Viva randall, the decision about pap smears had nothing to do with the govenment. It was made by a group of doctors, OB-GYNs to be specific, with no government affiliation whatsoever.

The age at which mammograms are truly most effective in detecting cancer has been under discussion for several years. It’s not as if somebody just decided since January 20, 2009 to take a look at it. 

I should have known some wingnut would use it for a sledge hammer though. 

Do I think he has done the best that could possibly be done under the disastrous circumstances he faced when he stepped into office?

No.

Do I think any of the other candidates who ran in the primaries could have done better?

Only one, Hillary.

However, IMO the only consequential mistakes he has made so far all involve trying to appease the republicans. Once it became glaringly obvious that they were going to try and stonewall him the same way they did Clinton he should have used the power of his popularity and the congressional majority to push the changes that he wanted through. Trying to work with the obstructionists has been a huge waste of time. They offered nothing to worth consideration so they deserve no consideration.

"Start worrying about Psalm 109 and what the  consequences of it might be if some nut case decides to act on it, rather than fussing about this constantly."

  By Lizzie R. on 11/19/2009 12:47 am

And they call Muslems radical. I wonder what the English word for jihad is.

"P.S. If, in 2012, Sarah Palin is elected president of the United States, at least half of the country is going to hope the Mayans were dead on. The other half will feel the Rapture has arrived."

Brilliant!! I love it!!! Of course, what the Rapture means to Palin worshipers is that everybody is dead and only they will go to Alaska and have everlasting life.

What concerns me the most about this book, and about everything Palin is what the adoration of somebody like her by American voters says about our country. The very idea that she could be considered as a viable candidate for president says we still have a lot of ignorance to overcome.

No brainer for me. Railroads and alternate energy sources.

I would love to do something about education and health care but I don’t think throwing money at them is the answer until the mindset about what constitutes them in this country changes. 

I wouldn’t have changed a thing given the choices I had at the time.

IF WE DON’T LEARN FROM HISTORY WE ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT IT.

And the republicans on this board are evidently incapable of learning from their mistakes. 

Reaganomics didn’t, never has, and never will work. Wealth doesn’t trickle down except when it goes south to the Carribbean in the off shore bank accounts of corporate CEO.

"Sherrie just remember that Obama is now President so the money being spent on these Wars goes against him and his budget - you can no longer blame it on Bush, get over it."

By C Hardy on 11/09/2009 1:31 pm

Is that the best you’ve got Hardy? That sounds pretty lame to me.

The war could very well have been over by now if Bush hadn’t wanted to pretect Bin Laden and get Iraq’s oil more than he wanted to save American lives so it will always be his disastrous folly no matter who inherits the distruction.

Afghanistan’s culture is no more foreign to Western acceptability than Iraq’s was. Afterall, wasn’t that one of Bushie’s justifications after it became clear that there were no weapons of mass destruction and no terrorists had been trained there? 

Wasn’t the fact that we’d supposedly freed the Iraqi people from the bonds of a treacherous dictator supposed to be enough reason for all those US soldiers to have died under his watch?

But now that we have a Democratic president instead of a corporate puppet in the White House and the rethugs want to find fault in everything he does we shouldn’t mess with the oppressive Taliban because that’s Afghanistan’s problem to take care of.

Republican thy name is hypocrite.

"Do you feel the same about Hollywood celebrities?  Sports figures that get multimillion dollar contracts for doing a movie or playing a game?"

I adore Alex Baldwin, always have. The kind of things that happened in his personal life when his marriage fell apart happen every day to hundreds if not thousands of couples but they don’t have to play them out in the media and have them dissected under a magnifying glass.

I hate the way our society treats celebrities. I wouldn’t live that life for all of the "gold in California". 

"What a lame duck for just sitting around waiting."

By C Hardy on 11/09/2009 11:48 am

No Hardy, what’s lame is the repugs trying so deparately to latch onto anything they can possible spin into a negative controversy around this administration. 

It was the irresponsible actions of your president that got us into this mess and I want President Obama to gather as much REAL INFORMATION (as opposed to Bush’s fake intelligence) as he needs to make a responsible decision.

Yes, 911 was all too real but it’s only connection to Bush’s wars was that it gave him an excuse that he could use to get the country stirred up into a frenzy and sell them on the war in Iraq. (well, sell a lot of them, I never fell for it)

Bush didn’t give a damn about catching Bin Ladin, in fact he probably promised the Bush family friends (those being the Bin Ladin family) that he wouldn’t hurt him. All he wanted was an excuse to go into Iraq so he let Afghanistan deteriorate into the quagmire that we’re now in there. 

Now we have a president who wants to decide what is really the right thing to do instead of using the lives of our military to advance a personal goal.

You people must like being lied to.

"Do you understand why the jobs go overseas?  Because they cannot compete in a global market with high labor costs!"

By S.J. Morgan on 11/09/2009 8:37 am

Do you understand that there is something morally, ethically and humanly wrong with CEOs and the politicians they own becoming ostentatiously, extravagantly, grossly wealthy by taking the very livelihoods away from millions of American people?

They couldn’t compete? BULLSHIT!! They couldn’t become ostentatiously, extravagantly and grossly wealthy and still pay American workers a living wage. 

Conservatism, liberalism, socialism, they’re just words that have been misapplied so many times by the wing-nut propagandists that they have no true meaning anymore.

What ever happened to humanism in this country? 

Republican Economy, if that’s not an oxymoron I’ve never heard one.

The republican party no longer knows what the real economy is. They haven’t learned in the last 25+ years that the only thing that trickles down is what runs down their legs if they don’t get to the bathroom in time.

Giving wealthy corporations and their execs tax breaks to move middle class jobs out of this country is good for the economy………………….. ………………………. WELL THERE’S YOUR SIGN PEOPLE. 

Letting Wall Street gamble on the odds that bad mortgages are going to fail and calling that the economy…………………………………………………. …………………………………………………. I think that may even be too stupid for a sign.