Admit it. That Tom Gjelten lacks sufficient critical reasoning ability could not be more counterintuitive or more obvious.

You would think someone in a job like that would be able to reason effectively, but Gjelten was obviously having a very tough time figuring out that his disagreement with the mysterious liberal bloggers was not relevant to objectively reporting their positions.

His laziness and sloppiness as a reporter are bad enough. That he could not figure out what Glenn was saying was astonishing.

It makes you wonder what else he has screwed up. And his "beat" is intelligence?

Amazing.

Dylan is almost always a terrible interview, but have you read Paul Zollo's book "Songwriters on Songwriting"? Dylan, talking with a songwriter about songwriting is very un-Sphinxlike. A great interview.

I think Dylan would be superb on a format like this.

To people who know what they are talking about?

Perhaps there will be an electrifying moment in the second season, if there is one. This one sounds too good to miss.

@Juliebird, who wrote:

@Joel Grwant

Close, it's Joel_Grant.

If you think "Permanent GOP Majority" is Thinking Big than I don't know what to say. But it's certainly not "country first."

I meant "thinking Big" as in beyond "what's in it for me?' Beyond "How can I bend the world to my will?' I meant thinking Big as in "I don't know what's coming next, but I'd like to be prepared. As in "I'd like to hear opinions from a variety of perspectives, and then work out the best course." And as in "I'd like to repair some of the damage from the last 8 years by putting people who are well-respected by our international allies in some key diplomatic positions."

But, whatever. Susan Rice and John Bolton are practically twins.

I see you missed the point entirely. I will try to say it in simpler words.

But first: your after-the-fact definitions of "thinking big" are nothing less than risible. Try again.

Your argument in support of the new "team" on the grounds that they are smart and have big plans and so on is simply fatuous.

Being smart and having plans says nothing whatsoever about the kind of goals those smart people seek to achieve. Do you think Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Condi Rice aren't smart?

In the case of Obama and his Cast of Retreads, we are dealing with a group of people who offer no evidence that they are going to seek to fundamentally change anything about American foreign policy, beyond not doing as miserable a job as their predecessors.

And when it comes to bars, there are none lower.

Which one of these big thinkers has pointed out that the invasion of Iraq was wrong, legally and morally, because the United States has no right to invade other sovereign countries, short of a genuine imminent threat or pursuant to an existing war?

Which one of these far-seeing seers has noticed that the USA spends more money on war and war-building than the rest of the world combined, and that it is time to re-think that choice?

You and the rest of the power-worshippers are free to gaze with adoring eyes upon Obama and Clinton and Bob Gates and the rest of the establishmentarians who are gearing up to continue the basic foreign policy direction of the past forty-plus years. Go ahead.

But please spare us the silly goo-goo eyes while you do it. One hates to cringe.

Who wrote:

But this group of people shows me that Obama is thinking Big. Far beyond just the next crisis (or, God forbid, reliving the last crisis). He's assembled a group of highly intelligent, thoughtful people who will put country before personal loyalty, and I think we'll be oh so much better for it, even if I don't get everything I want right away.

You have just described the neocons, and what their supporters say about them. And you have described the people David Halberstam wrote about in "The Best and the Brightest."

Boy - did these people ever think big! And you don't get much smarter than the McBundys and Bob McNamara. Big thinkers. Patriotic. Thoughtful.

And they had long-range plans aplenty.

I don't care what Obama's "team" looks like physically (as if their appearance made any difference to Condi Rice's or Alberto Gonzales's conduct) but these people sure do not think like most of the people who voted for Obama.

Change? Gag me with a spoon. Sure, this administration will be different than Bush, but Bush is an historical outrider. You cannot do worse than the worst.

What we are going to see is the continuance of the same establishment-centric crap that we have endured for decades.

There is no chance to break the bonds of conformity to foreign policy "realism". We are doomed for at least another four years of massive defense spending and attempts to maintain the American empire.

As for the blind Obama and Clinton worship around here, it is disheartening in the extreme. Have the last 8 years taught us nothing about "trusting" people whose consuming passion is to gain and keep power over the rest of us?

If he has spent twenty years on this project, only to produce a CGI-ish simulacrum of a rock album, let us recall the words of Robert Herrick:

Delight in Disorder

A SWEET disorder in the dress

Kindles in clothes a wantonness:

A lawn about the shoulders thrown

Into a fine distraction:

An erring lace, which here and there

Enthrals the crimson stomacher:

A cuff neglectful, and thereby

Ribbands to flow confusedly:

A winning wave, deserving note,

In the tempestuous petticoat:

A careless shoe-string, in whose tie

I see a wild civility:

Do more bewitch me than when art

Is too precise in every part.

Gates is staying on in Defense.