A Sinking Ship of State

Since the patriots of Afghanistan now seem to be the Taliban it seems that Karzai is reading the tea leaves and playing politician to save his skin. Karzai was put in power due to his western appeal, former VP of Unocal and all, and as President of Afghanistan has never had much influence outside of the area of Kabul in which he resides. I wouldn't blame Obama for turning the Taliban from outcasts to major players after 9/11 attacks ... that was the Bush Administration's doing.



Karzai is hearing footsteps and there is nothing the United States can do to change that. The President of Afghanistan is definitely a problem for Obama, but not one of his own making.
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Greenspan Testifies To Financial Crisis Commission, Blames Fannie, Freddie For Subprime Crisis (LIVEBLOG, VIDEO)

"My experience has been, in the business I was in I was right 70 percent of the time, but I was wrong 30 percent of the time and there are an awful lot of mistakes in 21 years."



If a surgeon displayed same degree of excellence he would find himself on the Christmas lists of a whole lot of undertakers.
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Adam Carolla Angers Philippines With Rant About Pacquiao, Sex Tourism (AUDIO)

Question 1 - Who is Adam Carolla and why does anyone care what he has to say?



Question 2 - Why should the Filipinos care anymore about what an American has to say about their country than a Spaniard has to say about their country? Same difference.



Question 3 - Why is American Floyd Mayweather Jr afraid to fight Manny Pacquiao?
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Heidi Montag's Plastic Surgery Prevents Her From Hugging, Jogging

"Ms Montag, Madame Tussauds on line two."
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Tiger Woods Masters Press Conference: 'I Lied To Myself'

Professional Golf deserves Tiger Woods as its spokes model.
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U.S. Troops Killed Afghan Women, Then Dug Bullets Out Of Their Bodies To Cover It Up

I am a cynical person. My commentary on humanity tends to be dark. I knew the stories of Marines removing the gold teeth from their Japanese kills in the Pacific during WWII. I know about My Lai. This is so disgusting and soulless an act that it is beyond comprehension.



The wise thing would be for the United States to exit Afghanistan swiftly. Americans, however, aren't wise. We are incapable of doing good in Afghanistan. We are incapable of winning hearts and minds in the Islamic world. We are incapable of depriving Al Qaeda of safe havens and new recruits



We have failed. We should leave.



We won't.
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Geithner Delays Congressional Currency Report To Avoid Insulting China

China holds all the cards because the US Government of Wall Street marked the cards and gifted China with them and a blank rulebook.



I think whether the US or Iceland released a currency report China would act with the same public bluster, while understanding it holds the reins in the situation.
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Talx Corporation: Contesting Jobless Claims Becomes A Boom Industry

People have to think about what "Safety Net" really means. The "Safety Net" applies to the stability of society in general not to bailing out individuals who are down on their luck. In order for societies to function, especially ones with highly developed economies as the United States has, it is imperative that people continue to acknowledge and follow the rules and stay within the social boundaries. If you cutoff people form even a minimal source of income in order to pay for the bare necessities of life you imbue the dispossessed with a sense of desperation that it is difficult to control. People may think that the 2nd Amendment will protest them from transgressors, but if violence becomes commonplace then people with income are going to become less likely to risk trips into public, and even people going to work are going to have second thoughts ... how does that aide an unstable economic situation?



The "Safety Net's" purpose is to keep society civil, not to provide charity. No policing apparatus on earth is going to be successful keeping a lid on armed, desperate citizens with families deprived of food and shelter. Americans need to get down off their high horse and recognize human condition for what it is. If the US Government lets the stability of the country get away from them it is not going to lead to a return to prosperity anytime soon.
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iPad Goes On Sale

The long term impact of this tablet technology, especially in the areas of application in education, is profound and may signal the death of hard copy textbooks, and domination of K-12 educational curriculum developed for and by Texas, and inflicted on students across the country. In terms of personal use, however, I believe it to be an expensive novelty item.
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Top Fed Official Wants To Break Up Megabanks, Stop The Fed From Guaranteeing Wall Street's Profits [EXCLUSIVE]

"Called the idea that the U.S. needs megabanks to compete globally a "fantasy";"



The baseline problem is that in the era of globalism there are no "American Banks." There are banking brands that are historically associated with America, but are really no more American than Toyota is.
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More Evidence Emerges That Pope Benedict Helped Shield Pedophiles Before He Became Pope

None of this stuff is new. It was the abuses of the Spanish Friars in the Philippines that cost Spain its colony there in 1898. Inside the Vatican they are probably saying "What's the big deal?"
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Jamie Dimon: The Most Dangerous Man In America

Power is a Drug and Wall Street is a regular shooting gallery.



