The Fitzgerald Option

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Monday April 20, 2009 · 11:22 PM PDT

2009/04/20 · 23:22

In the wake of recent disclosures about the depths of the depravity to which the previous administration descended in its torture of "enemy combatants," the ACLU and MoveOn are calling for only solution that makes any real sense: the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate if any laws were broken. More below the fold...

Poll

64 votes Show Results

What should be done to those who authorized torture?

64 votes Vote Now!

What should be done to those who authorized torture?

Special Prosecutor

38 votes

Truth and Reconcilation Commission

2 votes

Congressional committee

0 votes

blue ribbon panel

1 vote

Ignore it, maybe it'll go away

2 votes

Summary show trials

3 votes

Extradite them to the Hague!

12 votes

Who needs a trial? I can think of a few "stress positions" to put Cheney in... a couple hundred times a month.

2 votes

Nothing, our Dear Leaders are above the law!

4 votes

Obama vs. the Military Industrial Complex?

unrepentantnewdealer

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday February 01, 2009 · 11:25 PM PST

2009/02/01 · 23:25

I've always had high hopes for the Obama administration in the area of national-security. But this certainly caught me off-guard:

"The Obama administration has asked the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff to cut the Pentagon's budget request for the fiscal year 2010 by more than 10 percent -- about $55 billion -- a senior U.S. defense official tells FOX News."

Yes, this is a suspiciously under-the-radar story that other outlets don't really seem to be picking up on much. And yes, this is Fox News we're talking about, so skepticism is appropriate. It also seems odd coming so soon on the heels of the imbroglio over the White House suspending its own new ethics standards to hire a high-profile lobbyist for defense contractor Raytheon. But if this report is accurate, we just might be on the verge of developing a reason-based, rather than a fear-based defense policy. Follow me below the fold...

Poll

106 votes Show Results

What should Obama do to the Pentagon's budget?

106 votes Vote Now!

What should Obama do to the Pentagon's budget?

Increase it by more than 10%

2 votes

Increase it by less than 10%

0 votes

Keep it at current levels

5 votes

Decrease it by less than 10%

7 votes

Decrease it by more than 10%

45 votes

Spend as much on the alleviation of suffering worldwide as we do on missile systems

6 votes

It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber

40 votes

Other (leave in comments)

1 vote

Is Rick Warren worth the outrage? An Open Letter to the Daily Kos community

unrepentantnewdealer

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday December 18, 2008 · 11:20 PM PST

2008/12/18 · 23:20

Ok, let’s get the caveats out of the way first. If I were in Obama’s shoes, I would probably not have picked Rick Warren to speak at my Inauguration. I’m enough of a separation of church-and-state zealot that I’d prefer not to have any religious involvement in the ceremony at all. Also, lest I be accused of telling anyone to shut up about this, rest assured that I’m not. People are disappointed, as I myself am, and disappointment is more than justified.

But outrage? Going completely ape-shi*t over this? Is this really the most productive use of our time? Are our supplies of righteous indignation limitless enough to waste on this when we have so many other pressing matters to attend to? Can't we register our dissent without blowing it up into an existential crisis?

Poll

107 votes Show Results

On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is l'affaire de Rick Warren?

107 votes Vote Now!

On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is l'affaire de Rick Warren?

29 votes

13 votes

11 votes

6 votes

1 vote

2 votes

4 votes

8 votes

2 votes

8 votes

DEFCON 2!!!! ALL HANDS ON DECK!!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!!!

23 votes

Michael Ware: The Last Honest Reporter?

unrepentantnewdealer

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday December 15, 2008 · 11:13 PM PST

2008/12/15 · 23:13

That assessment might be a bit harsh towards all the other practitioners of the art of journalism, most of whom are decent individuals who take their jobs seriously (or at least they think they do). But every now and then a singular figure like CNN's Michael Ware comes along to push the boundaries and show what journalism can and should be--and must be, if we are to maintain our republic.

This post was prompted by this article in Men's Health. Read it. Then meet me under the fold for further discussion of this brilliant man who has literally put everything on the line to bring the untold stories of this misbegotten war into the living rooms of millions of Americans.

Poll

159 votes Show Results

Greatest Iraq war correspondent?

159 votes Vote Now!

Greatest Iraq war correspondent?

Michael Ware (CNN)

107 votes

Nir Rosen (freelance)

8 votes

Bobby Ghosh (TIME)

1 vote

Richard Engel (NBC)

4 votes

Lara Logan (CBS)

15 votes

James Glanz (NY Times)

0 votes

Rob Riggle (Daily Show)

18 votes

Other (post in comments)

6 votes

Let America Be America Again

unrepentantnewdealer

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday November 05, 2008 · 8:31 PM PST

