I suppose the story has become an old one - nightmarish scenes - destruction on large and small scale - yet each new story brings its own glimpse into the inevitable horror that cannot be decoupled from war.  I guess across the great sweep of news it is a small thing, barely a ripple - and yet - it somehow seems a profound testament to the utter failure of the Bush Administration.

  I think, in one of those looping loopy scrawls one sees on a news channel these days I saw, last weekend a blurb that the U.S. Department of Defense indicated that 55 "militants" were killed in an air raid in Afghanistan.  The truth, it turns out, is rather different:

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/...

 Recently, climatologists noticed that, for the first time in human history, the North Pole was on course to be ice free this summer.  

   http://www.independent.co.uk/....

 Turns out - that is the good news.  The really disturbing phenomenae are occurring in Antartica - more below,

 If someone else has previously caught this, then, use the immortal advice of RoseAnn RoseAnnadanna:  "never mind.:  

 However, apparently there are serious news organizations reporting that the recent "daring!"  and "imaginative!" and "highly successful!"  military operation in Columbia to rescue a group of hostages from an insurgent organization known as "FARC" was all a carefully choreographed sham and photo op - and that its success depended on something entirely different - payment of ransom:

 http://www.forbes.com/...

 My interest is what this story and the reporting on it my many media outlets here in America says about the state of "journalism"  - more below

 A frightening glimpse into the "tort-reform" society so bleoved of Republicans emerged today - and it was on tape:

http://rawstory.com/...

 I saw this this morning - a snippet.  Trust me - this is hard to take.  

 Some thoughts on the standard of care and the disturbing trends of where we are headed, below.

 I always find news stories that start with lines like, "for the first time in human history....." to be, well, ominous.  So, I confess to a spot of alarm when I read the following:

 http://www.independent.co.uk/...

 I admit that I an not as conversant with all the science as to be able to provide a full account of the implications - but, from what seems scientifically estabished, this is not good news.

 More below

 Oh happy day - have another drink.  Hey - it may be early but what the hell - time to celebrate.  Our most wise, most divinely inspired Comrades of the Court have decided that their special wisdom, their direct conduit to a higher power is far greater than any jury that may have heard facts, may have seen witnesses may have received evidence and testimony.  Yes - for the betterment of the collective - the SCOTUS has ruled that the most famous drunk driver of them all - the Captain of the Exxon Valdez - shall not make his corporation responsible for the amount of punitive damages imposed by a jury:

  http://www.breitbart.com/...

  Another brick in the wall of building an economic system dedicated to insuring incompetence is mortared in - and the price will be paid by us all.

 Republicans have a penchant for declariing wars and thinking in martial terms - loving, apparently, the pomp and ceremony of vicarious participation in the courage and sacrifice of others.  They have declared many wars - The War on Drugs, The War on Terror, The War in Iraq, The War in Afghanistan.  Now, it is true that they never actually win a war - apparently these things go on and on forever.  So it is with a great deal of pride that I can report to you enormous success from the battlefield of the core Republican War - the War on the Consumer -

 My fellow Americans - Victory is at Hand:

  http://www.marketwatch.com/...

 More good news below

 Okay - someone has to do it - and I haven't seen it elsewhere - even from the eloquent and incisive Mr. Greenwald - so here goes.  

 The reasons why the FISA capitulation is an enormity are legion - it betrays the Constitution, it establilshes a precedent for rampant lawlessness, it empowers a known serial liar based on a series of falsehoods, it shows that your trusted representative can easily be bought and it makes a mockery of the notion of "standing up" to Bush.

 But, there is another reason - the FISA capitulation makes us weaker, less safe and more vulnerable to a terrorist attack.  The reason is expanded below.

 Okay, someone has to explain this:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...  to me, because I find it beyond passing strange.

  If we can all agree on one thing it is that the stunning level of incompetence to which the so-called mainstream media figures have devolved in this primary season has reached a new nadir - a low point of utter frivolity in a time of utmost gravity.   A quick review of commentators of all stripes revealed a striking degree of consensus - last night's ABC moderated "debate" was an orgy of excess in frivolity.  As one whose profession has been labeled "frivolous" by the very journalists who have led us to this point, I cannot help but point out that maybe, just maybe, it is worth your kind consideration that the fundamental American notion of accountability is not so frivolous after all and that unless we do something to reorient the bizarre framwork foisted upon the public discourse by a handful of directors of a relatively small number of media collectives then we are destined to trod down this same path over and over.

