Bush was actually right when he said that democracy would change the Muslim world, he just muffed the details a bit.

"For too long, many nations, including my own, tolerated, even excused, oppression in the Middle East in the name of stability. Oppression became common, but stability never arrived. We must take a different approach. We must help the reformers of the Middle East as they work for freedom, and strive to build a community of peaceful, democratic nations." George W. Bush, Speech to UN General Assembly, September 21, 2004

Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is a drilling technique that has earned a lot of media coverage lately - especially in regard to natural gas.  In the last couple of years, it has been credited with dramatically increasing U.S.

I don't usually care what Marty Peretz of The New Republic has to say.  I just usually dismiss him as a crazy old coot and perhaps some one past his intellectual prime.  So, whatevs.

 Yesterday Maureen Dowd devoted an entire column to why her Republican sister is angry that she voted for Obama:

Just like about everybody else on this planet, I am at the very least thoroughly disgusted by Pastor Terry Jones and his followers.  Now there seems to another in Tennessee who thinks burning Korans is an idea whose time has come.  I have to remind myself that these whackjobs don’t represent our country, or even the region in which they live.  Yet for every one that actually carries out or talks about carrying

I am a Christian woman. I used to be pretty proud of that. Not so much these days. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not ashamed of my Lord, but I am ashamed of what is done in his name.

Take burning Korans, for instance. I'm pretty sure there is no place in the Bible where it says this is a good idea. But it does say that adulterers and fornicators should be stoned to death...Now here's an idea. Let's take all the fornicators and adulterers in congress and stone them to death. We can't seem to get rid of them through the ballot box, so why not use their weapon of choice, the Bible?

         THE NEW DRINK OF PROBLEM SOLVERS

Okay, so it appears we find ourselves in a new era.

Here is a sampling from a speech given almost half a century ago from some politician:

President George W. Bush spoke at a fundraiser for community college scholarships this week in downtown Fort Worth.

On avoiding talking about Obama's policies: "I don't think it's befitting the office of the presidency to go out and be criticizing my successor," he said. "I didn't like it when some of my predecessors -- a predecessor -- criticized me."

[translation: Clinton was a schmuck]

So I try to take a little break from politics and what happens?  A Radical Christian Cleric decides to throw himself a Koran burning in Gainesville, Florida.  Actually, he announced it a long time ago and when I first saw the headline about it on Gawker I was absolutely livid because I misread it as "Korean Burning."  Burning Koreans is just wrong.

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It's off to the races after Labor Day...


If you haven't seen it, over on the front page at TPM Josh has been ruminating over the coming elections and... using a most "well... duh..." headline he writes :