I am a news junkie.  I'm one of those people who is always interested in what's going on in the world.  Because of this, I always bought the morning paper to read, and watched the news shows on television.  When CNN appeared on the scene, it was almost a gift from heaven - news all the time, any time.  I won't say I was the best-informed person in the world, but I felt I was well-informed about what was happening in the world.

I use the past tense for a reason.  While I'm still a news junkie, and regard myself as fairly well-informed about the world, I no longer buy the daily paper, or watch the national or cable news programs.  

If I'm such a news addict, why don't I watch them, or buy the paper anymore?  One reason is that I can get more news via the Internet than by the traditional means.  But the principal reason is that for over the past decade, the "news" is now about entertainment and profit, not about informing the public.

It's no secret that the American military has been strained by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  Long and repeated deployments have caused many to leave the service.  There have been a number of news reports about the leadership losses, particularly in the junior officer ranks, as well as non-commissioned officers leaving.  Recruiting and retention has been a major problem for all services, but particularly the Army.  

As bad as it looks, it turns out the situation is even worse than the Army will admit.  Salon has an article on how the Army is handling its problem - by promoting unqualified soldiers.  

This is inducing flashbacks to the latter days of the Vietnam era, as well as the immediate post-war era.  Sergeants are known as "The Backbone of the Army" and when you have poor sergeants, you have problems.  It took years to rebuild the NCO corps, and the Army is now in the process of demolishing it.

This diary is an expansion of a comment I made that annetteboardman suggested I turn into a diary.  I'd like to thank her for the recommendation to Top Comments.  

I really hesitated about this, since it happened during an incredibly painful time of my life.    Public libraries are something that many people take for granted.  Most people never think of them, unless there's some tax or bond act, and then they wonder why we still have them.    They're often seen as hopelessly out-of-date, even irrelevant, in today's modern world.  You can purchase books over the Internet and have them delivered to your door.  You can always find a book store somewhere.  There are movie rentals all over, and again, you can even rent or buy them over the Internet.   Internet access is a given, and relatively cheap.  So who needs a public library these days?  I used to think that, until I learned the hard way that they're still important.

This morning, an ad during the morning news came on.  It began with some figures about our dependence on foreign oil, and how it has increased over the years.  Then it segued into a picture of wind mills, and how we need to go to renewable energy.  

Just another ad from one or another of the alternative energy or environmental groups, right?  That's what I was thinking as I was drinking my morning coffee, trying to wake up. What woke me up was who was making the ad:  T. Boone Pickens.  It was one of those shocking "WTF?" moments.  Not only that, he was going against what is the current Republican mantra of "drill, drill, drill."

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Over the past few weeks, Daily Kos has seen a huge number of diaries relating to FISA.  A quick search yesterday showed 557 diaries on this issue in the last two weeks, with the overwhelming majority of them against the Act.

What's been interesting in following this is the vehemence of many of the diarists.  Promises of withholding donations, letter writing, promises to vote for someone else or not vote at all, and threats of other types of retribution have all made numerous appearances.  

Also making an appearance here have been a number of diaries complaining about the "blue dogs" or DINO politicians.  These diaries are marked by complaints, promises of electoral defeat at some point, as well as promises to purge the Party of them, to replace them with progressives.

What the diarists are proposing is a course of action to ensure that the progressives will remain a minority.  Maybe they like it that way.

A week ago, I received a suspension from the moderators on one of the professional sites I frequent.  To be fair, I deserved it.  What happened?  This site has a section for political discussion on their message board, and in a discussion of the Iraq war, one of the other posters pushed many of my buttons.  Their comment was responding to the repetitive deployments and stress that the military was experiencing - this person said "Well, they volunteered for the military, so they knew what they were getting into."  

What got me suspended was my response - I promptly let this person know in no uncertain terms what I thought of that comment, and then digressed into a dissection of their intelligence and ethics.  Which, according to the rules of the board, I shouldn't have done.  

Now that I've had time to calm down and think more about it, I realized that this poster was simply repeating what seems to have become a standard line from the Bush Conservatives - "They volunteered."

On this morning's Morning Joe, Ron Paul gave a terrific defense of the current Supreme Court decision:

Well, I think if you call that court decision naive, you'd have to call the Founding Fathers naive.

