Yea, Bush was an arrogant, incompetent nincompoop but he was only a manifestation of the well organized, well funded, highly motivated and absolutely unscrupulous movement that has openly opposed America's progressive movement since at least the mid '70's. They are America's real enemy and Bush's only accomplishment has been to expose the agenda of that movement. They'll still be around when W. is gone and, having tasted power, will not readily slink away if they lose it. It will be necessary to construct and maintain a true progressive movement to take the offensive against these guys.

Greenwald nails it when he calls for aggressive, subpoena driven hearings to expose the crimes of the Bush administration (hopefully those hearings would lead to criminal prosecutions) but a related issue exists. We, as a nation, have to admit that we elected an arrogant, incompetent, unqualified boob to the Presidency. He stole the election, you say? The 2000 race shouldn't have been close enough for him to steal. There is plenty of blame to go around; the press didn't properly examine Bush's amazing record of failure, voters were complacent due to the period of relative peace and prosperity, and so on, but it all needs to be examined thoroughly and we must take steps to make sure it doesn't happen again. Two things must happen here. As a nation we have to admit that George W. Bush is phenomenally unqualified to be President (we hate to admit that even when it's true) and ordinary people need to be more engaged in the political process. With our media in such bad shape I don't know how to do these but they have to be done.

Herodotus wrote that 300 Spartans were accompanied by 2700 allied soldiers at Thermopolae. Not to put too fine a point on it but that makes 3000 against the Persian hordes.

Until now I really couldn't think of anything more boring than playing Bingo. A few years ago I was accompanying my son, then 9 or 10 to a cub scout wingding where Bingo was the entertainment. He managed to sit through the entire session without winning anything and was half distraught, half enraged about it. He settled down immediately though when I pointed out to him that Bingo was the stupidest, most boring pastime Bingo is. No strategy other than staying awake and watching the numbers, no drama, no reason to watch. I can't even summon the contempt I feel toward "The Apprentice" participants for Bingo people so listening to winners being interviewed would be nothing short of pathetic.

Consider this. In this country we have a high tech, high skill, high priced health care system that when it operates at its best, works quite well. We also have enormous social pressure to make health care accessible and therefore affordable. There's simply no room in this equation for the kind of profits that can allow health care to compete with other industries for investment dollars unless "costs are controlled" by limiting access to health care. Therefore, the only way to provide the best quality health care possible to the greatest number of citizens is to remove profit from the system. Private donations or a government system? You tell me.

This is what happens without proper planning. Since early 2003 I have figured that somewhere deep in the Heritage Foundation basement, some right wing splinter think tank group must be wargaming through a scenario in which the Iraq War blows up in their faces. I think the fact that their repudiation of Bush is all they have left is evidence that they didn't consider the possibility of failure and that refusal to consider alternative possibilities was further proof of their mindless worship of George Bush (anyone remember that off the wall CPAC poster?) Of course American memories can be pretty short without prodding from the Media.

I've said it so many times it's becoming a personal cliche but at some point after Bush's departure we, as a nation, need to do some soul searching and figure out how someone as completely unqualified as George W. Bush became President. What combination of poor media coverage and national somnambulism and smokescreen allowed a guy whose contempt for learning and total ignorance of the rest of the world were written all over his demeanor, who couldn't find oil in Texas or Bahrain, whose daddy's money came to his aid repeatedly and whose only governmental post had been perhaps the weakest state governor in the country. If we don't then the scorn of the rest of the world is exactly what we deserve.

When I listen to music I listen to music. When I work out I work out. I prefer to tune background noise out and concentrate on what I'm doing. In fact, if a quality song turns up in the gym's rotation I find it distracting.

It makes my day. Coulter also avoided a promised appearance on Thom Hartmann's Air America radio show on Monday. Once ducked Joe Conason in a televised debate, too.

So when does Kit Bond run for reelection?

Thanks for the link. It's been fascinating. And free, too.