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Pro: Douglas Rushkoff.

Con: Farhad Manjoo.

Someone Finally Told the Truth About Michael Jackson

Someone has finally told the truth about Michael Jackson, an honest assessment that applies to many over-praised celebrities of minimal talent. And looking at the comments following this article, it looks like few people value hearing the truth.

Guess Who We're Invading Next?

In this first-ever one-on-one interview by any US president to the Pakistani media, Mr Obama assured the Pakistani nation that he has no desire to seize Pakistan’s nuclear weapons or send US troops inside the country.

‘But I will tell you that we have no intention of sending US troops into Pakistan. Pakistan and its military are dealing with their security issues.’

It Doesn't Get Better Than This, Or Worse

$106-billion war bill passed on to Obama

Congress sent President Obama a massive spending bill aimed at ensuring that the military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan won't run out of money in the coming months.

The Senate approved the measure 91 to 5, despite complaints from several senators about the add-ons that pushed the total more than $20 billion above Obama's funding request. The House approved it Tuesday, 226 to 202.

Voting against the bill were Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.; Jim DeMint, R-S.C.; Mike Enzi, R-Wyo.; Russ Feingold, D-Wis.; and Bernard Sanders, I-Vt.

I can't find a transcript of Senate majority leader Sen. Harry Reid's statement supporting continued funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but this comes from his official web site:

America's Armed Forces are unequaled in strength, unrivaled in professionalism, and unprecedented in success. As our troops defend our nation in Iraq, and Afghanistan we must ensure that our military stays the strongest fighting force in the world. As Nevada's soldiers and premier military facilities make valuable contributions to America's defense, I remain committed to ensuring that Nevada's military personnel and their families have the necessary resources and support. America's security must come first.

Here's Reid's statement on March 27, 2009, when Democrats tried to pass a supplemental funding bill with timelines:

"The American people spoke on November 7th saying the direction of the war was wrong, and that we as a Democratic Congress should do something about it and we have. The ball is now in the President's court. We need to redeploy those troops, and we need, by the year 2008, the 1st of April to have our troops home."

"If the President is unwilling to recognize that there is a separate branch of government that is equal under our constitution to the executive branch of government, then it's too bad for him. He has to sit down and negotiate with us. He should do that, otherwise he's going to have to veto this, and he's the reason that the troops won't have the supplies that they need."

"President Bush has to understand there's a new Congress. For six years, he's ignored Congress. The Republican-dominated House and Senate gave President Bush everything he wanted, and look at the fix we're in as a country. We have 3,300 dead Americans in Iraq, we have 25,000 wounded, we have a President who didn't take care of the necessities so that these men and women coming back to America after fighting in Iraq would have proper training to get them well. It simply has been a mismatch from the very beginning.

So I say to President Bush: Understand that this Congress has done what the American people asked us to do. You listen to the American people for a change."

The dishonesty, hypocrisy and partisan opportunism is nauseating. This is yet another proof that there's no fundamental difference between the two political parties.

Eternal War for Eternal Peace

In a vote that should go down in recent histories as a day of shame for the Democrats, on Tuesday the House voted to approve another $106 billion dollars for the bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and increasingly Pakistan). To put a fine point on the interconnection of the iron fist of U.S. militarism and the hidden hand of free market neoliberal economics, the bill included a massive initiative to give the International Monetary Fund billions more in U.S. taxpayer funds.

What once Democrats could argue was "Bush's war," they now officially own. That means that only 30 out of 256 Democrats are willing to stand up to the war and the current president presiding over it.

Two other Democrats, not expected to vote against the war funding, joined the anti-war Democrats. Brad Sherman and Pete Stark brought the total number of Democratic votes against the supplemental to 32.

Print is Dead, Unless it's Not

Obama: Cooler Than Coolidge

In his obituary of Calvin Coolidge, H.L. Mencken wrote, "He had no ideas, but was not a nuisance."

Redscott, a commenter elsewhere, wrote:

Greenwald calls this phenomenon all the time. Obama says nice things about Gitmo, civil liberties, dumb wars, economic relief, and an even-handed foreign policy, but he never actually does anything significant that would advance those righteous objectives. It's about as empty as empty can get. Call me when he does something.

This is Obama's strategy. If you don't do anything, you can't do anything wrong. Obama surfs the wave of history, hoping to ride the leading edge of the wave and not slip back to the trailing edge. Giving forward sounding speeches gives the appearance of activity wthout the risks associated with actual activism.

Obama is the most conservative president since Coolidge.