Tom Ridge and Tommy Franks co-wrote a short op-ed recently which concerned itself with a yet-to-be-completed memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania where Flight 93 crashed on 9-11-2001.

Here is a portion...

Washington D.C.'s "Beltway Media" has been obsessed with national deficits and debt ever since the black Democratic President Obama took office. Before Obama took office, while the previous administration was doubling the national debt and exploding the deficit, very little was said about debt and deficits. No one noticed, I guess.

The moment the new President suggested a stimulus would be necessary to prevent the misery of a national depression.....the conservative-leaning screechers in corporate media found their deficit and debt screeching voice they had lost during the 00's.....and turned the volume knob up to eleven.

Droopy Dawg McConnell grinning over the prospect of gutting Medicare.

Yesterday, I reviewed Tuesday's Democratic win in New York's 26th district. A special election held in a very Republican district became an upset win for Democrat Kathy Hochul.

Republican spokesman for Super PAC American Crossroads, Jonathan Collegio, commenting on Democrat, Kathy Hochul's special election win last night in New York's 26th district.....

Countering the recent batsh*t crazy WingerPalooza frenzy over the audacity of our American Dark Knight to speak in clear, accurate and understandable language.....

Flooding, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes,...even multiple nuclear power station meltdowns. Mix those modern disasters with the mysterious wording of the Magic Book....and today has been predicted to be the End of Days. Like, the end of all days. Starting at 6 P.M. Pacific time, check your local listings for times in your area.

It's kind of like watching the slow onslaught of Alzheimer's on a family member.

It's sad.

One blogger noticed that there were 8 Republicans and only one Democrat represented on last Sunday morning's "news" programs. The Democrats control the presidency and the Senate, and the Republicans control only the House....so 8-1 in favor of Republican representation is what our Professional and Serious corporate media regards as, you know, fair and balanced.

It is true that corporate "news" media is "wired Republican", as Josh Marshall has said. There are many reasons for this. Media has become an extremely lucrative business and lucrative businesses want to pay less tax. Millionaire "news" anchors want to pay less tax. The GOP makes their candidates take a blood oath to never raise taxes...ever...if elected.

I was interested in my blog bud's recent post chastising Indiana Supreme Court members for ruling that citizens in Indiana "have no right to resist unlawful police entry into their homes."

Those in our main media who do nothing but service America's wealthiest citizens don't even try to hide it anymore. It's unseemly.

Think about it. Those who service others for money, say, like, escorts....usually do their servicing in private. But it seems when it comes to media servicers like Washington Post columnist, Robert Samuelson, there's no shame in stripping down to the bare essence right out in public.

Ron Paul (R-TX) announced this week that he is running (again) for the GOP presidential candidacy in 2012. Paul is the original Tea Partier. The Tea Partier of all Tea Partiers. A Tea Party member's libertarian.

Immediately, Paul was interviewed by cable "news" anchors. Anchors anxious to find some new controversial and stupid thing to replace Trump's now-boring racism and self-obsession.

Oh my.

A number of Catholic academics have signed a letter to House Speaker John Boehner encouraging him to reconsider his political party's policies of stripping services from the most vulnerable while simultaneously giving the wealthy more tax breaks.

Advocates for school vouchers have always insisted that voucher programs are for the purpose of saving children hopelessly lost in "failed" public school systems. This cynical Reverend never bought that nonsense. Now, it looks like Ohio's House Republicans don't buy that nonsense either....

Should America's richest citizens be able to purchase the faculty hiring rights at state universities?

In other words, in a democratic society, should one rich person decide who teaches at a state university and what the curriculum of that state university will be?

House Republicans are playing with fire and their Tea Party constituents are supplying them with the matches. Yesterday, House Speaker, John Boehner found himself between a Tea Bag and a hard place. Boehner chose the Tea Bag.

A first.

My blog protocol ate my blog post. Nothing left.

Yahoo...

I have criticized the Obama administration this week because of their changing account of the SEALS-Bin Laden killing mission. From the JFK assassination, to Kent State, to Iran-Contra, to the Clinton impeachment, through 9-11 and on to Iraq....I have learned not to trust official accounts from government leaders. I believe skepticism should always be an American citizen's first response to "big" stories as told by elected officials. I believe history vindicates this skeptical viewpoint.

That said, I am also not an unreasonable partisan hater who stubbornly refuses to give credit where credit is due, even if I didn't vote for the guy who deserves the credit. A prime example is George W. Bush. I didn't vote for W., but I was very proud of Bush's best moment at Ground Zero manning the bullhorn and rallying Americans with his words. I didn't want Bush to fail as president and carried no grudge against the GOP president until his campaign to invade Iraq.

Pictures from the Sunday night raid of Bin Laden's compound. Parental guidance advised.

Nine photos were taken by a Pakistani security official, then sold to Reuters.

We're being told that with the killing of Osama Bin Laden "justice has been done." For example, the Akron Beacon Journal is running a series of front page accounts with a small icon of Bin Laden next to the words "justice has been done."

Is the assassination of one of our enemies "justice?"

One of the ugliest features of Ameria's ridiculously named "war on terror" launched during the Bush administration was our nation's acceptance of torture. Torturing humans whom you have under your control is immoral and can never be justified by a country who claims they are an example of freedom, the rule of law and a model shining human rights-city on a hill.

But torture is not only immoral and illegal.....it doesn't produce reliable results. In fact, the primary reason to torture someone is to coerce a false confession....to force your captive to say something you WANT him to say.

This...is fitting...