We so seldom have enlightened beings grace our little neck of the woods that the brilliance makes our eyes ache and water and squint. Please, enlighten us, what do you want us to say? As you have noted, we labor in the dark. It is said that in the land of eternal darkness the ship of the sun is pulled by the grateful dead. Please, continue, oh seeing one!

Oh, dear... I see a tsunami of disappointment is about to break over us all.

It's shaping up to be like Tony Blair all over again. I remember being at an election night party in Glasgow back in 1997, when Blair and his Labour party had succeeded in dismissing the hated Tories of Thatcher (although the witch herself had already been stabbed in the back by her viper's nest of a party). How we looked forward in anticipation to the coming golden age of enlightenment held out before us with dazzling promise...

And how disappointed we've been over the last 11 years by everything that has been perpetrated by this sham of a government - the corruption, the sleaze, the broken promises, the lies, not to mention the damn incompetence. So disappointed in fact, that the country has almost gone full circle, volte-face and the Tories are now significantly ahead in the polls.

It seems every new-born political generation, swept up by the heady promises of change, is destined for tragic disappointment and disillusionment. Get ready, young voters of America, this looks like its going to be a bad one - the higher the expectations, the bigger the fall.

From his November 5 post:

Moving quickly to establish ties to the incoming Obama administration, CIA Director Mike Hayden urged staffers to "do what we can to ensure a smooth, effective transition to a new administration." In a memo to Langley workers, Hayden put them on notice that they now have two customers to serve until Inauguration Day. /snip/ In his memo, he also appeared to encourage officials to ignore the anticipated discussion of job changes at the top, even though there are expectations in some corners that Hayden will be asked to stay on, as was his predecessor George Tenet.

Link to the post, which includes Hayden's full memo, is at my name.

Gosh, I don't recall anyone else speculating right after the election that Hayden would stay on. Looking a bit further, I see that Bedard had at least nine posts about the CIA in 2008, including such fluff pieces as "There Really Are Boy Scouts At CIA" and "Going Green Is No Secret At CIA". It looks to me that Bedard is chums with quite a few of the folks at CIA and is doing his part to keep them happy and presented in a good light. I hope they pay him well, because he is doing a true disservice to the country by compromising his principles so blatantly.

See the search here:

http://www.usnews.com/Topics/tag/Organizations/c/cia/index1.html

But when it comes to the American CIA

I'd expect nothing less than a serial killer

To be enthusiastically appointed...

Who is this collective "you" that you're referring to, exactly? Because neither this nor any other progressive blog speaks with one voice about anything. There are Obamabots who believe that HE can do no wrong, and there are anti-Obamabots who believe that he can do no right. And then there's the reality-based rest of us, who think that he can, has done and will do both, to one extent or another, and reserve our criticisms for ones grounded in reality, not speculation.

And trust me, HE listens to "US". We have such vast and awesome powers, you wouldn't even begin to understand, so don't even try. Obama, after all, is an anagram for Moaba.

Ondelette said "Pillar"!

so now we know she is really a man, right Holly?

:)

Um, actually, Tony Blair was the British version of Bill Clinton, who was elected 5 years prior, and if anything an even bigger disappointment than Clinton turned out to be. But in any case, the mere fact that voters are often disappointed when their candidate turns out to be nothing like what they'd hoped for merely proves that this MIGHT happen with Obama, as it could with any promising candidate, and not that it WILL happen. According to your logic, the more promising a candidate is, the more likely that he or she will turn out to be a fake, which is little more than pat cynicism, absent supporting facts. Was Lincoln a disappointment? FDR?

Here's how BHO introduced Shinseki today:

"There is no one more distinguished, more determined, or more qualified to build this VA than the leader I am announcing...

"No one will ever doubt that this former Army chief of staff has the courage to stand up for our troops and our veterans. No one will ever question whether he will fight hard enough to make sure they have the support they need."

Why not apply that same standard of principles, values, loyalty to the country and contra-Bush with the director of the CIA?

um...not that it matters, since it goes against your central premise of "republican appointee=bad," but Hayden was a Clinton appointee at NSA. You know, it's what we call one of them there, easily confirmable FACTS. You should try it sometime.

As to the issue of Hayden: rumor or not, the fact that he isn't automatically disqualified from continuing in his current job has many people concerned.

Are you understandering?

it is my sense that these so-called "whispers" are meant to actually promote Hayden coming from the intelligence community. The article may actually be designed to push this POV that Hayden should stay on.

I will be angry if Obama keeps Hayden, but, at this point, I see no reason to believe anything is decided. Pushback from progressive blogs is in order rather than lots of bowing and scraping for whatever choice Obama would make.

Or: Project Much?

Believe it or not, people have debated over much more important issues without acting like giant, strawmen-pummeling assholes in the process. You should try it sometime.