They've put out the broad outlines of a plan, then left some of the details to be filled in later. Some of them may be filled in by Congress, which means they'll drift out of the control of Obama (even if proxies like his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, will be shepherding them).

But that's not how our system works, or how it should work. The president is supposed to suggest policy, and Congress is supposed to make laws that implement it - or not, as they see fit. Of course Congress is going to fill in the details. That's their job. This is one of the things we all hated about the Bush administration - the president dictated, and Congress bowed and scraped and went along.

But the administration doesn't seem to be worrying about how the debate goes from a policy's introduction to a final victory. Instead of unveiling a completely finished proposal and pushing it along with a concerted P.R. effort, the White House is letting its policies evolve in public, even if that causes a few days of bad news cycles when critics inevitably weigh in.

Yeah, I remember the last time a Democratic administration unveiled a completely finished proposal... it was Hillary's health care proposal. After a smashing success like that, who could argue with this approach.

On a less snarky note, I think that letting the stuff evolve in public, while messy, actually gives these proposals a better chance of passing. Everyone can see that the process had input from all sides.

The way to stop talking about the Fairness Doctrine... is to stop talking about it. A couple of things:

1) I have no particular interest in seeing in reinstated

2) I'm down with the idea of bringing it up every now and then just to annoy the rightwing nutjobs, but

3) I get tired of articles that start off with "Can we stop talking about X now?" when the article itself is talking about X.

If you really don't want to talk about it, then don't. It's pretty easy.

Seriously, WTF? If a person makes an appointment for a plastic surgery consultation, no one should be surprised if he/she is **gasp** offered plastic surgery! And being a business, it's probably also not too surprising that they try to sell as much plastic surgery as possible.

If the point of the article is that our society has gone a little bananas about perfecting our physical appearances, well, I'm with you there. I think our tendency to surgically tighten, botox, and inject/implant ourselves with plastic is more than a little sick. But given that our society is what it is, I have a hard time faulting the plastic surgeons of the world for trying to make a living.

... the reason you can't have this is because Steve said so. Don't like it? Go take a leap. This is my biggest complaint about the iPhone - sure, it's a great platform. But it could be so much better if Apple didn't rule it with an iron fist. Bluetooth is crippled, the camera is crippled (no video), the OS itself is crippled (neither push notification nor background processes for 3rd party apps), and don't even get me started about cut & paste.

It would be one thing if these were things that just couldn't be done with today's technology. But come on, my old Treo 650 did most of this years ago, and jailbroken phones do almost all of it now. The only conclusion I can reach is that Apple just doesn't care what it's customers want... which is definitely going to be a factor when I buy my next phone.

(though McCain was described in a media pool report on the summit as "irritable and close to losing his temper at one point")

McCain is always irritable and close to losing his temper. That's just who he is. Is anyone really surprised by this?

As a retired Navy officer who also happens to be a liberal, I hope I have something relevant to say on this matter. Some things to consider:

- Student debt can be a crushing burden, and you need to balance your fears of not fitting in against the pain of years of semi-starvation (you did say you were getting a BA, right? :) ...). In terms of following your dreams, deferring them for a few years could buy you the financial freedom to more fully pursue them later, which could be a trade worth making.

- Along these lines, don't fear too much about not fitting in. While there are certainly more right-wing jerks in the service than in the general population (and the Air Force, as far as I can tell, is worse than average), you'll find plenty of like-minded people. You will be providing an important counterweight against political homogeneity in the service if you join. Also, a stint in the service can help develop your non-bookish side, which is an advantage in any career.

- Then again, as another poster brought up before: would you be willing to kill someone if you had to? Are you prepared to risk your own life? In the Air Force, it's rather unlikely you would be in any kind of direct combat, and remote fighting such as being a bomber or fighter pilot is not all that common (a lot of Air Force positions are in some sort of support role)... but if you absolutely know you could never participate in such things, you should definitely not accept a commission. As an alternative, have you considered the Coast Guard? All the adventure factor of being in the military, but your mission is lifesaving, law enforcement, navigational assistance, etc... so there's much less worry of being asked to support a war you don't believe in.

Anyway, I hope you'll give the military a fair look. It's not for everyone, but it may be for you. There's certainly no shame in signing up for a stint with the idea of paying off your student loans.