Earlier today Spencer had a pretty fine piece quoting Malcolm Nance the former SERE instructor about the techniques used at SERE school. I am a graduate of the US Navy's SERE school, albeit from the early 80s, and the training has changed I am sure since then so I can only speak to the things I know of, anything else is conjecture.

The new Vanity Fair is out on the news stands, and on the internet with a very, very interesting piece...and "oral history" of the last eight years. Independent interviews with both players in the recently-departed 1600 Crew and those who opposed it, paint a revealing first sketch of the inner-workings and bubble that our unlamented and recently-departed Decider Guy lived in.

I visited a Big Eastern City several times over the last week, which is and of itself not a big deal. As I walked down the street I saw something that brought home the real meaning of George Bush's America. Homeless Americans by the score. Sleeping on sidewalks and railroad grates for warmth on cold late-November/early-December nights.

The most lasting legacy amongst all the other detritus of the outgoing Bunnypants Administration will likely be how we fucked up the sovereign nation of Iraq. Briefly, it went like this... We had a love-hate relationship with dear old Saddam, selling him weapons to use with no questions asked... then allowing him to almost sink a US Navy warship (no reprisals, no problem-o with the old Iraqi oil spigot)....

Yup, we did it. We officially terminated the republican preznit and his minions but the rubber-stamp congress as well with a somewhat more convincing majority. So, can I get a big w00t? Thanks.

So many of us who have been blogging about politics for the last four, six or even eight years are looking at the next 48 hours with a mix of hope and trepidation. I have never been one to underestimate the stupidity of the "low-information" voter, and it's that particular member of the human species (specious?) that might well tip this election in a direction that might make me take up Bill Maher's "Exit Strategy".

As a member of a union that I have to wonder about sometimes (ALPA, the Airline Pilots Association) I think it's certainly worthwhile to talk for a minute about the Employee Free Choice Act and the role of unions in building a stronger middle-class and hence stronger America. A quick and simplistic review for those not old enough to remember the ultimate Federal Union Buster, Ronnie Reagan and his most excellent PATCO adventure.

American Political Violence...It would hardly be a problematic issue if there were no American citizens out there who feel that it's acceptable to settle a grievance at the barrel of a gun, or with fisticuffs or perhaps the more subtle rock thrown through a window belonging to an opponent. The McCain campaign seems to somehow be suffering from a distorted "50 first dates" syndrome...

So the House "Leadership" is up giving their self-congratulatory speeches after caving in once again to Preznit Laffer Curve and handing over a minimum of $700 Billion Dollars to Wall Street to pay for his deregulatory orgy of free marketeering. The bill passed because the republicans once again rolled the "Leadership" into enacting tax-cuts along with the legislation.

This bail-out of such massive proportions that it actually (not virtually, not euphemistically, not metaphorically) is the largest single non-defense expenditure ever is about to pass into law, and hence history.Our Employees, the alleged representatives that we pay to go to Washington to be wined and dined by lobbyists, get phenomenal health benefits not available to you and me, and other unimaginable perks are about to give away Hundreds of Billions of dollars to salvage a mess on Wall Street that was foreseen by many, many folks for several years.