Tancredo was an embarrassment last night. With his constant attack on immigrants one wonders where he gets the nerve. Last I checked Tancredo was surely not Native American as a surname. Having to even ask what it is to be an American says all you need to know about the current state of the Republican Party.

This is the party, after all, that's continually wrapping itself in the flag. Yet, they've stirred up such controversy the forest can't be seen for the trees.

To some extent the entire evening was just as bizarre. How is that Ron Paul was the lone exception to a chorus that says the war in Iraq is just the beginning?

Just the beginning?!

That's what their comments implied. But at the same time they claimed they were stronger than any challenge this world could present. That's odd. Claiming the sky is falling, i.e., warning us that the war in Iraq is going to be just the beginning of the War on Terror is clearly at odds for people that claim strength is their virtue. We currently have a military bigger than the combined might of the rest of the industrialized world. So fear mongering obviously is just a cover for paranoia at best; and opportunism at worst.

Those were the dominant themes of last night though. Immigration is a National Security Issue. The enviornment is a National Security issue. The Free Market will save us from Big Oil, by the way. Health Care in the hands of Democrats is equivalent to Socialized Medicine. And, get this, not having a clue about how evolution can benefit an educational curriculum is a benefit in the Republican Party. It must be since none of the candidates mentioned any when given the chance.

Maybe that's because they were busy waxing philosophically about Jesus. But the last time I checked Jesus is the prophet of peace!

People found it funny how Giuliani was interrupted by lightning. I thought more telling was how Romney began the debate intelligently. Speaking of "null sets" isn't the lexicon of someone committed to anything but a complicated world. Too bad that scourge of liberalism known as Massachusetts is the last place he'll see to reward him for his intellect. Somebody should tell Mr. Romney Republicans talk of war, war, and more war.

That vision thing he did last night was a waste of time on that crowd!

This man has an absolutely marvelous capacity to synthesize information to make penetrating points. In fact, Blumenthal has consistently reduced the ever increasing foibles of the Bush Admin to their true nature. Always, he delivers the SOP of this misplaced band of losers in personal terms.

Always!

"It's the personal stupid" captures this Admin. like nothing else, too. Who would think, after all, that these scandals have layer after layer of a faux Byzanintine grasp for power. On their face they simply look like bad government. Yet, the insistent abuse of the public trust, and the incompetence shown while doing so, repeatedly make the deeper point. point. The false case for war, The Plame Affair, the Abramoff Scandal, Gonzales and his constant failures, Rumsfeld and Cheney and Bolton and Wolfowitz, the efforts to ignore science at every turn...I could go on and on obviously but the theme of a set of rouges with no skill, even less character, and delusions of grandeur comes through as the tie that binds here. And Blumenthal has pointed that out again and again and again.

I can only say thank you.

But I also must wonder at where this man get his abiliy to always find the dirt ground up in the gears of this abominable machine.

Excellent article Mr. B!

Once again thru your efforts my understanding has been increased.

How telling can one caption be?

This one and the accompanying story speak volumes, that yes, will endure. Sadly reminiscent of the Anna Nicole Smith tragedy was this heiress's wailing. The no makeup reality it presented was hard to hear. I know I'm not afraid to say that it caught my attention. Indeed, it put me in an eerie frame of mind. Paris Hilton is representative. Representative of the cupidity that's involved in striving for ideals that aren't balanced in any way shape or form, but are representative nonetheless.

If she implodes. If her claims of stress that go on to make her incarceration cruel prove to be true, her star will once again be our focus. As such, her indictment is our indictment. And to talk of the "help" she should seek, or the just desserts of her sentence without recognizing the same strictures should apply to us with much greater force is the ultimate in denial.

Somebody stop this ride man, I want to get off.

We have overlooked so often the facts that led right to where we are. There is a litany of occurrences that have become an industry of voyeurism. Voyeurs are essentially parasites, though. Behavior perfectly fitting of our consumer culture, and Paris is our paradigm. All along, we knew (or should have known!) she was just toying with us on this "journey" of hers we longed to follow.

Too bad we don't have the kind of money she has to drive away from the cliff!