for the intel community in love with the idea of changing the world from his vulture perch atop the House intelligence committee. We need to start pushing for an honest to God squeeky clean died in the wool progressive to sit on both the House and Senate intel committees. At least we'd have a set of eyes and ears that might blow the whistle on something, someday, somewhere. I know wishful thinking. And yeah I never capitalize "intelligence" when it comes to the cloak and dagger crowd and their overlords.

When you believe to your core that everybody and every nation is out to destroy the "homeland" you always end up seeing what you want to see through the lens of fear instead of reason. There was ample evidence from sane anylysts all over the world including the FBI and CIA based on good factual analysis that something like 9/11 could take place but they botched it. Why? Good question. Why doesn't the Obama team nominate as DCIA the lady from the FBI who had the cajones to speak up and tell the truth about who knew what when at the price of a premature end to her career. She'd bring a large measure of integrity back into the professional spook service IMHO.

Hey Pedinska, you're one of my favorits here BTW. Are you a fellow Oregonian? And why does everyone always talk about your toes all the time? I assume it's a harmless inside joke but sometimes it borders on the creepy. And yeah "sweeping up whomever you want for whatever reason or no reason at all is the favored rubric of the neo-con freaks." How they don't see it as bald faced facism is completely beyond me. Then I remember they're sociopathic lunatics and it all makes sense. They didn't know what it was to be the good guys to begin with much less now.

And I personally don't care if PE Obama keeps Gates and Heyden and whomever else for a couple of months but after that they have to go. Gates' history in South America alone is enough to make me vomit in my mouth a lot rather than a little. Scumbag is as scumbag does. If we'd just stop throwing our weight around and trying to steal everything we want via shitty deals and gunboat diplomacy maybe some of our purported enemies wouldn't be so quick to loathe what we bring to the table. Bombing people with money, teachers, textbooks and televisions seems a much easier way to change the world in the long run. For what taxpayers pay to support our bloated military and intel communities we could probably fly over in planes dropping money all over the globe and get a more cost effective result. But that's just me thinking out loud as a deluded lefty.

Of course I have no beef with toe talk, torch singing, small rodents, or consensual exchanges of shiny baubles, I just never understood the fixation with her toes. Like I said not necessarily creepy just odd given the frequency with which it comes up.

Grant and U of O huh? Nice. We're almost neighbors except I've liked the gritty night life of NoPo (of course the old timers hate it when people refer to it that way) for the last 11 years. Grew up on the westside before high tech moved in, then U of O, PSU, L&C Law School. Up in Seattle temporarily but me and the peeps converge on the Mock's Crest Tavern on Lombard Friday to catch the best local band around--Sneakin' Out. Nice mix of young, old, working class, new pros, locals etc. They play the second Friday of every month until they go on tour with Thomas Lauderdale later in the winter. C'mon out sometime and I'll buy you a Dead Guy, a Jubelale, or whatever "cocktail" it is you prefer. I run around with a very tall large AA tax attorney with a booming laugh. Can't miss him. I'm usually in his orbit wearing a U of O ballcap drinking like prohibition was returning. If not, keep on commenting because you're one of my favorites as well.

And with all due respect to Pedinska's toes, compromising photos over the internet is a real bad idea what with the surveillance state and all. Bad enough that "THE MAN" is probably monitoring me as I type.

in under two weeks and the citizens of the most crapspactacular freedom and liberty filled democracy in the world are slaves to theirs?

I don't believe in violence but I'm not opposed to long term sit downs in important places of commerce until arrested, then rinsed, recycled, and repeated, until the wash cycle is completed. We continue to go down this road there's no going back. History didn't look too kindly on the Nazi's and it won't look too kindly on us. We've lost the moral high ground and if we don't get it back . . .

Our attempts at "more and better" Dems doesn't seem to be amounting to much so far, though I'm still in wait and see mode. I understand it's a long term project, but we've got to start finding a way to throw a little fear of the people into the high hanging fruit rather than the low. They don't fear us and thus aren't obligated to do what's right or what the people desire. Only way to change that is through the ability to politically take down "teh leaders". Otherwise we're just throwing good money after bad.