This has been mentioned several times and in several other places, but it seems as though one of the after effects of this year's primary is that it brings into sharp relief the flaws (if indeed they are flaws) of the current process for selecting the nominee.  With that in mind, I wanted to get a debate going on what changes, if any, would the people here make to future primaries?

I know, I know, yet another diary on the comments today, but seriously, I have a question that I want these guys to answer.  If talking to people who are not behaving in a way that we approve of is "appeasement" of the sort that led to the Nazi invasion of Poland, then why isn't the US committed to a total war effort a la WWII against most of the Middle East?

I know that diaries like these are a dime a dozen, but I sincerely felt that another can't hurt.  It is in times when campaigns take a hit, times when they stumble and falter, that the real mettle of a campaign, and a candidate, is shown.  

*** Update -- I got a donation!  I went ahead and matched it.  I don't have the funds to match everyone, but I figured it was a good way to get the ball rolling.  You can donate here as well.  Thanks!!! ***

This is a real short and sweet attempt on my part to attempt to get a lock on who Potomac Kossacs are voting for in today's Potomac Primary.   Poll and story on the flip.

Listening to John Lennon in the car this morning.  Stuff is still powerful ... still has the capacity to make you think about how crazy the world is around you.  After last night's debate, all I could think of was that when Cornwallis surrendered to Washington, the song the band played was "The world turned upside down".  

Ok, I have gotten this email one too many times.  It's really starting to disgust me, and I keep having to make phone calls and emails to set the record straight.  So if you are like me, and you are getting phone calls and emails about this, here is a guide to fighting the smears in the email.  

In an administration that has never cared much for truth to begin with, this should come as no surprise.  The only shocking thing about the current President's stance on the Armenian Genocide is that he's actually coming out and delivering the news himself.  I didn't think he had the energy, what with shredding the Constitution, destroying American prestige around the world, and waging ill-advised wars in Iraq.  But make no mistake, this crime, and it is a crime, that he is committing today is ever bit as egregious as any other that he and his coterie of thugs and liars has committed.  

My son was born today.

He came out kicking and screaming, much to my relief and my wife's joy, with ten fingers and ten toes.  He was a healthy shade of purple and red, and was not happy at all to be in the cold(er) air and harsh light of the OR.  

He was 3 pounds 6 ounces, 15 inches long, and 10 weeks premature.

This is part 2 of a two part series.  As I explained in part 1, my goal is to present the Republican candidates positions on the Iraq War.  I am limiting this to that single issue, because I think that the Iraq War is a transcendental issue that will define this election.  This is for the purposes of holding Republican candidates accountable for their positions as the tide turns even further against the current occupation.  In part 1, I detailed the issue page statements and assorted other quotes of Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Jim Gilmore, John McCain, and Tom Tancredo.  This diary will focus on Mike Huckabee, Sam Brownback, Ron Paul, Duncan Hunter and Tommy Thompson.  Let's get to it!

This diary comes in the aftermath of the Dem debate the other night on MSNBC.  While discussing the debate the other day with a coworker, she brought up an interesting point.  She told me that it seems like everyone wants to know what the Democrats would do differently, but no Republican candidates are really being pressed right now for answers on issues.  The first thing anyone wants to know about any Dem candidate is where they are on Iraq and how to get us out.  She went on to say that she has no idea where the Republican candidates stand on the issue.  I realized at that point that other than McCain, I hadn't heard much on that either.  I had a base understanding that the frontline candidates had not differed substantially from the Bush administration in terms of their stance on Iraq, but it occurred to me that while Democrats were expected to have a plan on Iraq, it didn't seem like it was as important for Republicans to do the same.  So I went researching, so that we have some ammunition to hold the eventual nominee accountable.  More on the flip.

This diary is in direct response to some of the tittering and tattering regarding Barack Obama's statements regarding funding for the Iraq War.  It seems there are a lot of people who want the Democrats to put up an all or nothing stand right now, based purely on the principle of the thing.  Interestingly enough, I have been reading up on my chess tactics lately, and this situation reminded me of a great chess parallel that I thought I would bring to bear.  

I don't know about any of you, but around where I live the "privatization" line is one of the staple mantras of the area conservatives.  Privatization and deregulation have been offered as the end-all, be-all answers to all of the ills of society, most notably in columns by Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell, in which the basic argument is that the private sector and the free market inherently do everything better than the government.  

Any intelligent person can figure out fairly quickly that this is pure bunk, but for those who need yet another example (as if the absolute mess that deregulation has made in state power companies isn't enough), then here is this little gem from the Richmond Times-Dispatch this morning.

Edit -- A link was asked for in the comments section.  Originally I transcribed my quotes from the front page of the paper, but I went back and got a link to the online version.  You can read the whole story here.

Just in off of CNN comes this bit of horrific news:

Admitted 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told a U.S. military tribunal he personally beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002, the Pentagon revealed today. "I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in Karachi Pakistan," said a Pentagon transcript.

You can read the whole article here.  

First and foremost, my sympathies go out to the Pearl family.  This has got be some pretty tough news to take, and I'm sure it reopens those wounds.  

This bit of news coming on the heels of yesterday's breaking news that Mohammed played the pivotal role in planning and carrying out the 9/11 attacks.  We can all argue later about whether or not these confessions mean anything -- after all Mohammed has been in US custody for over 3 years now and we all know how ungentle US interrogaters can be -- but there is another hazy issue which is brought into specific relief by this announcement.  And that is, what type of trial should he receive?  

Here's a link to an article detailing a new report claiming that 91% of Americans have had or will have premarital sex at some point in their lives.  According to the article, this even goes back to women living in the 40's, negating the idea that the 40's and 50's were really a Norman Rockwell painting come to life.  I find this fascinating, not only because it reaffirms much of the literature concerning sex ed that's out there, but also because of the Bush administration's response to it.  More below the flip:

In light of the report by the Iraq Study Group, a few interesting questions have arisen.  Many political pundits and not a few members of Congress have commented on the report.  Comments have run the gamut, from praising Bush's willingness to change and listen to others, to Carl Levin's blast of the Bush administration's policies.  

The one thing that I have heard reported over and over today on the news is that withdrawal of US troops sometime in the relatively near future seems inevitable.  With that in mind, I am curious as to how my fellow Kossacks think this war will be judged from a historical perspective.  As a history teacher, I am always interested in how the present will be viewed by the future.  Will the Iraq War be seen as a victory?  As a loss?  As something else, hidden in the grey twilight between victory and defeat?

Hello there!  I hope all of you are enjoying this fine 5th of November.  A holiday that we should all celebrate, for one reason or another.  For those who wish to remember the plot itself, celebrate the defeat of extremists wishing to use horrific force to overthrow the English government.  For those who wish to remember the motive of the plot, celebrate the unwillingness of citizens to stand by while their freedoms and dignity were abused by a monarchy that set them to the side for political reasons.  

For those wondering, no this will not be another diary quoting extensively from the film or graphic novel V for Vendetta.  Several excellent diaries have been done on that topic using its wonderful quotations; I want to get to the heart of what the 5th is really all about.  

This past Saturday night I drove to Blacksburgh to watch the Hokies play.  On the way back I had a lot of time to think about all that has gone on in our country over the past 20 years, and I finally nailed down exactly what I wanted to tell all my friends.