One wonders if there is not some secret tryst going on between George Will and John McCain when Will writes about McCain's "moral clarity" regarding Iraq. Either it's that or complete and utter madness that has consumed these two. If even walk the line Republicans are calling for a new course in Iraq, McCain stands as someone whose integrity and "moral clarity" are very much in question. Considering the utter filth the GOP has wallowed in the last six years, it's not surprising to see them fighting till their last foul breath for policies and ideas that are being discredited every day as is the "moral", let alone reasoned justification for them. John McCain does not stand above this filth. Not anymore. So enough about his integrity, courage or independence. He's sold whatever might be left of his soul to the illusion of ultimate power hoping that we'll all go to sleep again and allow it to happen. The only thing that's clear to me is that as a matter of morality, John McCain has abandoned his to serve ambition, and it will surely prove his undoing. The graves of history are full of the bones of ambitious men and women, with new ones opening up all the time.

See: The invasion of Iraq.

The abandoning of Afghanistan for "better targets" in Iraq.

Shooting the messenger instead of taking responsiblity for ANYTHING.

Giving aid and comfort to sexual predators in the House.

No accountablility

Tom DeLay

Jack Abramoff

Deficits as far as the eye can see while the rich get RICHER.

Medicare overhaul that leaves Medicare in shambles.

Everything they touch turns to shit. Do I really need to go on here? Has anyone in recent memory been able to find a group of people who collectively find so many ways to be so utterly stupid? Leave aside the moral and spiritual bankruptcy and let's just address the yawning chasm of ignorance and incompetence. Good riddance to them all!

Once again, an illuminating article that cuts to the heart of neo-conservative thinking and exposes it as racist, simplistic, wholly inconsistent with reality, and patently insane on its face. One of the things that became clear to me while reading this is neo-conservatism's pathological need to find enemies, and failing that, to invent them almost from whole cloth. It's really quite beyond cynical. It's a wholly depraved worldview that isn't concerned with alliances, treaties or, God help me, negotiation. As long as we hear in the USA think that we need to be the resident Bully on the block, this kind of filth will find ears. So I agree with what was said earlier about repudiating this kind of brain-dead, intellectually dishonest rhetoric. The other thing we need to do is continue to be informed so that STUPID PEOPLE aren't voted into places of authority like the White House. The state of the country and the state of the war in Iraq are stark illustrations of the failure of intellectual curiosity and imagination that we've allowed to take the reins of power for 6 years. Hopefully, we've learned from that.

After reading some of the posts here, it's obvious to me that there are degrees of poor that we as a society are willing to tolerate. There are those that perpetually struggle. They work hard but they cannot get above certain level no matter how hard they try. They believe that hard work is the ticket to a better life so they work harder and harder until they literally work themselves to death. We hear stories like that all the time. They're heartbreaking but somehow redemptive. You know how it goes. "Dad worked himself nearly to death to support the family", or "Mom worked 3 jobs to keep the rent paid and food on the table." Or "Mom and Dad worked extra to help us kids get through college". We exalt the value of work in this culture, but the little known dirty secret is that the work we do is very often not valued as it should be in dollar terms. And people end up with not enough and they struggle.

Conservatives equate that struggle with not-enough-ness as somehow the fault of the people who are struggling. If they'd get a better education or if they'd apply themselves or if they would...whatever. It's always the fault of the poor for being poor. This is the justification conservatives use while hoarding profits, slashing pension funds, and laying off workers and in effect, depriving people of the opportunity to make good. When Republicans make it harder to afford college and healthcare and ship jobs to some faraway place, they are complicit in the poverty that results. We of more liberal bent are right to be outraged. But I really did not reckon that there would be another layer of poverty that actually becomes a culture. But it makes sense that there would be those who fall through our meager safety nets and become literally creatures of instinct. Most of us, no matter how well-meaning have simply not got the skills, patience, or compassion to deal with this population. I hardly blame the author for losing patience with this crowd. She was stretched to the edge of her knowledge and forebearance. This kind of poverty comes from a deep wounding, and the band-aid solutions proposed by both liberals and conservatives won't work. They simply are not at a place where they can work. The truth may be that you're not going to be able to rehab all of them. Some of them will die this way. Unless they can be, for want of better words, re-civilized and possibly re-parented, they're going to cause trouble anywhere they go. That's not cynical. It's the reality, sadly.

Short of punishing the greedy (now there's a liberal solution!) and forcing them to share the wealth, there are not many who are up for that job.