I had a hard time with the president's decision on Afghanistan. Obviously many others have too. My instinct is exit now, end this war, period. But then after he announced his plan that conflicted with another instinct I have. To trust him. And I do. But that's not at all what I'm writing about here, my position on the war.

It's just about our president, and a moment that will go down in history.

NY Times today:

Now as his top military adviser ran through a slide show of options, Mr. Obama expressed frustration. He held up a chart showing how reinforcements would flow into Afghanistan over 18 months and eventually begin to pull out, a bell curve that meant American forces would be there for years to come.

“I want this pushed to the left,” he told advisers, pointing to the bell curve. In other words, the troops should be in sooner, then out sooner.

Wow. Max Blumenthal sticks it to him. I'm not sure if I have ever seen anyone rattle Joe this badly. Joe attacks him immediately when he comes out. Nobody else says a word through the whole thing.

Originally posted 2009-01-26 20:42:10 -0500; Bumped, promoted and updated by carol, Huffington Post reports the following.

According to a report from ABC News, President Obama is not taking kindly to corporate greed, especially when it's funded by taxpayer money. Read more from ABC here:

The high-flying execs at Citigroup caved under pressure from President Obama and decided today to abandon plans for a luxurious new $50 million corporate jet from France...

ABC News has learned that Monday officials of the Obama administration called Citigroup about the company's new $50 million corporate jet and told execs to "fix it."

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When AIG had their famous junket on us (taxpayers), I wrote a diary covering an aspect of it I hadn't seen elsewhere: the luxurious details of the beautiful St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, California. Ain't no Party Like an AIG Party.

The diary was a guide to the restaurants, the golf, the spa, etc. Highlighted were the bar where you paid for them to celebrate their latest streak of good luck and the Presidential Suite Master Bath where you paid for them to do wash (or do whatever with... or pay hookers to do whatever with) their pasty executive... parts. Details. Exactly what you got for your tax dollars.

Wanna join the mile-high club, baby? Join me over the fold for all the soaring details of the brand spankin' new $50,000,000 corporate jet you just bought for Citibank:

There was great diary on the rec list at Daily Kos yesterday by The Termite about a mantis melee (but you shouldn't even bother reading it). It's about 150 insects who slaughter/eat each other (leaving only 6 survivors) on the first night they are left alone in a new habitat. That's what I thought of when I read this today:

The sleepy town of Hamelin has a rat problem – again. The first time, according to legend, the rats ran riot“Rats!” wrote Robert Browning in his famous poem, “They fought the dogs and killed the cats, and bit the babies in the cradles, and ate the cheeses out of the vats, and licked the soup from the cooks’ own ladles!”

Promoted. Originally posted 2008-11-08 17:19:52 -0500. -- GH

Stinging Talk About Obama? Never Mind Now

But she [Palin] took an entirely different tone on Thursday, when she chastised reporters for asking her questions about her war with some staff members in the McCain campaign at such a heady time. “Barack Obama has been elected president,” "God Bless Barack Obama," Ms. Palin said.

Promoted.  -- GH

I've scoured everywhere for the video but I don't see it. So far all I can find is a screen capture and a wingnut viral video. NYT received and reported on a one minute trailer. It was released to the NY Times last night:

Obama Infomercial, a Closing Argument to the Everyman Mr. Obama’s campaign agreed to provide The New York Times with a minute-long trailer for the 30-minute program. ... As the screen flashes scenes of suburban lawns, a freight train and Mr. Obama seated at a kitchen table with a group of white, apparently working-class voters, Mr. Obama says: “We’ve seen over the last eight years how decisions by a president can have a profound effect on the course of history and on American lives; much that’s wrong with our country goes back even farther than that.”

I'm looking for the video, and will post it if I can find it. Screen capture via Stwriley at dkos:

It has the YouTube logo on the bottom corner.. I guess that means it was up briefly and then taken down? Dunno. But I can't find it there or anywhere. 

originally posted 2008-10-08 06:54:32 - bumped, cho

AIG executives thank you for financing their trip to such a beautiful resort :)

They want you to know that your money paid for a wonderful retreat!! They have been exhausted from their role in deflating your 401k for their own enrichment - boy did they need this luxurious getaway. You (and your children and grandchildren) are so generous to pay for it!

for a change of pace from the market meltdown.. originally posted 2008-10-06 06:29:21, bumped.

McCain attorney John Dowd attempts to set the record straight on McCain and the Keating Five scandal in a media call.

Says McCain was “completely open with both the public and the Senate” during the hearings. Emphasized he was not found to have violated any rule of the Senate or law of the U.S.