It shouldn't.

For those who would cry protectionism at a Buy American sentiment, most of what we consume could be made domestically with the same or even better quality, if Americans weren't so fucking cheap!

Would you really not buy a shirt that cost a couple bucks more if it were produced in the U.S.? Same question for all the electronic devices we use?

Fuel prices and wages abroad will only continue to climb over time. So we will eventually reach a point where it no longer makes sense to assemble product, much of which is automated to begin with, in "low wage" countries (which we are fast running out of).

Protectionism involves tariff and non-tariff barriers to the free trade of goods and services (surmounting the latter could be a challenge). For the U.S. government to insist that products developed with federal funding be produced in the U.S. is not protectionism. It's good economic sense and relates as much to national security as does an aircraft carrier.

Nope. Afghanistan really had nothing to offer the world prior to the Taliban taking control.

Had the Bush administration saturated Afghanistan with say 100,000 troops within a month or two, sealed the border with Pakistan, which we could have done if we'd put enough troops on the ground, and destroyed every foreign and Taliban fighter they could find and then left, we could have justified the Mission Accomplish banner on the Lincoln. However, the goal now is to "fix" Afghanistan, which is, perhaps, even less of a nation-state than Iraq ever was. This can't be done and certainly is not worth the troops or treasure. Bring the troops home now. If the "citizens" of Afghanistan don't want the Taliban, they'll figure out a way to get rid of them.

If he says buy stock X or invest heavily in market Y, doing the opposite is probably enough to assure that you at least pace the markets if you don't actually beat them.

. . . was just a prop to give him street cred with . . . well-heeled drunks(?), perhaps West was drunk. I mean, he is an asshole, but last night the alcohol might have pushed his obnoxiousness a bit further.

It's not a lack of decorum It's an excess of ego. -- sue222

Seconding, Thorin 1, both video's suck.

He was right about the Beyonce video, though. -- JackSparx

It's just a dance video. It could have been made 10 mintues or 10 years ago. There is nothing unique or interesting about it.

. . . Muslim.

P.S. - Obama is a Nazi Commie born in North Korea who wants to kill my grandma. -- bigguns

And, so far as I can tell, he's not even a very good historian, his supposed field of expertise. But these days, he's all over the social sciences map, first being a cheerleader for the Iraq debacle and asserting that the U.S. should embrace imperialism. Then, inexplicably, he's allowed to publish a book on money with an accompanying PBS broadcast on the same.

No. Anyone who thinks this has never read anything about the band.

. . . who Glenn Beck is.

It is a body of work that does much to explain Glenn Beck's bizarre conspiratorial mash-up of recent months, . . .

Beck probably doesn't believe a word of this. Murdoch, for all that is wrong with him as a person and a business "tycoon," doesn't believe shit like this either. It's all done for ratings and profit. FOX and the rest of the right wing media have found their sizable niche and they are milking it for all its worth.

. . . have had these for years. Japanese trains, particularly during rush hour, are notorious for their groping problem.

What passes for American culture today is littered with people who are granted absolution for the most outrageous and untenable behavior simply because the apologize on Oprah or go into treatment for a while. Nothing Shrub could say would help anything in the least. Not even, as Zepgirl suggests, sending him to the Hague.

What I want is all of them gone from public life (ideally in jail) and all their assets seized - Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Lewis, Negroponte, Bolton, Gonzales, Rove, etc., etc. They all need to be put on trial to answer publicly for what they executed or aided and abetted during Shrub's eight years in office. They have done more damage to the U.S. than any group of public officials before them.

I will never feel sorry for Shrub and I will go to my grave hating him and everyone who worked for him.

But thanks to the 30% dead-enders who still thought Shrub was doing a good job and probably another 20% of idiot and/or racist Rethugs and their fellow travelers (Tea-Baggers, 912ers, birthers, FOX, CNN, WSJ, NY Post, WaPo), the stink raised in an attempt to bring any of these shitheels to justice would probably result in bloodshed, all in the service of the 2010 midterms.

The line is now a cliche, but the American public can't handle the truth. As you say, they'd just soon change the channel as deal with reality.

Final note: Article II Section 3 reads in part, "[The president] shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed." What on earth would Obama have to see before opening a criminal investigation into American financial markets? Only on TV does Obama care more about the American people than he does about American banks and corporations. -- Defender of Truth

. . . if you aren't practicing, are you even a "Jew."

Is Raum even a practicing Jew? -- Mike Hawke

Banks make money on the transaction (6% - from the vendor), . . . -- Jeffrey P. Harrison

Highest rate right now is 3.5%, which is still pretty high, charged to vendor to use a CC clearing service. Furthermore, banks don't actually do the clearing - it's a third party service that the banks contract with.