Jim

Where in Iraq did you get this information? 'Cause I have a little experience with the place. I think the distinction needs to be made about who is screwing up. With some exceptions, it's not the poor troops on the ground. They are doing what they are asked to do within the best of their abilities and with limited resources. The overall strategy is what is screwed up. We now have two failed states, Iraq and Afganistan - with another more serious one teetering on failing - Pakistan. Had we gone into Afghanistan and got Bin Laden and crushed the Taliban, and actually rebuild the country as we promised. Things would look quite different. We have less than 25% of the troops that we have in Iraq in Afghanistan, and Afghanistan is much larger, more remote, and harder to defend. Because of the build up of the Taliban in the Pakistan Tribal Lands they are now strong enough to threaten Islamabad. Don't forget that Pakistan has nukes. So with all this work, all done at the direction of the Idiot, doesn't qualify for the top 5 foreign policy blunders ever you can move to the domestic front for more bliss: No energy policy when we needed it Systematic gutting of environmental policy Placement of political hacks in important policy positions in Justice, Interior, Energy, etc departments. World vision - he we're the clowns now. Slack regulations as a mantra - excellent results in financial and economic front A huge budget hole that has left us unable to attack real issues - infrastructure, health care, energy independence. Torture, illegal wiretaps on public, signing statements king Really - this could go on a while.

Slowly. Now scheduled for 2012, at the earliest due to some related water-project work. Given the budget issues I would not bet on that date.

The worst: that's like shooting fish in a barrel. The Idiot has pegged the needle on disasters. No need to go into the gory details, they have pretty much been documented. It looks like Obama will win the White House. He has a hard job ahead of him. Carter: he was ok, the Iran thing really took over his last year. He made some very good progress on the humanatarian front, the Israel/Egypt pact, and actually started a good energy independence program. Reagan pulled the plug on that pretty fast. Oh yea - Carter signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

Agreed. More news-o-tainment for the masses.

The rhetoric will become more shrill as the inevitable draws closer.

Looks like she's looking after #1 instead of the old guy. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/25/palin.tension/index.html

WTF are the gun nuts so sacred of anyway? Mother-killers and Father-rapers?

You sound bitter. Again. Just imagine the on November 5.

I'm sure when exactly it began, maybe during the Reagan era, when the Republicans got the idea to conduct their campaigns in a devisve manner. Remember Lee Atwater - he was the best. Since then they seem to have concentrated on scaring the public, rapists, terrorists, taxes, guns, god, and gays. Maybe they have a message on how govern in there somewhere, but I can't find it. And for all the talk about joe sixpack they have been taking money out of the middle class and shovelling it to their power elite buddies. Odd. I think consevatism, in its true sense, fiscal responsibility, a subtle world view, and moral conviction, has something to contribute to how the US works. But particularly after 7 yrs of them running Capital Hill and the White House they are full of vacant slogans - and folks are thinking well, you had your chance. McCain decided not to stray from this format. Scary taxes, palling around with terrorists, Putin rearing his head. Get a grip old man. Tell us how the hell we are going to dig outta this hell hole your party put us in.

660,000 troops killed in an unnecessary war--along with an unknown number of southern civilians. Cities burned to the ground by a marauding general. Habeas Corpus suspended. Newspapers closed at gunpoint. Editors arrested. Slavery abolished? Yea right--in all but 4 northern states. Federal troops massacring civilians by the hundreds on the streets of New York. And even through all of this...still time for his troops to annihilate native Americans out west. This makes the top five in your wealth of ignorant statements.

Thats going to leave a mark. I don't think so. FW likely has the highest welt count but manages to carry on.

You've got to be kidding. Yea there's a dynamic at work. It's a rip tide pulling the Republican Party out to the middle of the ocean. No wonder you wouldn't take a bet six months ago. Hey PP - where is the pub celebration going to take place?

I have to give Mcain credit for not laughing when he was explaining Sarah's qualifications to be president if he were to have the big one while in office. You can't make that stuff up!

