On the State of the Republican Party:

"I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities." — Gov. Sarah Palin at the 2008 Republican National Convention, as quoted by Frank Rich in today's New York Times, analyzing the state of the Republican Party now that the Alaskan governor has quit her job in order to go fishing with her husband and to devote more time to cash in on her media popularity.

Super Secret CIA Program Might Be Revealed:

Paul Kane and Joby Warrick report in today's Washington Post on the Dick Cheney inspired super secret CIA program put into place but never completely administered in the days following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. CIA Director Leon Panetta apparently canceled the program shortly after taking office this year. According to Democratic Representative Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, "There was an order given to not inform Congress" about any aspect of the program or even of its existance. Presumably, that order came from Tricky Dick Cheney.

Understanding the Economy:

During the 1950s and 1960s it seemed that crude oil was a fixed commodity. The price of crude was as stable as the job returning veterans of World War II had at General Motors. Set for life. People like Milton Friedman thought they had the economy figured out.

Jad Mouawad addresses the volatility in today's oil markets in "Swings in Price of Oil Hobble Forecasting." Mouawad looks closely at the effects on commercial aviation and its inability to forecast prices, as a microcosim of the situation.

"Today only the deluded would argue that markets are self-correcting

or that we can rely on the self-interested behavior of market participants to guarantee that everything works honestly and properly" — Joseph E. Stiglitz, "Wall Street's Toxic Message," Vanity Fair, July 2009.

Yes, she did!

Alaskan governor and former Republican candidate for Vice President announced her resignation as governor of Alaska yesterday afternoon, providing reasons that were so scrambled that the press has been covering the story with the notation that she is doing so without providing any reason for her action.

Let's be perfectly clear: sometimes what you see is exactly what you get. (See today's New York Times' story.)

Read Todd S. Purdum's Vanity Fair article, "It Came from Wasilla."

Happy Birthday, Declaration of Independence!

Quote of the Day:

"America is much more than a geographical fact. It is a political and
moral fact—the first community in which men set out in principle to
institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality."

—Adlai Stevenson

Why do we see faces in clouds, but not clouds in faces:

Nicholas Kristof examines the reasoning behind human folly in today's New York Times. It turns out our brains are programmed to fear snakes, even harmless ones, but we find it almost impossible to recognize the dangers in something as profound as climate change. According to Daniel Gilbert, professor of Psychology at Harvard and quoted heavily by Kristof in the op-ed piece, the human brain is programmed for social issues, and that's why we see faces in clouds but not the other way around.

Kristof points out that we react quickly when the threat is imminent but we tend to dismiss long term threats. Which reminds me of a boss I once had. He was great in a crisis, so if one didn't exist, he made sure that one did. Eventually, he declared bankruptcy. Fortunately, I'd found another employer before that happened.

What's Wrong with America:

Paul Kane reports in today's Washington Post that "30 key lawmakers helping draft landmark health-care legislation have financial holdings in the industry, totaling nearly $11 million worth of personal investments." The actual amount of their holdings could be much higher as "congressional financial disclosure forms … require reporting of only broad ranges of holdings rather than precise values of assets."

In other words, the very people we hope will create a fair system of health care have a vested interest in maintaining the current status quo. Federal lawmakers have the best health care in the world, paid for by the American taxpayers. Now we learn that they are becoming filthy rich from an industry devoted to exploiting the very people who have placed them into office.

"Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

Today marks the 55th anniversary of Army counsel Joseph N. Welch's reply to Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy during the latter's notorious witch hunt that was part of a terrorism program meant to emasculate the labor movement in America.

In the more than a half century since that time, it is almost impossible to believe that anyone in Washington or your state capitol or, for that matter, in your county seat has much sense of decency.

ABORTION: What would the argument be if MEN as well as women could become pregnant?

The murder of Dr. George Tiller, in the lobby of his church, has brought the right-wing's favorite political issue back into the forefront, just when most of us had hoped the recent election had finally marginalized it.

Abortion has been practiced for thousands of years. Only in recent years has it been relatively safe—no medical procedure is completely safe.

We live in a grossly overcrowded world, with a population that continues to explode. The next important issue looming before us is how we can possibly feed the world's population, provided we don't choke ourselves to death through global warming first.

The answer to the question is that if men became pregnant abortion would have always been legal, with no restrictions. But you already knew that, didn't you.

It Ain't Gonna Happen:

Many of us want to see Bush administration people go to jail for the mess they've made and the crimes committed during the past eight years, but this just ain't going to happen. Following the vote to impeach Nixon three decades ago, many of us then hoped that he would be tried for his many crimes, but Gerald Ford rushed in to pardon him, arguing that putting the former president on trial would distract the government and divide the country.

The real reason Nixon wasn't tried and Bush will not be tried is that everyone who anticipates holding the office of president is fearful that should one x-president be tried for high crimes and misdemeanors every president will face the same action once he or, someday, she will face the same action. (See Jeffrey Smith's Washington Post article.)