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Mayor Bloomberg, PUT UP OR SHUT UP!!!  From Breitbart.com:

With the two parties still picking their candidates for the fall, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg participated in a meeting devoted to bipartisanship, stirring renewed speculation that he will run as an independent.

"People have stopped working together, government is dysfunctional, there's no collaborating and congeniality," said the mayor, who has said several times he does not intend to seek the White House. (emphasis added)

Do we really need him? Is this the man who shall deliver us from partisanship? God, I hope not.

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Best line on the 'Hucka-BOOyah' Iowa Victory

"If politics were a 1980s teen gross-out comedy, Mitt would be the Alpha Beta frat and the Iowa caucuses would be the revenge of the nerds." --Jesse Walker, Reason Online

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/124203.html

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DEA Kills 50 year-old Lupus Patient (at least indirectly)

When will this nonsense end? As reported in the Missoulian:

Robin Prosser, a Missoula woman who struggled for a quarter century to
live with the pain of an immunosuppressive disorder, tried years ago to
kill herself. Last week, she tried again. This time, she succeeded.

After
her earlier attempt failed, Prosser wound up in even more trouble after
investigating police found marijuana in her home. She used the
marijuana to help cope with pain.

The ruling came to haunt Prosser in late March, when
DEA agents seized less than a half ounce of marijuana sent to her by
her registered caregiver in Flathead County.

"At the time, the
DEA special agent in charge of the Rocky Mountain Field Division said
federal agents were “protecting people from their own state laws” by
seizing such shipments..." (emphasis added)

Without the relief that marijuana delivered to her, Robin Prosser killed herself at home last week. She was 50.

Prosser
suffered from an autoimmune disease that gave her allergic and
dangerous reactions to most pharmaceutical painkillers. So she turned
to marijuana. When that was no longer available she had no where else
to turn.

“She just said she couldn't take it all anymore,” Byard said.

In
her guest opinion, Prosser wrote that: “I'm 50 years old, low-income
and sick. I spend most days in my apartment in bed, with no air
conditioning, unable to go outside because I can't tolerate the sun.”

Beset
by financial problems, troubled by depression, unable to find a
reliable source of pain relief, she took her own life three months
after the piece was published.

“Give me liberty or give me
death,” she wrote in July. “Maybe the next campaign ought to be for
assisted-suicide laws in our state. If they will not allow me to live
in peace, and a little less pain, would they help me to die, humanely?”

Like the leftist maxim states (though for the wrong reasons), if you aren't outraged, you aren't paying attention.

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Time for a Beer Run!

Another reason to knock ethanol (made from food crops): it is going to increase the price of quality brews by as much as 50 cents to one dollar per bottle. Admittedly there are other factors to the coming price increase, but we've already seen this happen with the great tortilla crisis of 2007.

Thankfully, beer, kept in the right conditions, can stay good for awhile. I suggest getting an ample supply of your favorite Oregon brews soon before it gets even pricier than it is now before it's too late.

9/11

Did you take a moment and reflect?

Barack Obama: Too Young for Grown Up Talk

This morning I woke up and watched some of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's hearing on General Petraeus's report on Iraq. Senator Obama's time to question Ambassador Crocker and the General came up a few minutes in, at which point he proceeded to ramble on, as senators do, about how the president's policies are failing, blah blah blah, but one thing he did was telling, I think, about how assertive of a leader Obama would be if he becomes president. He mentioned that the president, while in Australia recently, said that "we were kicking ass" with the surge in Iraq, but he didn't quote Bush directly. Obama paused mid-sentence for a long moment, and then proceeded to spell out "A-S-S."

Now I am all for keeping the honor and dignity of public office, but "A-S-S?" I don't even think that's as strong an expletive as "Damn it" generally speaking. And besides, it's not as if there were little kids in the committee chambers, unless you perhaps count the Senator himself.

If Obama is too concerned about offending people with the word "ass" then how can we be sure he can have the backbone required to protect America and its interests abroad as commander-in-chief?

General Petraeus & Ambassador Crocker Report to Congress

After months of waiting, we finally get to hear the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq report on the status and progress of the surge. It looks like we're going to have to wait another five more minutes though, because just before General Petraeus was going to speak we learn that his microphone is not working.

Definitely a government-run operation. Embarassing.

I'm going to update this post with particular comments from the general and Ambassador Crocker and interesting exchanges between the honored guests and our "honorable" representatives.

I'm such a political junkie. I wonder if there is a Serenity Lane for this addiction?

***

UPDATE (11:03 AM PST) General Petraeus has finished his opening statement. I think he gave a straightforward, sober but also balanced account, particularly since a lot of what he has said about Iraq has been noticed by both Democrats and Republicans.

Some of the good news he gave: ethno-sectarian violence in Baghdad is down 80 percent since December, and roughly 55 percent generally (around the country if my notes are right). Roughly 4,400 weapons caches discovered, through help from Iraqis, since December, a great increase compared to the previous time period. Civilian deaths, although still too high, are declining. Iraqi Security Forces are improving and taking more responsibility, though they are still about a year or so from being able to take majority control of the country. Anbar Province, considered lost a year ago, is now a good example (though not perfect) of what can be accomplished in stabilization with local support against the terrorists. Check out some cool slides here .

But General Petraeus did not sugarcoat the problems still prevalent in Iraq. High-profile attacks, though declining, are still too high. Iran remains a looming regional player whose influence is strong. Progress is not uniform across all provinces, and in some places are experiencing significant setbacks. Finally, the level of commitment from the U.S. is going to be high and long-term. But he did strongly suggest (but didn't commit) to pulling out a brigade by the end of this year and the rest of the additional forces of the surge by mid-July 2008 if things continue the way they are going or better.

It will be interesting to see how the representatives question General Petraeus. Hopefully, they will show more respect than the obnoxious protesters who, after Gen. Petraeus finished his opening, screamed horribly "General Petraeus, the American People don't believe you anymore!" and proceeded to scream and wail as they were removed from the chambers.

C'mon people. I was impressed by Chairman Skelton saying that they will be prosecuted under the law. They should be.

UPDATE (11:41 AM PST): Ambassador Crocker just finished his remarks, and the Q&A session is beginning for both Crocker and General Petraeus. His important notes: political progress on the reconciliatory legislation is definately lacking, but ground-up reconciliation is beginning to take place, as witnessed in Anbar and in other provinces. Some important quotes:

"I do believe (Iraqi) leaders have the will to tackle the problems...but will take longer because of the environment."

"Iraqis from Anbar to Diyala and Baghdad have overwhelmingly rejected (Al-Qaida in Iraq)."

"I am certain that abandoning or drastically curtailing our efforts will lead to failure..." and Iran would be a victor in this scenario.

UPDATE (12:37 AM Tuesday, Sept. 11) I have found out that these gentlemen will be doing their spiel to another room of old, droning politicians tomorrow in the Senate--twice, for the Foreign Relations and the Armed Services Committees. I'll hold off on offering any composed thoughts of my own until those events have passed, but for now here is a good round up of some interesting views around the bloggerspace:

Rich Lowry's "The General Meets the Senate"
Michael O'Hanlon's "Petraeus Doesn't Cook The Books" These two are best read after reading the following:
DailyKos and the New York Times' comments.

Finally, Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman offer the requisite (and sorely needed) "Let him speak!" agitation for giving the testimonies their due here.