

Taber, in his War of the Flea: The Classic Study of Guerrilla Warfare, shows himself a first-rate analyst of political situations, both past historical ones and…

Continue reading 7 min

Guest Commentary

Both Forgotten and Misread: Robert Taber’s The War of the Flea

By Daniel N. White Guest Commentator

Just finished re-reading the ‘60’s counterinsurgency classic, War of the Flea: The Classic Study of Guerrilla Warfare, by Robert Taber. I think I read it back in high school, as it has that real familiar feel to it of a book you’d read years ago. The details were gone from my memory; if you’d asked…

Just finished re-reading the ‘60’s counterinsurgency classic, War of the Flea: The Classic Study of Guerrilla Warfare, by Robert Taber. I think I read it back…

Continue reading 4 min

Commentary

Energy Days at the University of Texas

By Daniel N. White Guest Commentator

Each of the panelists received ten minutes for their presentation, a time limit that was waived for the guest from Brookings. UT led off with Michael Webber talking knowledgeably about how plans for the energy future had to meet the basic laws of physics and chemistry, something of which proponents of various schemes in the…

Each of the panelists received ten minutes for their presentation, a time limit that was waived for the guest from Brookings. UT led off with Michael…

Continue reading 3 min

Commentary

Candidates’ Fear and Reporters’ Scripts:The DA Race in Austin, a Microcosm of the Bigger Races

By Daniel N. White Guest Commentator

It’s election season again, and campaign news stories time again, too. There’s one race in my parts I’m paying attention to, even if the news crowd isn’t, and that’s the local DA race here in Travis County (Austin), Texas. The previous DA of 30 years is retiring, and there was a four-way contest of current…

It's election season again, and campaign news stories time again, too. There's one race in my parts I'm paying attention to, even if the news crowd…

Continue reading 6 min

Guest Commentary

1975 Redux

By Daniel N. White Guest Commentator

The Bush et al new plan for Iraq that has been announced was as open a secret as Christmas. 20,000 or so more troops (some yanked from Afghanistan–that’s good thinking) and a billion dollars for job creation in Iraq. I’m laughing–all of a sudden it is Spring 1975 again, with the same crew now as…

The Bush et al new plan for Iraq that has been announced was as open a secret as Christmas. 20,000 or so more troops (some yanked…

Continue reading 5 min

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