 I propose to argue that with the loss of the Edwards candidacies that the netroots, as an alternative means of dissemination of information , is fatally damaged.  I intend to make my argument by pointing to three complete and utter canards, that is 3 "unfounded or false deliberatiely misleading"  narratives.  

To be sure all candidacies are subject to rivals throwing out shibboleths and seeing what sticks.  Nothing new there.  However, what is instructive about these three is that they came from within the netroots itself.  The principle I abstract from this behaviour is that when crunch time came - the netroots would rather turn its back on its own self-styled reason for being rather than buck the prevailing wind of conventional wisdom.  In the immortal words of Pogo,  "we have met the enemy and he is us."

  From this small voice comes a cry of gratitude to John and Elizabeth Edwards and their wonderful and passionate staff and supporters.  The hue and cry of the oft cacophonous discourse that thrusts its way into our public square and the marketplace of ideas will swirl on and a powerful voice ever struggling to be heard will drift back into receding eddies.  The loss of that voice and vision leaves us all poorer - one and all.

  So let me now take a moment to celebrate our fleeting, quixotic chase of something truly great and sound this word of caution - we are all left poorer - not just economically, but morally and intellectually as well.  

 When last we met I argued that Edwards was the only logical candidate because 2008 is a year in which the economy goes sour.  The gist of the argument was that the last 7 years have been a paen to the three great Repbulican virtues:  negligence, incompetence and cronyism.  Because those are the very things a trial lawyer fights every day,  Edwards is uniquely well-suited to rescue our economy.

 http://www.dailykos.com/...

This post wants to strke a completely different theme.  Namely, the dynamic of the race is changing and there are some indications that it could boil down to a two person - Obama v. Edwards - contest.  Just take a moment and think what that means.  Join me below if that thought intrigues you.

 Apparently, last night, something happened in Iowa.  However, the big news hit this morning - the negligence economy has failed.  Joblessness in America spiked dramatically as "Hiring practically stalled in December."  Here is the report:

  http://biz.yahoo.com/...

What this means for you - and more importantly, for your children - and why this development means that if America cares about its economic future there is only one candidate (from either party) I will discuss below the fold.  However - caution, there is, unfortunately,  discussion in musty marcroeconomic jargon and monetary minutiae and, worst of all a sobering look at reality.

 Well - no way around it now - Obama is attacking me and all those like me and I am not happy.  It is true that I am an Edwards fan, and make no apologies for it.  But the notion that I or any other Democratic attorney would dare establish a snobbish hierarchy of what type of law is most meritorious is absurd.  Yet, there it is Obama - in that awful kind of repellant condescion that smacks of the privileged is now attacking Edwards for being a trial lawyer -

   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Besides the fact that I am personally insulted - no big thing in the grans scheme of things - the new line of celebrity sneering at us common folk betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of what is going on today in America.  Join me, below the fold, if the subject has any interest.

 As the Iowa campaign closes the HRC camp has grown increasingly desperate.  Recently the national arm of AFSCME (which endorsed HRC) sent out a mailer attacking Obama but trying to make it look as if it had come from Edwards.  The crack Edwards staff (and if you want to know what actually capable staff looks like, as opposed to those extolled by the cozy media, you might take note of the effectiveness and promptness of the Edwards team) immeadiately caught on.

 Now - the local AFSCME members are disavowing any affiliation with the HRC sponsored but deceptive mailer.  Join me below to get the details and for an amazing bit of sophistry and disingenusousness by the Des Moines Register.

 What path now, Democrats?  The road ahead once shone clearly, but after last night's debate and the quick and easy spin of the glitterati it has grown dark and misty.   I watched the entire debate and followed the post-debate spin.  Only one word now describes the Democratic candidates, save one.  That word is - pathetic.

 Follow me below the fold if there is a measure of pathos left in your soul.

 The Texas Democratic Party held an online poll asking Texas Democrats to pick a Democratic Presidential candidate.  The result - an overwhelming response for Sen. Edwards:

 http://www.txdemocrats.org/...

 Analysis below.