Happy New Year!

Eugene Robinson
E J Dionne Jr
Gail Collins

"Much of the contention surrounding Barack Obama's presidency is simply a continuation of our argument over the effects of George W. Bush's time in office." - E J Dionne Jr

"No matter how difficult the issue, Obama has been sensible, deliberative. Just look at Dick Cheney swooping around like a dementor from Harry Potter, and you have to appreciate how much things have improved." - Gail Collins




That full moon you see tonight, if you are not too drunk, is a blue moon, or the second full moon in a month, which happens about every 2 1/2 years. This picture was taken in Nairobi, Kenya...

Has this been a good year, or even a good decade? If you are a conservative Bush supporter, this last year has been frustrating because Barack Obama is systematically changing all of the progress made over the last decade by conservatives. If you are a more liberal supporter of Obama, this has been a frustrating year because the conservatives keep trying to put a monkey wrench in each change, hampering any progress being made from the destructive policies made over the last decade. And if you are a moderate like myself, this year has alternately been entertaining, watching both extremes attack each other over the most minute and arcane processes, and frustrating because both extremes don't seem to have enough sense to keep their underwear clean, they keep reaching back and flinging their feces at each other and you are caught in between...

And if you are a right wing extremist, then nothing will ever make you happy because you live a depressed life and nothing that changes externally can make you happy. All of the tea bags in China taped to your forehead cannot hide your secret desire to just blow everything up. Yes, you are our hidden suicide bombers, our American Taliban, and you have the very same mentality that the depressed and angry suicide bombers in the Middle East come from. I'm waiting for the announced candidacy of the joint ticket of Orly Taitz and Joe the Plumber...

To get an early celebration for the New Year, two Grad-type rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel. This is the first time since last winter that rockets of this type have been launched. Usually they have been firing mortar rounds that explode harmlessly in the desert, and they traditionally fire them from the rooftops of crowded apartment buildings to avoid immediate retaliation. Maybe these are just Hamas's idea of fireworks? Maybe we could smuggle a couple of cases of sparklers to them, to use instead...

'Being Lectured By Cheney On Terrorism Is Like Being Lectured On Fidelity By Tiger Woods' - Roy Sekoff

"You know who had a great year in 2009? Wall Street bankers — they had a bailout and still get bonuses. So there's a lesson here: In America it's better to be a fat cat than a horny tiger." –Jay Len

The US Court of Appeals has ruled that using tasers by the police on an unarmed person who poses no threat can be seen as excessive use of force.

As predicted, there is way too much coverage about Yemen being a haven for al Qaeda training camps. The CIA has been operating in Yemen for over 5 years and any training camps are well known and documented. The American born Mullah who is being characterized as a radical and living in Yemen is probably a CIA asset and all of this publicity helps create his character so he can dig in deeper into the terrorist groups.

All it would have taken to not have allowed the Undie Bomber from boarding any plane to the US, was some NSA official to have flagged the word Nigeria four months ago when they intercepted conversations in Yemen about using a Nigerian for another plane bomb. Then, if they had shared that flag with other countries, Britain would have told us about their banning a Nigerian student from entering the UK, we would have had a name to enter onto the no-fly list, and voila! Terroist plot averted... But first, we have to fire 3/4 of the individuals who were hired by the Bush administration because they are stupid and couldn't connect the dots if you held their hand...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!