I've just about finished reading Lind's "The Next American Republic," and while I don't agree with every conclusion, the observations are spot on. There's an "overclass" in this country that has its center-left and center-right branches, but real progress can only be made by breaking out of the mainstream and shaking up the oligarchy. When I was in Mexico, I thought it was odd that the same policies we consider "neoconservative" in El Norte were considered "neoliberal" south of the Rio Grande. Clinton was never a "liberal" in the true sense of that word, but rather more of a "neoliberal" like Mexican president Vicente Fox. Obama is a little better, but I think many of us who put a lot of effort into his campaign for "change" are going to find out his policies are disappointingly mainstream - better than McCain and his multi-generational background of privilege, but still far short of the genuine social reform needed to really change the paradigm.

I mean, here's a cute little mountain village with lots of restored Victorian architecture, a number of bed & breakfast inns, quirky little shops and bistros, and a thriving theater scene. Homosexuals moving in? Noooo!

... It's mostly routine deployment jacket kind of stuff, the kind of stuff that accumulates for years before it eventually gets purged along with other junk that isn't supposed to remain part of the troop's permanent jacket. That being said, however, this seems like an awfully strange time to be purging the kid's file. Look's like they're trying to rid themselves of anything they're not absolutely, positively required to retain - lest some future request for his 201 file accidentally reveal an embarrassing screw-up that some anonymous staff officer doesn't want people to know about.