Quark, I think Obama hired McCrystal because he is seen as an expert in counter-insurgency, the kind of war he wants to fight, and to give hiimself "military cred" and because the Pentagon is pushing him into continuing some war, any war. The McC report was leaked to force his hand. The Pent is challenging him for control of the armed forces: we have civilian control of the military in this country, but I think they are trying to take it over (the military)
By law, Obama can do whatever he wants, but I think the military is trying to control his decisions and I think they have some way of pressuring him, that we don't know about. Military coup anyone?

B Roll,

Yes, that is why it's such an outrage. The neocons are still calling the shots...

If u haven't heard what Blumenthal has come up with this is going to blow you away.

What on Earth has america come to? Over 730 people voted in a Facebook Poll on the question "Should Barack Obama be Killed?" before it was taken down.

I am deeply ashamed to have to share oxygen, much less my nation, with whoever posted that poll.

@Gerald Socha -

Perhaps you didn't get the memo ...

Rule #1 of polite discourse among bloggers -

The party who resorts to referring to those who disagree with him as Nazis loses the arguement.

We might also apply to your comments the following, from John Lennon's "Revolution"-

But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao,
You ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow.

If your goal was to rant, rave and make yourself feel better by such venting, then I guess your opening comments here today fulfilled that goal.

If, however, your goal was to change anyone else's way of thinking about the world, I'm afraid you'll need to calm down a bit & try again.

About SCOTUS: Was it not only in the head note that the clerk claimed the court found that the court found that corporations are persons - wasn't it also in the record that the court actually did not even consider the matter? Wouldn't that nullify any claim that the court found a certain way, given that they had not even considered the matter?

Gerald,
I don't completely disagree with your views of war. I would support all efforts to move towards a conflict adverse world. I personally couldn't support a unilateral laying down of arms. There are many malevolent forces in the world and evil people who exploit weakness. I would rather us get out of Iraq yesterday. There are more than 140,000 troops there along with more than 160,000 so-called contractors. I am concerned about the vacuum we would create by pulling out immediately. The Taliban is a force of ignorance which I oppose. Al Queda is a force for hatred and violence. Neither can be ignored safely. Getting OBL would provide a real world shortcut to getting out for this President. OBL is far more than a "boogyman". Political reality precludes your solution. It shouldn't be that way, but it is what it is. You have no argument with me over your views of W, but, That was then, and this is now. If you really want to make wars less likely here in the U.S.A. lobby for a national draft that all are required to be eligible for.

PLEASE NOTE:

Thom's dear friend and mentor Gottfried Mueller passed away on Saturday September 26.

I would suggest that this blog be used on Tuesday and Wednesday, while Thom is at the funeral, for uplifting post. I'm sure Thom will be fine, but this is the second major loss Thom has experienced in several months. Maybe this is a good time to consider our common humanity.We could post personal stories, poems etc and links to uplifting material. I think this would be in the spirit of Gottfried Mueller who Thom loves so much.

We can resume our normal activities when Thom gets back. Of course, no one can tell anyone else what to post, but it seems that it would be a show of respect for Thom and Mr. Mueller. If I, being Thom's most consistent critic here, can do it so can some of you.

DDay, I gave each or our sons a copy of this letter. Daughters are also welcome to receive a copy.

http://www.populistamerica.com/a_letter_to_my_son_regarding_the_problem_...

Please read this letter! I believe this letter is also me as a human being and not some machine.

In regard to Thom's comments in regard to Hugo Chavez on Friday, I can’t say that I’m as ambivalent as he is. Yes, Chavez does seem to have a sliver of dictator in him, although of the “enlightened” kind. But this must be expected, not merely because of Latin America’s rather tenuous concept of democracy, but because Chavez has had to meet power with power in his struggle with the Euro-elites who dominate the social, political and economic structure of the continent. It must also be remembered that not long after his ascent to power, the elites attempted a coup against him, doubtless with the quiet acquiescence of the Bush administration; Chavez has never forgotten this, which has goes a long way to explain his blustering against the U.S. It also must be admitted that the U.S. has had a long and shameful history of supporting right-wing regimes in Latin America that have oppressed the poor and indigenous populations—and opposing leftist regimes that sought to change that equation; some on the left have even joined the right in demonizing and conspiracy theorizing in regard to Chavez. Venezuela is also a major oil producer, which is really why the U.S. has any interest at all in what is going on there—and better power in the hands of the elites than the people.

Chavez clearly considers himself of man of the oppressed peoples, and not just in his country. It should come as no surprise that he has alienated himself with those who identify with the Euro-elite class, but the efforts of that class to block the uplift of the impoverished masses has clearly not gone unnoticed by the majority of Venezuelans who support Chavez. They can see for themselves that the country’s oil revenues have gone to build schools and medical clinics where there were once none, and not all in the pockets of elitist few.

With already over 500 hundred proposed amendments to the Senate finance committee’s health care “reform” plan—many of them by finance committee members themselves, and many designed to be destructive—one may fairly ask why Sen. Baucus even bothered releasing the plan, being half-baked and all. It is clear that he felt some pressure to release something, just not anything. After six months, we should have expected a plan with a little a little thing called substance; its idea of “universal” care is mini-medical insurance, which I have already mentioned on this page several times is next to useless. It is clear that Baucus efforts at a bipartisan agreement were as pointless as Obama’s, and the fact the finance committee plan as it stands is little more than a patched-up framework to hang insurance industry dirty laundry ought be proof that budget reconciliation is the only possible way that a substantive health care reform bill will be passed. Harry Reid's need to get a balls transplant and inform Baucus he has two weeks come up with a substantive plan, or he will proceed without the finance committee.

Meanwhile, I mentioned on Friday that Glenn Beck was to receive the keys of his “hometown” of Mount Vernon, Washington. I’ve never been to this place (frankly, I don’t know where it is), but it surely must have little of credit if it must settle for this con artist with his tongue sticking out on the cover of Time magazine. Beck’s visit was the excuse for a street shout-out by pro and con forces, to be expected given the nature of Beck’s irrational method of discourse.

Speaking of irrational, Rush Limbaugh once again spent time trashing Jimmy Carter, blaming him and Barack Obama for causing the economic mess we are in, conveniently forgetting everything else in between. But there is something singularly disgusting about a fat slob, making tens of millions of dollars a year expectorating the propaganda of the powerful and wealthy elite to gullible bigots, belittling Carter’s Habitat for Humanity program. People everywhere are on the verge of destitution because of Wall Street’s profits over people philosophy, and here is this person who has never contributed a single constructive thing with his life, who after 30 years of hands-off Reaganomics has the impudence to lie to his listeners that it’s the “government’s fault.” It is, but because of what it did not do, not what it did. Talk, talk and more talk of a destructive nature is all he has ever done, to advance the will of the corporate and political elite in its quest to turn the working class into a whimpering, foolish mass that will be no threat to their power and greed.