2008/11/05 · 20:31

From the moment I discovered this Langston Hughes poem as a freshman in high school, it has held pride of place. The themes of lost glory, never-fully realized promise, and national redemption through the hard work of all Americans of every color and creed resonated for me long before The Decider arrived on the scene. I imagined a day when
"those who live like leeches on the people's lives," the modern-day robber barons and the acolytes of ignorance and fear would be driven from our land like the money-changers from the temple. But it still seems so hard to imagine that this day has actually come to pass after all the centuries of struggle. As our new president-elect likes to say, quoting Martin Luther King, "The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice." I have no illusions about the difficulty of the tasks before us. But the process of repudiation and redemption has at least begun. And for today, that is enough. Hughes put it far better than any words I could ever conjure so I'll turn this post over to him:

unrepentantnewdealer

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday August 29, 2008 · 8:49 PM PDT

2008/08/29 · 20:49

So let me get this straight: Barack Obama, with 8 years of state experience and 4 years at the national level, a man who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations committee and has made several trips to Iraq: not qualified to be commander-in-chief; Sarah Palin, with NO federal-level experience, NO foreign policy experience, and only a year-and-a-half of state-level experience, a woman who was the mayor of a small town of less than 7,000 people in Alaska back when this presidential race began in late 2006: obviously ready to take over as America’s commander-in-chief at a moment’s notice!

Poll

48 votes Show Results

Sarah Palin is to John McCain as:

48 votes Vote Now!

Sarah Palin is to John McCain as:

John Edwards was to John Kerry

0 votes

Joe Lieberman was to Al Gore

0 votes

Dan Quayle was to George Bush Sr.

10 votes

Chester "Muttonchops" Arthur was to James Garfield

0 votes

Aaron Burr was to Thomas Jefferson

1 vote

Honestly, she's in a category of her own!

11 votes

"straw" is to "grasping man"

26 votes

It's National Security, Stupid!: Why Obama should pass on Biden and pick Clark

unrepentantnewdealer

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday August 21, 2008 · 10:52 PM PDT

2008/08/21 · 22:52

As of tonight, none but a very small circle around Senator Barack Obama know who he has picked to be his running mate. This is likely the last night on which that can still be said. While we all wait anxiously for that text message, I figured this would be the last chance to express my unease over the omnipresent reports that Obama has selected Senator Joe Biden to be his VP nominee.

Poll

59 votes Show Results

How many houses do YOU own?

59 votes Vote Now!

How many houses do YOU own?

27 votes

2 votes

0 votes

1 vote

More than 4

1 vote

I think... I'll have my staff get to you.... It's condominiums where... I'll have them get to you...

28 votes

McCain: HOW DARE YOU TELL ME TO CALM DOWN! I DON'T NEED TO CALM DOWN! I'M NOT SHOUTING!

unrepentantnewdealer

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday July 01, 2008 · 8:43 PM PDT

2008/07/01 · 20:43

It's sad that it's come to this:

"If you didn't think this was a coordinated attack on John McCain's credentials before, it's clear now that it is. Barack Obama's surrogates are telling the McCain campaign to 'calm down' about attacks on his military record? Seriously? Now somehow Wes Clark's attacks are John McCain's fault? It's absurd. If Barack Obama can't control his own surrogate operation, how can he be trusted to run the country?"
-McCain spokesman Brian Rogers

unrepentantnewdealer

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday May 15, 2008 · 11:01 PM PDT

2008/05/15 · 23:01

I see Nicweb has already noted the similarities between Barack Obama and the 20th century's greatest president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, on their national infrastructure plans. This is certainly a subject near and dear to the heart of this New Dealer. But after having read Jonathan Alter's excellent chronicle of FDR's First Hundred Days, "The Defining Moment," I suspect the similarities don't end there, though the comparisons may not sit easily with hard-core Obama supporters (of which I am admittedly one).

One of the most disconcerting things I encountered reading Alter's book was the sheer number of negative or somewhat dubious qualities FDR posessed - but these very same qualities were often the key to his success. FDR early in his career confronted the corrupt political machine of New York, just as Obama did to the ethics-challenged Daley machine in Chicago. Yet as they ascended the ladder of power, both of them made their peace with the urban political bosses, in way that disappointed their reformist supporters but, importantly, did not compromise their integrity.

Poll

127 votes Show Results

What role should John Edwards have in the Obama administration?

127 votes Vote Now!

What role should John Edwards have in the Obama administration?

Vice-President!

17 votes

Attorney-General!

76 votes

Anti-Poverty Czar!

26 votes

Supreme Court Justice!

3 votes

Don't you mean "in the Hillary administration?"

5 votes

It's Not Over Till the Fat Man Sings....

unrepentantnewdealer

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday May 06, 2008 · 9:27 PM PDT

2008/05/06 · 21:27

and Tim Russert just belted out the sweetest melody I've ever heard!

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The Fitzgerald Option

Obama vs. the Military Industrial Complex?

Is Rick Warren worth the outrage? An Open Letter to the Daily Kos community

Michael Ware: The Last Honest Reporter?

Let America Be America Again

Palin-drome

It's National Security, Stupid!: Why Obama should pass on Biden and pick Clark

McCain: HOW DARE YOU TELL ME TO CALM DOWN! I DON'T NEED TO CALM DOWN! I'M NOT SHOUTING!

Obama: The Next FDR?

It's Not Over Till the Fat Man Sings....