I just have to say it, because I have to say it: the idea that somehow Bush43 has kept us "safe" these last seven years is just such ludicrous nonsense.

First, our state security apparatus and our military has undoubtedly been successful in thwarting any number of terrorist attacks. But what really has that success to do with the administration over the last seven years?

What the administration did NOT do is anything to anticipate the "economic Pearl Harbor" that has occurred, to quote Warren Buffet (LINK). Perhaps most of us were living with blinders on with respect to this Pearl Harbor, but if a comparative analysis were possible, I am sure that many Republicans and Democrats would have at least paid better attention as commander in chief and raised a higher level of concern earlier. The fact that we haven't suffered a military terrorist attack under Bush43 does nothing to prove that he prevented one. This economic Pearl Harbor however does definitively prove that he didn't keep us safe and that an "attack" much more effective and insidious has occurred than any terrorist could have devised. And we've done it to ourselves. During the watch of Bush43.

In the largely indigenous communities in and around the town of Juchitán, the world is not divided simply into gay and straight. While Mexico can be intolerant of homosexuality; it can also be quite liberal. In Mexico City, for instance, same-sex domestic partnerships are legally recognized. But nowhere are attitudes toward sex and gender quite as elastic as in towns like Juchitán in the far reaches of the southern state of Oaxaca.

NYTimes article: LINK

BoingBoing LINK

LINK

(Relatively) new Nokia sponsored "What can you buy for $5" website at http://fivedollarcomparison.org/. You can post your own pictures of US$5 items to their Flickr group. (via Jan Chipchase, of course LINK)

Interesting how the Right is now interpreting every little move of Obama's as impending Socialism. During the last eight years, every little move of the Bush administration was indication of impending Fascism. The hot button of civil liberties for the left is by some measure quite equivalent to the hot button of overreaching taxation by the right.

That last post about George Bush . . . enough. I won't do that anymore. I just watched Rachel Maddow interview Barack Obama (October 30, LINK ). She questions him about why he never talks about how the Republican party has been bad for the country. Obama says that he believes that the Republican party was high jacked by minority group of incompetent extremists. He believes that there are many self-identified Republicans who like him believe that the Bush administration has been bad for the nation. He doesn't want to alienate them and he chides Maddow for always cruising for a brawl. These comments indirectly point the finger at McCain and Palin and the way in which they chose to divide and alienate the electorate. It's no wonder they lost. And it was sad to see McCain give his concession speech, free now of the physical tics that had bedeviled him throughout the campaign, emerge as the McCain that people remembered, evoking a little of the sort of sentiment that Obama carried with him every day of the campaign.

George Bush to Barack Obama: "What an awesome night for you, your family and your supporters. You are about to go on one of the great journeys of life. Congratulations and go enjoy yourself.''

LINK

What is that??

Perhaps it's out of context but all I could think of was George following this with, "You get to watch pre-release movies, get free food, have a big house for your friends, and land on aircraft carriers and stuff! It's a blast, this job! You're going to have such a fun time--I did!"

And Barack saying: "Well, at least clean-up your room before you leave. I hope it's not as much of a mess as you left the world."

Again, I'll admit it could be out of context but . . . that's what occured to me. It's about time that we had someone who brings the level of seriousness and intellect to the job that President of the United States demands.

Sorry my Repub friends, but come on! At some point people have to accept that they are responsible for the impression that they leave with people, whether that impression is "true" or not. George, John and his ilk are just so out of sync.

LINK to Maya Angelou. Yes, Jezebel you're right. I did tear up.

We are all going to have to pay, because this meltdown comes in the context of what has been “perhaps the greatest wealth transfer since the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917,” says Michael Mandelbaum, author of “Democracy’s Good Name.” “It is not a wealth transfer from rich to poor that the Bush administration will be remembered for. It is a wealth transfer from the future to the present.”

From Thomas Friedman: LINK