Well, it's been 46 years and, as anyone who has waded through the fiasco known as the Warren Report and watched the Zapruder film knows, we still don't have the correct story as to what happened on 11/22/63.  If we are to understand what has happened to us over the last 46 years we need to get all the information on this out.  The CIA is still withholding materials from researchers for "national security" reasons.
I would recommend James Douglass's JFK AND THE UNSPEAKABLE to anyone who wants to see the last research on the best recent model of explanation of JFK"s murder that I've seen.

Sending more troops to Afghanistan is a bad idea.  The Vietnam War was a bad idea. Invading Iraq in March 2003 was a bad idea. Trying to nation build in Afghanistan is a bad idea.  The guy who quit was right.  The rational for the whole Afghan thing makes no sense.  If it does we need to send troops into Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, etc. - everywhere Al Qaeda sympathizers might be.  That's unrealistic. We'd create more Al Qaeda sympathizers.  We need to be smarter than just throwing troops at this problem.

Daniel Schorr, speaking to Scott Simon on NPR this morning, says that the British have been informed that President Obama will grant the request for 40,000 more troops.  I really hope this isn't true.  If it is I've really had enough of compromising single payer before negotiations begin, having Obama read books explaining the nightmare of escalation in Vietnam then escalating in Afghanistan, stalling around on "don't ask, don't tell", not regulating the "too big to fail" financial institutions that are destroying us, etc.  We (and he) can do better than this.

"Kevin Jennings, the director of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, has become a major target of the right as Fox News, anti-gay marriage groups and Rep. Steve King (R-IA) pile on the openly gay Department of Education appointee." TPM


It is time to make a stand. I've heard Kevin Jennings speak.  He is the former director of GLSEN.  He is in favor of creating a safe learning environment for all students in our schools. It was a great idea for the Obama administration to appoint him to his present position.  No caving in to homophobes on this one.  We have a great man in the perfect spot.  He stays there regardless of right wing opposition. 

Almost 46 years later, it is way past the time when we should honor the Kennedy family's contribution to all of us by finding out what happened to JFK.  I would recommend James Douglass's excellent book JFK AND THE UNSPEAKABLE as a good starting point.

LBJ passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act after JFK's assassination.  Let's put renewed energy into passing a public option as a tribute to EMK's 40 year commitment to universal health care coverage for all of us.

I sent this as a comment to Bob Herbert's column in today's New York Times:

Maybe people are "all wee-weed up" because Obama is waffling on the public option, escalating with no exit strategy in Afghanistan, waffling on "don't ask don't tell", dragging his feet on a withdrawal from Iraq, etc. Start leading aggressively on these issues and we'll wee-wee down.

"White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says the administration is "absolutely not" giving up on efforts to come up with a bipartisan health care reform bill."


Ok, I'll try to phrase this fairly charitably - "Why the hell not?"

OK does Michael Vick deserve a second chance or is what he did so awful the Eagles should not have signed him?

Remember the thugs who disrupted the recount vote in the Florida 2000 Presidential election by banging on the glass doors.  Similar thuggery is now being used to disrupt health care meetings. See TPM's report and video on Sen. Specter's meeting in Philadelphia.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/teabaggers-try-to-shout-down-health-care-reform-at-town-halls.php?ref=fpa

Remember bullying worked for the right wing in Florida 2000. No matter what your position is on health care reform bullying is not the way to make your point.

Walter Cronkite was a hero of mine when I was a kid.  I used to love his show "You Are There."  I thought he was great when he announced President Kennedy's death in such a heartfelt way. I admired his courage when he came out for a negotiated settlement in Vietnam.

Looking back I see two flaws in an otherwise wonderful man.  He bought into the Cold War mentality for quite a long time.  I will always remember the sonorous way he would announce what the "Coommmunists" were up to in Vietnam

I also felt he had a real blind spot when it came to accepting the patent nonsense that is in the Warren Report.  Even the follow up specials he did on the single bullet theory were atrocious in my opinion.

However, the sum total of what he did journalistically and what he did as a human being make me feel sharply the loss of a fine human being.

No President should retain for him/her self the right to detain people indefinitely - not if your last name is Lincoln, Bush, or Obama.  At some point, due process must come into play.  Otherwise, we are all at risk of becoming the one who is so detained.

Tom Daschle - helps Bush get the bill through the Senate in October 2002 that is used in March 2003 to authorize our ill-advised invasion of Iraq.

Tom Daschle - June 2009 stabs the public in the back by saying the public option for health care should be taken off the table.

Tom Daschle - can't figure out what income to pay taxes on.

Tom Daschle - Go home and be quiet!

Today's shooting at the Holocaust Museum and the murder of Dr. Tiller should re-emphasize in everyone's mind the point that Keith Olberman has been making recently:  We need to treat the threat from these domestic terrorists just as seriously as we treat the threat from Al Qaeda.

So now we find out from GQ that Bush told Chirac that the Iraq war was foretold by the Old Testament story of the apocalyptic creatures Gog and Magog.  Pappy Bush's Skull and Bones handle was also Magog.

Could we please never have anyone this moronic be President of the USA ever again?