There is no need to criticize President Obama for staying longer in Iraq than what he promised during the election campaign. A precipitous withdrawal is too risky and the neocons would put the blame for failure squarely on his shoulders. It is still completely open what kind of Iraq will emerge after we pull out completely or whether there will be one Iraq. But whatever happens will happen, whether we stay two more years or 100. What matters is that Iraq is stable when we leave. Obama's plan has a chance to work.

Great idea. Moderates should help Rush Limbaugh to get the Republican nomination in 2012. That would ensure at least another four years of Democratic supremacy. Because nobody in his right mind could vote for this fascist. At one point he said that the Republicans have a good chance in 2012 if they nominate the right person. That's not it. They have a chance if Obama fails miserably. That's why people like Limbaugh and his ilk will do everything in their power to make him fail.

The great USA be damned.

And they claim to be Patriots!

Yes, there must be an investigation to get the facts and clear the air.

But do not prosecute. That would only take energy needed to pull the country together again and would hinder the healing process.

Being exposed is punishment enough for the once high and mighty.

Absolutely correct: We do not need revenge. We need truth.

Yoo was nothing but a hatchet man for President Bush. Let us not forget that it is he who declared a "War on Terror." And then he whipped up a war frenzy not seen since after Pearl Harbor. Back then it was necessary to get the country into the mood needed to deal with the real threat posed by Japan and Germany. But a "War on Terror"? What nonsense, but it worked. The mood in the country cowed all opposition and even most in Congress went along. As a result, President Bush for a while got away with violating almost everything for which the USA once stood. And he had many willing helpers, Yoo was one of them.

After President Hindenburg made Hitler Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933, the German Reichstag (NAZI Party and most conservative delegates) granted him the same kind of powers envisioned by John Yoo. We all know how he used these powers. Thank God it didn't come to that after 9/11 in our country. Would Congress, cowed by the arguments made by certain people even now, have voted the President the same powers, had Bush asked for them?

This is just about the smartest statement I have seen in a long time:

"I'm not going to argue that the Dow Jones is irrelevant to the economy, but the fundamental problem of the bubble years was that the Dow Jones was growing and our actual assets were not. We weren't really getting richer. We were just pretending to get richer."

Right on the money. And anybody who hopes to bring the Dow Jones back up to the levels of 2007 is smoking dope. Stock prices were driven up by speculation and by the conviction, that they would rise for ever. The same applied to real estate prices. Stocks and real estate didn't become more valuable, they only became more expensive. To cure this disease, we need laws to at least curb if not prevent speculation. A good way to start would be to require full payment for every stock bought.

Concerning the tenor of CNBC news, author objects primarily to their message. As an American living in Europe, I am shocked when listening to almost all news casters on American TV. Most talk as if they have a message that will change the world and news and commercials are so inter twined that it is often difficult to know which is which. A real turn-off. Lerner on PBS is a notable exception.

Kudos to mattwa33186 for a brilliant assessment.

Congratulations!

The Pope of course is wrong, but his statements were predictable. Exactly in character. Of course the threat of an HIV infection is reduced by the use of condoms.

That said, promiscuity (especially among homosexual males)and anal intercourse, as well as sharing of needles when shooting dope, are the main reason HIV is spread. Nobody calls a person "victim" who through reckless driving loses his life or health. So why do we grant that status to people who contract HIV through reckless sexual behavior or sharing of needles? Only children born to infected mothers and those who contracted the disease through blood transfusions are victims. Just as passengers are who had the misfortune of riding in a car driven by a reckless driver. Even those who contract the disease from an infected partner are not completely without blame. After all, there are ways to protect themselves. And those who know they are infected and still practice unsafe sex are criminal and belong in jail.

Higher standards of conduct would reduce the threat of Aids.