Uglier and uglier. I'm at a loss for words here.

Terrifying, truly.

I'm sure mr apisa (gofer cum bartender) will not be at a loss for words!

Oh, and thanks for stopping by, Leslie - I am always glad to hear your thoughtful words.

It may be ugly, but people need to face it.

Please tell me that this guy is right wing, trying to tear Obama down based on lies? I'm starting to feel like no one can be trusted.

Jeremy Scahill (born c. 1974) is an American investigative journalist with expertise on a number of global issues, most notably the recent rise of private military companies (PMCs).[citation needed] He is the author of the international best-seller Blackwater:The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. The book won the George Polk Book Award.

Scahill and colleague Amy Goodman were co-recipients of the 1998 Polk Award for their radio documentary "Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship", which investigated the Chevron Corporation's role in the killing of two Nigerian environmental activists.[2] Scahill's work appears frequently on Alternet, Commondreams, Counterpunch, Truthout, Antiwar.com, Huffington Post and many other independent news sites.

He has been a vocal critic of private military contractors, particularly Blackwater Worldwide, the subject of his book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.[5]

The book received numerous accolades, including the Alternet Best Book of the Year Award, a spot on the Barnes & Noble and Amazon lists of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2007, and another Polk Award. Scahill has appeared on ABC World News, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, CNN, MSNBC, PBS’s The NewsHour, Bill Moyers Journal and is a frequent guest on other radio and TV programs nationwide.

No, of course that was a rhetorical question.

And thank you, Mark. :)

Wow, I've lost the wind in my sails.

Leslie: "Wow, I've lost the wind in my sails."

"Dont worry about a thing,
cause every little thing gonna be all right.
Singin: dont worry about a thing,
cause every little thing gonna be all right!" (B. Marley)

"This force has received almost no scrutiny from the media" Why is this not surprising.

I'm thinkin' Stevie Wonder!

Trying to bump this to the activity feed.

I'll do my part for bumping the feed. I said all along that Obama was not going to be what most were expecting; the simply were not paying attention. All the clues were there.

RATED

Thanks for coming by Rick - it's always a pleasure to receive a visit from you.

Oh, and sorry to have overlooked you, rw. How is it that I am so radically left, and you call yourself a rw nutjob, yet we keep finding ourselves in agreement on so many issues.

Could it be because, I too, am a nutjob?

Hmph, so many things need to be addressed, where do we start?

Rated, of course.

Thanks for taking the time to visit Jay,

This is very distressing however it is not to be unexpected given the dangerous path Obama must tread in order to have an effective administration. However given past history, one cannot expect a new administration to behave in a truly revolutionary manner without stirring up a tremendous reaction, a reaction that could spell the end of the whole experiment.

That being said, the last time a principled president dared to apply the treaties and principles we preach - he was viciously attacked by all sides, from the pages of the New York Times to USA today (FOX did not yet exist at the time). I recall how the "liberal" media attacked him for being much too "gullible and idealistic", he was urged to apply Kissinger's realpolitik and maintain the US's alliances with right wing dictators and thugs.

Now keep in mind that this visceral reaction was provoked by a rather conservative effort to bring the Nation into line with some of its vaunted ideals. Compared with the temerity and revolutionary zeal of the Bush/Cheney White House, the Carter administration was slightly reformist at best – yet the reaction to those mild movements towards the rule of law was vicious and came from his own party as much as from the opposition.

This is truly a complex situation – the fact is that after 9-11 the whole of the political spectrum with very few exceptions buckled under the fear mongering pseudo-patriotism that emanated from the White House and the Republican cadres. The Democrats lost their principles and lost their courage, they aided and abetted the use of violence and torture, the pages of that bastion of liberal thought and opinion; the New York Times, became another cheerleader as the Nation was taken into an unprovoked war of choice against Iraq.

Still with all of this in mind, I am glad that Obama is in the White House and that clear voices are still speaking truth to power.

mark I'm in a place where I can't get video feed...but I'll mark this to come back to view later. thanks for posting.