Jeese, you guys can't take a joke. One of his recent quotes about the GOP economic plan in general: "The republicans are becoming the party of the stupid" Hey PP - double or nothing?

This, and recent events, lends a bit of credence to his predictions about the Idiot's economic plans. Hey Peter - where are we going to have the post-election pub meal (that you are paying for)?

See you in November! Well, looks like the judgement on the Idiot's reign is in. Guess you'll be watching from the back row for a while, eh?

Yea, right. What we need is some pesticide to get rid of the friggin neo-cons who got us in this mess. Old style republicans - fiscally conservative and cautious on international adventures - have been booted out by the guns, gays, and god crowd interested only in banging the table on social issues and raiding the coffers for their elite backers.

Biden nailed it. Palin managed not to look as idiotic as her last several interviews or Tina Fey. Other than that she said little of substance. She came off as a lightweight.

This points to an interesting question. Given that most of the wealth creation in this country has been related to illusory financial acrobatics, debt, and speculative bubbles at the same time real production has either been in decline or off-shored, what are the foundations for future American economic growth? Oh dear. The facade is falling off the empire, and fast. Early in the Bush administration I said "If I were president I'd be looking around the world and thinking - that China and India will be coming on strong in the next half century, we'd better start investing in infrastructure, education, and energy innovation". Instead what do we have. A cripppled economy, 50 billion going down the toilet a year in Iraq, and an ever growing debt level. Folks, welcome to the shrinking US economic/world power.

And how! So much for the invisible hand - more like the inevitable handout.

Maybe The Idiot has finally grasped what we have all known for a while - this is a failed presidency.

Definately a good example. A private institution backed by the U.S. government - but doesn't want stricter oversight. You want the guarantee - then you have to deal with a taxpayer watchdog.

Dont htese help regulate? Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, internationa Basel accords on captial standards, state governments, Federal Reserve FDIC, Sarbanes-Oxley Act Here's several enablers! Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Community Reinvestment Act Deductible Interest only six months ago Dems were pushing for weaker capital requirements! Do you still stand by your statement? Yes! Instead of throwing the alpabet soup agency list at me come up with an argument. And I'm not saying the dems have clean hands here. The deregulation phase started in earnest with Regan and only accelerated through Bush. In your laundry list above there is no accommodation for 1) requiring verification of minimum income thresholds - with meaninful penalties for a finacial institution that does not comply or 2) requirements for financial institutions to have a minimum of capital on hand to match the risk and breath of their exposures. Both requirements were significantly reduced over the last 15 yrs. Time and time again we've had to bail out financial institutions that ignore standard business common sense while over-reaching for the golden apple. Great. Remember the S&L bailout? Lack of regulation. So here we are again.

Agreed. With some modest oversight most, if not all of this "financial crisis" could have been avoided. Insisting on stricter guidelines on loan eligibility and increased capitalization requirments for firms would have done most of this. Instead what do we have? The typical short-term greed that fuels the financial sector. If they were such Masters of the Universe couldn't these free capitial wizards have seen this coming? Check out the last year's payment for the CEO of WAMU or Solomon Brothers for instance. They earned this by driving their firms into the ground? And the fallout has much wider social implications. To pretend that our financial system is run by the invisible hand is fallacy. From government backed mortgage securities to farm subsidies government props up business continually. I'm a bit tired of socialized business. They want free reign until it's time for a government bail out. Since they can't seem to operate with normal business standards, and because the implications of the failure of such large institutions are large, more oversight is needed.

I just plain astounded how inarticulate McCain is - he really is not the sharpest tool in the shed. His inability, or refusal, to develop meaningful policies that reflect the sophistication of world realities is numbing. Folks voted for The Idiot twice and now - they're shocked over his performance!!! And his approval rating is in the 20's, lowest for a sitting president since the data collection began. So I guess there's always a chance we'll continue the trend of putting in a head of state as dumb as a stump.