I doubt any American would allow a heroin addict to run their household, but we allow individuals of the same character and motivation to run our society.
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Obama Should Channel Roosevelt To Battle Wall Street

I had high hopes that Obama would emerge as a TR type President, but in reality it seems for Obama pragmatism trumps vision. Theodore Roosevelt was a visionary, who fought for what he perceived was necessary to manifest his vision for the United States. I think TR would view the Health Insurance 'Reform" debacle as an abysmal failure. When it was obvious that there was a problem with health and quality standards at American meatpacking plants, after reading Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle', he didn't ask permission of the industries' corrupt leaders to change things ... he pushed through the Pure Food and Drug Act over their screams and protests. When TR felt the need to protect America's dwindling natural frontier, he signed millions of acres into protected status, over the protests of industrialists, and until Congress voted to take the pen from his hand in terms of his right to protect lands. When JP Morgan came to the White House with a list of demands, TR stared him down and reminded him that the United States of America wasn't a junior partner to US Steel.



As I said, I had high hopes for Obama, but, like Bill Clinton, I fear he is more of a Grover Cleveland than an Theodore Roosevelt. Although Obama and TR both attended Harvard, I think that is where the similarities end.
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Media Drills Vapidity On Drilling Into Our Faces (VIDEO)

My problem with Obama is despite his marketing as a "Change President", practically speaking, he has only displayed interest in reinforcing and further entrenching the status quo. Furthermore, polls of Americans on oil drilling or any issue of importance to the United States are meaningless to me, because, to put a fine point on it, Americans are some of the most ignorant people on Earth, and while they might be for this or that odds are they can't explain to you why.



All that an expansion of oil drilling means is that there should be no expectation of any but the most cosmetic of innovations coming from then United States in terms of energy, This is sad, for without innovation America reverts to a pre-Spanish American War footprint in the world.



And why, at this point, we are expecting any coverage of value from the Private Press, and still respond as overawed when they blow yet another story's areas of relevance boggles me. We act as though the media works for us ... they don't.
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Rachel Maddow's 37th Birthday: What's Your Favorite Maddow Moment? (VIDEO)

Giving Rachel a show was one of the best moves MSNBC ever made.
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Are Moderates No Longer Welcome In The Republican Party?

I think the United States would be better off with multiple parties and a coalition style government. The two-party system freezes out new ideas and limits the influence of the population in favor of maintaining the status quo. There probably should be a Conservative Party in addition to the Republican Party, and, for that matter, there should probably be a Progressive Party in addition to the Democrats.
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Lieberman: "Nothing" Better Than Public Option (VIDEO)

Lieberman is a real piece of ... work.
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Geithner On Meet The Press: Worried Banks May Be Too Timid

"A bright spot in the recovery identified by Geithner is the banking system, which he said is "dramatically more stable" because of the government bailout."



As long as you ignore the trillions of dollars in bad paper the Bank's are holding but aren't required to report as part of their bottom line.
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"TARP on Steroids"

David, Wall Street and the US Government are responsible for a fraud cloud of 500 trillion plus dollars in derivatives infecting the Global Economy ... a bubble that they can't afford to allow to pop because it would indiscriminately wipe out fortunes and Government treasuries around the world. Even in a best case scenario where they could deflate that cloud in a controlled fashion ... with the help of US Taxpayer dollars ... there will be some huge losers. Currently the situation is like having ten thousand people thinking they have the same right to bite of a ham sandwich.



The cynic in me thinks that Wall Street, the Fed, and the Treasury know that there will be some monumental losers, but they want to use Taxpayer dollars as a sort of throttle in order to insure that payouts are made to a chosen few before the whole Ponzi Scheme collapses.



A scary thought, but then this is Halloween ... Trick or Treat?
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Ed Schultz: Obama Would "Sell His Soul" For GOP Support On Health Care (VIDEO)

How President Obama handles this will determine whether or not he will be a one or two term President. I see Rahm has got him moving into full DLC Triangulation mode and that is not what won the White House for Obama. I don't recall the campaign slogan being:



"The Audacity of Capitulation".



And before the Democrats think they can win in 2010 and 2012 without the Left, which is what the situation will be if the President caves on the Public Option, the White House better remember that in terms of grass root participation and energy "Moderate Activism" is an oxymoron.
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