It's about 1:20 into the tape.

This snippet from the Washington Post caught my eye:

"The presidential campaign was Phase One," said Jesse Benton, Paul's spokesman. He said Paul is forming a non-profit organization that will tap into the activism and fundraising energy that was created by the Ron Paul Revolution during his bid for the Republican nomination.

Given his plans for a rally at the Republican Convention, this looks to be a major headache for Republicans in the future.

In yesterday's Nashua Telegraph there's a report on a speech Mike Huckabee gave before a Republican group.   He said:

"I think we will make a huge mistake if we try to demonize Barack Obama,'' Huckabee said in remarks to the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women's Lilac Luncheon crowd at the CR Sparks Conference Center.

A pity that not too many Republican activists seem to be listening to him.

One of the great joys in browsing the Internet is when you find a referral to a site that you would never in all likelihood have discovered for yourself.  

So it was today, when I followed a link from the Huffington Post to Wonkette, and they had a story up on one of the most wondrous wingnut sites I've ever seen:  Country Above Self

A headline in the Glens Falls, NY newspaper caught my attention:  New York cigarette tax climbs to highest in the nation.  Like many will, I thought "so what?", but these lines caught my eye:

that officials expect to bring in $265 million a year.
...
Officials said cigarette taxes will raise a total of $1.3 billion for the state budget in fiscal year 2008-2009, including the new tax.

Given previous stories about the state deficit problems, this looks less like a move to push people to quit, and more like another budget trick.

Like many people here, I've been caught up in the seemingly unending Democratic primary battle.  Candidates were advocated, others attacked, strategies, motivations, and options have been endlessly discussed.  I've done my share of it here.

June 3'rd, the primary season comes to an end.  There has been a decision on the Florida and Michigan delegates.  We'll know by Wednesday morning the results.  It is to be expected that by Friday, most of the remaining uncommitted superdelegates will have committed.  We'll have a nominee.  

I used to think I was a conservative.  While I've always been a registered Democrat, if you asked me my personal views on broader issues, I was more what was considered "conservative" than "liberal."   At least, I did fall into that category.

So what happened?  A sudden awakening as to the joys of progressive politics?  A sudden seeing of light?  Head trauma?  No, none of that.  I haven't completely changed my views over the past 25 years.  What happened was that the definitions changed.

Three weeks ago, I wrote a diary titled The Reality Distortion Field - Clinton Edition.  I said at the time that Hillary's supporters seem to be operating inside that field.  This was after the North Carolina and Indiana primaries had by any objective measure sealed the nomination for Obama.  Despite that, Clinton supporters still insisted she had a chance.

We're now just a few days from the last primaries, and what was evident before is now blatantly obvious.  Yet, in looking at various comments around the Internet, it's apparent that Hillary's supporters are still operating inside the RDF.

This morning I checked HuffPo, and this cropped up:  Rupert Murdoch says that Obama will win.

For a moment I thought I needed more coffee, but yes, that is what he said.  

So is he optimistic about anything? Yes, he is: He's cautiously intrigued by... Barack Obama. Murdoch, who said that was responsible for the New York Post's endorsement of Obama during the New York primary, said he wasn't ready to endorse Obama or to vote for him. But he's pretty close: "I want to be convinced that Obama is the real thing, that can really carry through. I'm open to that."

Yesterday on Digg, a new blogger made the front page.  This is unusual in itself, but his story is a compelling read.  

How George W. Bush made me an ex-Conservative.  

Even more, it's a story of how a conservative became an Obama supporter.

Now that the primary campaign is almost all but over, the post-mortems and finger-pointing have begun.  Just how did Hillary Clinton blow it so badly?  There's a new article in The New Republic which adds some insight.

One of the standard movie cliches is the "no brakes on the car."  You know the one: Someone is driving down a twisty mountain road with cliffs on on one side, when the brakes go out, usually because the brake line was cut.  We're treated to watching the frantic driver desperately stomping on the brake pedal, while frantically steering the ever faster car down the mountain.  You know how it ends - the car goes through a guard rail, over a cliff and (usually) explodes spectacularly.  In real life, one would expect that person to use the emergency brake, let off the gas, downshift, or even jump out.    Watching Hillary's campaign this year has been like watching that cliche.