Late last month, I jokingly suggested that Barack Obama could emulate his “hero” Ronald Reagan by doing a progressive version of Reagan’s signature move of making appointments that are the exact opposite of the goals of the position by nominating Dennis Kucinich as Secretary of Defense and Daniel Ellsberg to head the CIA. Sadly, Obama seems to have taken a garbled version of this suggestion, as word came Sunday that Obama is creating “a high-profile initiative in support of military families” and has put war criminal and Pat Tillman cover-up leader Stanley McChrystal in charge of this operation. This is a truly Reaganesque appointment, as it is hard to imagine a military figure who has done more to harm families around the world, and now he is leading the charge to put a happy face on the devastation ten years of war has wreaked on the very small number of US families who have borne the brunt of the death and other sacrifices by our all-volunteer force.

In Charlie Savage’s story from last year on the sidelining of Laurence Tribe as head of an “Access to Justice” program at the Department of Justice, he reported that Tribe originally believed he would serve as counselor for “rule of law” issues in Obama’s Administration.

• Shorter Obama: Me too!
• A truce in Libya?
• Krugman: Obama is missing.
• Maybe we can haz wind or solar?
• The Quitter goes birther.

Apparently there are limits to what the President won’t compromise…such as they are.

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – You Don’t Know How It Feels

When you hear people say that no one is happy with this deal, because everyone had to compromise and every side had to give up something to get there, remember this: Virginia Foxx is plenty happy — she’s happy enough to muscle her way into camera range when the Speaker announces the deal. And the Speaker of the House is plenty happy to have this hateful extremist bigot right there alongside him.

It has been almost a year now since I wrote my first little post here in my own corner of the toobz. In my first few posts (here, here, here, and here), I concentrated primarily on discussing my professional skills as well as the holes in my skill set. I also tried to discuss the perspective of being one of the long term under-employed and how it can have a day-to-day impact on the individual.

As of tonight, there is still no word on AngryArabiya’s father, brother-in-law and husband –or her uncle who was arrested three weeks ago. She wrote last night: This will b one of the most difficult nights of my life, wat condition is my wonderful & kind husband in. I close my eyes & I see [...]

For all the billions lavished over the decades on “government bad, business good” propaganda by obscenely rich men like Pete Peterson and their tame media flunkies like David Leonhardt, the facts show that in direct comparisons in similar fields, the Federal government — starved and beaten as it’s been over the past thirty-odd years — still bests private industry in terms of the quality of services provided.

David S. Cloud has an amazing piece in today’s Los Angeles Times on the sobering reality and cold-hearted bloodlust of remote drone warfare. Cloud’s story tells, in gripping, fully fleshed from all angles, detail the story of an United States killer drone operation gone awry.