Here it is, my next installment of a series that will probably generate more hits than any ten diaries about politics. The sacrifices I make for this site ...

I have to mention one incident that I experienced recently. Several weeks ago my family and I were in Hawaii, and noticed that there was a Costco. Since we're members, we popped in to see if there was anything worth picking up. What I saw could make a grown man cry (and I nearly did) - 1.75 liter bottles of fine scotch and bourbon for the same price (or less) than I pay for 750 ml bottles in Washington State. It just ain't fair.

Among other things, this short piece of legislation would allow (or really, require) the President to lock up unprivileged combatants – including US citizens – in military custody, prevents DOJ from bringing any prosecution against such persons, and allow such persons to be detained and interrogated "for the duration" (without defining whose discretion would determine that limit). That this monstrosity doesn't have a prayer in hell of surviving a SCOTUS challenge is about the only comfort here.

...for another micro-second, than you really need to listen to Matthew Hoh:

Amid all the complaints of common procedures like "deem-and-pass" and reconciliation (now demonized as a process of "ramming legislation through Congress" with a majority vote, it might be helpful to step into the Wayback Machine and see how a prior Congress handled Health Care Reform.

The year is 2003. Congress, firmly in Republican control, is working on passing a trillion dollar prescription drug benefit for Medicare, the largest expansion of health entitlements in four decades.

Précis: Tom Hanks has been lionized in Time Magazine as America's Historian . He has also become the latest target of Right Wing anger for remarks concerning American racist attitudes directed against the Japanese during WW2. Here is what Hanks said:

Honor is rare enough among today's Conservatives. So few of them served in war. The wars they've fought have not gone well and their historians fallen into disrepute for rah-rahing those wars. It has all been seen before.

...just ditch the Greeks. :^)

How did an allegedly solvent firm suddenly spring a $130+ billion hole in its $660 billion balance sheet? An examiner's report was recently released:

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I'm sad to report that my beautiful, beloved pet Noble Macaw, McGee, passed over into Bird Heaven on Sunday night, February 7th, 2010, at the age of about 20. I found him dead, at around 10:30 p. m., on the bottom of his cage. It was very much of a shock, which I still haven't gotten over, but I hope it'll wear off soon.

So saying, I've decided to write a memoir of McGee. Here goes:

The Obama administration made clear its concerns about the expansion of Jewish settlements, so it was insulting to Joe Biden to arrive in Israel and--less than day later--hear the Israeli government announce the approval of 1,600 new homes in East Jersalem. SecState Clinton was understandably peeved. Jeffrey Goldberg:

Distributism is, basically, the doctrine that "ownership of the means of production should be spread as widely as possible among the general populace, rather than being centralized under the control of the state (state socialism) or a few large businesses or wealthy private individuals (plutarchic capitalism)."

Pope refuses to condemn Ugandan bill proposing execution of gays.