Bring the system down--for, if they really just wanted their money, they would have used the more subtle and less disruptive tactic of easing their way out of their position.  

Who?  We would like to know almost as much as the government would like not to tell us.  

Probably, not China:  No, someone even more embarrassing to acknowledge.  

The Fates are kind.

Still though, pressure on America's misdeeds need to be maintained. With blame placed on the guilty. Obama's message team are adults, and when they're worried enough about something like this, they know how to clarify the situation. In my old anthropology class, I learned something that rang so true I haven't forgotten it for almost 40 years: status and prestige in any society (and this is as close as you get to a law of nature in the social sciences) isn't conferred - it's earned, and the holder must periodically reaffirm his fitness for the prestige he holds. Obama must continue with policies that reflect the high-mindedness his campaign trumpeted and which the world continues to expect of him. He must do this just to maintain his legitimacy.

Now that Jerome has spoken, one can justifiably claim that the French regard American security policy in its war on terror with the gravest regard. Hopefully, the French government will begin to reflect the attitudes of it's constituency and transmit this concern/displeasure/alarm to Washington.

Hopefully.

"It Can't Be Just About Us"
--Frank Schnittger, ETian Extraordinaire

i've been seeing him as a latter-day (male) Persephone, allotted the role of america's 'guide to the underworld'.

his body language even looked like an elevator flunky, as he grimly composed himself to tell america: 'going down...'

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

This case has been on the radar for quite a while. It has been highlighted as a potential 'do as you say' and 'finally, we have a chance to end this nightmare' milestone...and now it is a millstone. While not deserving the meter's needle-pin that you use to slay us with, his inaction is indicative; is he is or is he ain't gonna slice away all the cancers that created the most successful presidency ever?

Is one of the hallmarks of the 1,000 Bush Accomplishments going to be that he was so over the top, that tyranny still remains excused after he has left? I am of two minds whether such tyranny was merely blowback, mere unintended consequences of paying back the GreedyBastards who paid for his coronations, of actual evil. Is tyranny an implied consequece of endless expansion for his friends in the war toys industry, endless angst for his friends in the drug industry, endless big brother sensationalism for his friends in the media, endless opportunities for the criminal banking/insurance industry? The stated goal of the neo groups was bankrupting the government financially...was it required to bankrupt the moral base to accomplish that goal?

My belief is that your guy Obama can't be a complete failure until he fails to perform miracles in each and every category required for creating a new democracy from the ashes he was handed.

His keywords have got to be Constant Vigilance. He can't let one thing go un-noticed since even perfection has such a large chance of failure. For we have seen that the American people are not studious and enduring types, and are easily swayed into becoming terrorists while crying about how mistreated they are. If the failures add up, if there is enough angst and apathy, it will be complete failure for that dream of a government for, by and of.

Sorry my response wasn't as clever and terse as yours. I just couldn't figure out how to say: If you have to bat 100 to survive, if you have to excise all the cancers and all the effects of them, is it complete failure to leave any behind?

Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.

Frank Delaney ~ Ireland

Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job

WASHINGTON--African-American man Barack Obama, 47, was given the least-desirable job in the entire country Tuesday when he was elected president of the United States of America. In his new high-stress, low-reward position, Obama will be charged with such tasks as completely overhauling the nation's broken-down economy, repairing the crumbling infrastructure, and generally having to please more than 300 million Americans and cater to their every whim on a daily basis. As part of his duties, the black man will have to spend four to eight years cleaning up the messes other people left behind. The job comes with such intense scrutiny and so certain a guarantee of failure that only one other person even bothered applying for it. Said scholar and activist Mark L. Denton, "It just goes to show you that, in this country, a black man still can't catch a break."