There is no way this was an internal conspiracy, neither orchestrated nor permitted by our governmant.  (Information security would be too hard to maintain.)

 

Look, I am as critical of former President G.W. Bush as anyone.  And I I think we may never fully recover from his disastrous presidency.

Ed tries, once again, to illustrate Sarah Palin's imcompetence.  He does so, using logic an objective data.  And yet he will not change a single person's opinion.

We've gotten to the point where the woman could smile and say "I ain't carin' much about you." and crap on the podium, and her worshippers would announce "at least it's better than Obama's crap."

Political support in this country, thanks in large part to Sarah Palin, is now about personality worship, idolatry, and rooting for your "team", rather than considering the issues.

 

I would like this pecan pie.  Will you make it for me?

"I did not participate, which is sad because I honestly believe that Sgt. So-and-So deserves a thank you and a pat on the back. I just get nauseous at the idea of playing along with a crowd of people whose knee-jerk psychological response to images of the military is to explode into cheers or tears to fulfill social expectations or assuage guilt"

As we head toward the end of 2009, perhaps things are going ok for you.  (I really have little cause to complain.)

Or maybe you are out of a job.  Or lost your house.  Or are being deployed to war-ravaged regions.  Or are mind-bogglingly delayed at the airport, the delay justified by claiming it will prevent the sort of attack (a shoe bomb) that has never been successfully carried out.  Perhaps you're frustrated that a presidential campaign which promised hope and change, has instead provided a lot of the same, and little actual progress (despite having a supportive majority in the legislature).

And you might think, "how did I get here?"  "This is not my beautiful country!"

I think I have found the litmus test.  I mean, like the universal litmus test---about whether I understand how you work.

Do you like motorized watercraft?

If you answered anything other than an enthusiastic "YEAH!", I can probably understand your perspective, even if I disagree with it.  If you offered to show me your jet boat, I probably don't understand you, at all.

Armchair pundits from around the country have emphatically stated their position on "harsh interrogation techniques".  It seems that everyone knows whether or not the U.S. should waterboard.
One could argue that Jesse Venture, ex-Navy SEAL, who has undergone waterboarding, knows what he's talking about when he says, "It is no good, because you — I’ll put it to you this way, you give me a water board, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I’ll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders."
He suggests its ineffective.  But he's never had to interrogate a hardcore al Qaida terrorist! 

Ali Soufan has.  And either he's an enemy operative, or a liar, or his testimony to Congress should put all questions to rest.

I've always wanted to be a part of one of those "blog memes", where everyone posts something consistent with the meme's theme, on their blog.  But you need a theme with:

• Widespread appeal
• Simplicity
• Originality

And now, Dave Pell has (unknowingly?) provided a great starting point.  His piece is a brief assertion that President George W. Bush lowered expectations so much that President Obama needs to do very little be considered a success.

So how do you play along?  Simple:  Think of a brief statement of what you think President Obama needs to do to be a success.  Like Herr Pell, it could be that you think the bar has been set low.  Or you might think it's independent of President Bush's performance.  Or it might be that you have enormous expectations of President Obama (either by comparison or contrast with Bush).  Really, it's up to you.    (More rules after the "read more")

It feels as if an enormous weight has been lifted off our backs.  I'm not nearly as angry as Dave Pell (though I sympathize).

President Obama will soon take the oath of office.  President George W. Bush  leaves office having finally done one thing right in his life.  (You know what they say---even a broken clock is right twice a day.  Just making random choices would probably have yielded better results than GWB.)

It remains to be seen if our country will really survive the onslaught of Greenspan, Paulson, and George W. Bush.

I'd like to <i>hope</i>, though, that it will.  You know....hope.

(I know, some of you are wondering what the Cancer-in-Chief did right.  I consider this the right thing, even if W did try this (which reflects that the first was probably a lucky accident))

I was trying to think of what we really expect of the PoTUS...