The Rant
December 2, 2008 - 6:39am.
The unbounded joy from the Democratic side of the political universe these days is tempered by economic realities of a faltering nation.
America is in trouble -- deep trouble -- and we are not going to get out of it by simply accepting everything that Barack Obama does as gospel and blaming everything that's happened on George W. Bush.
Yes, Bush is a bad President, perhaps one of the worst in history, but the many problems that face this nation have been decades in the making and much of the relief that we see as Bush's administration comes to an end follows what many -- myself included -- felt at what we hoped was the end of a national nightmare when the Clintons packed up to leave the White House.
Hal Brown
November 24, 2008 - 7:42am.
In 2005 a letter of "apology" proposed for the Arab world and attributed retired Marine Corps. Lieutenant General Chuck Pitman was circulated so widely by email that a search on Google turns up over 40,000 entries, mostly on Internet message boards. I just received a copy of this from someone I hadn't heard from since high school. I checked and discovered that letter was revealed to be a fraud by the websites Snopes and Truth or Fiction. That didn't stop right wingers from adding virulent attacks against Obama and Democrats to the original, some since his election, and continue it on its email journey.
Rob Kezelis
November 19, 2008 - 10:58pm.
During the last years of Clinton's presidency, and for the first six years of the (increasingly apparent criminal) Bush Cabal, both the House and Senate were controlled by one party. The GOP had a throttle over the entire government, including the DOJ, the courts, and the all important agencies. (EPA, NASA, SSN, and dozens more)
Oops, I forgot. Between bribes, pay-offs, faux news plants, and direct and indirect pressures, the Bush Cabal also had a decent grip on the media. So much for its so-called liberal bias, not when Sunday political talk shows sought out GOP stalking heads 60% or more of the time.
Phil Hoskins
November 13, 2008 - 3:34pm.
With the government throwing money at a failing financial system, I suggest we are losing a unique opportunity to reform and restructure our economy. Rather than put our tax dollars in the hands of institutions to trickle down to the rest of us, we should make investments in our future and give the rest to citizens to spend so that our money rises up the financial ladder.
Doug Thompson's Blue Ridge Muse
December 2, 2008 - 7:09am.
By putting Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton into one of the top jobs of his new administration, President-elect Barack Obama is -- depending on who you talk to -- making a brilliant tactical move or his is putting a fox in his henhouse and there won't be any eggs on the table in the morning.
During the bitter campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination, Obama often held Clinton up as an example of the outdated politics of the past. In the parimay, ge campaigned as much against the excesses of her husband's Presidency as on those of Geoge W. Bush.
Now he has Hillary Clinton by his side in a deal that is supposed to also muzzle the former President and limit his role on the international stage.
December 2, 2008 - 5:20am.
President-elect Barack Obama's nomination of Eric Holder to be Attorney General has raised new questions about Holder's involvement in the controversial pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich by President Bill Clinton shortly before he left office.
Holder's supporters have maintained that he was simply doing his job but Congressional records show Holder was much more involved than previously acknowledged.
Such a revelation raises questions about the honesty and integrity of the man who will serve as the nation's top law enforcement officer and whether or not Obama is serious about creating a "transparent" government.
Holder may be damaged goods and another ethically-challenged attorney general is not what voters expected from the President-elect.
December 1, 2008 - 6:13pm.
For the past 12 months, President George W. Bush has assured a skeptical nation that America's economy is strong and that we're not in a recession.
Today, the National Bureau of Econmic Research said what most Americans already knew: The U.S. is officially in a recession. In fact, it has been in a recession since December 2007.
Which means Bush lied.
The White House is now accepting the fact that the country is in a recession but is trying to spin the story by pointing out what it calls the positive steps the Bush Administration is taking to bring about economic recovery.
Meanwhile, the Dow closed down 700 points.
December 1, 2008 - 4:02pm.
President-elect Barack Obama unveiled his national security "dream team" Monday with former opponent Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton topping the field as Secretary of State.
With most of the names known well before the Monday announcement, the only question for those watching the press conference was what exactly would the President-elect say in describing the latest round of cabinet and key aide selections.
Obama called it "a new dan of American leadership" even though he has turned more and more to Washington insiders to be the symbols of the change that he promised the American people during the election campaign.
December 1, 2008 - 7:18am.
The Pentagon, rushing to complete lame-duck President George W. Bush's expansion of the military's role in the United States, is stepping up to put more troops inside this country and take over key roles in homeland security.
In a move that will certainly alarm civil libertarians and should concern American citizens, the military plan rolls back the Posse Comitatus Act that limits the military's role as a law enforcement agency inside U.S. borders.
Residents in and around the nation's capital have already witnessed the transformation of that city into an armed military camp. Assault weapon carrying soldiers guard federal institutions and commuters to and from work pass military vehicles topped with machine guns and manned by troops alongside public highways.
Blue's Reader Blogs...
December 1, 2008 - 10:11pm.
World AIDS day is as good a day as any to advance the theory that the entire scientific establishment is barking up the wrong tree. That is, they have accepted, uncritically, the hypothesis that HIV is the sole cause of AIDS. This is the scientific orthodoxy regarding AIDS in America and Europe, where it is to this day still largely confined to gay men, recreational drug users, and hemophiliacs. It is also the orthodoxy regarding AIDS in Africa, where the syndrome occurs more generally in the population. Yet it is asserted that HIV is the the cause of both "epidemics" (ironic quotes intentional).
December 1, 2008 - 12:54pm.
Obama has now presented his security team, a racially-mixed, politically-mixed, gender-mixed team that seems to be very comfortable together. Obama talked about his strategic view:
December 1, 2008 - 10:08am.
One of the greatest legacy of democratic governance is the right of free expression. During the era of monarchies, telling the truth to power was usually a direct ticket to prison or death. But democracy has made it possible for people to express their opinion no matter how diverse without fear of persecution. Most developing countries still clamping down on the media see the press as inconsiderate saboteurs trying to measure them against the advanced institutions of the developed countries. Others clamp down on the press because of religious differences with the free world. Still, others has political reasons.
December 1, 2008 - 9:28am.
Students lie, cheat, steal, but say they're good
In the past year, 30 percent of U.S. high school students have stolen from a store and 64 percent have cheated on a test, according to a new, large-scale survey suggesting that Americans are too apathetic about ethical standards.
I wasn't aware that good, ETHICAL people lie, cheat and steal! But this sure does explain how GW Bush remained POTUS for 8 years.
I mean how can you condemn someone else's actions when you do the same thing?
Simple answer is YOU CAN'T! Check this out!
Other findings from the survey:
December 1, 2008 - 2:35am.
It was a sad story.
A tragic story.
A part-time, seasonal employee hired to work the holiday rush at a Valley Stream, N.Y., Wal-Mart, was knocked down and trampled to death Friday morning as shoppers crowded their way into the store at 5 a.m. looking for door-buster bargains.
So we're hearing about greed and we're hearing about materialism, and how the meaning of the season has been lost in the quest for more and better consumer goods.
Uh, not so much.
This was the first year in the last eight that I wasn't out there in the middle of the night covering Black Friday as a newspaper reporter. I've interviewed dozens if not hundreds of people who waited in line 15, 20, even 30 hours in hopes of being one of the few shoppers to get the real bargains.
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