I remember not too long ago when Tom was stating that Democrats, Progressives, and anyone not in agreement with the Bush administration were hoping for bad news from places like Iraq and wishing for the economy to go sour so we could pile it on to the Republicans.

Now that the shoe's on the other foot, have you noticed how much delight he seems to get anytime Obama hits a tough challenge and has to slow down his agenda to do things right or change priorities based on new information?

I know for certain that the liberals on here were certainly not wishing for bombings in Baghdad or fuel prices to skyrocket just so we could get political capital because rejoicing about that kind of stuff meant you had no compassion for the people it affected.

The neo-cons however (and I'm now firmly convinced Tom fits that label) seem to see death, destruction, suffering, and chaos as tools towards a political end. The sacrifices are worth it as long as their fascist Christian mindset gets planted more firmly.

That he can post something like this as a "gotcha" shows to me the truly cold heart that beats beneath his supposed scholarly ramblings. The fact that it's once again just thrown out there to illustrate a failing of the new President without any acknowledgment that the mess originated with his guys is very telling.

I hope Obama levels with us on the mess once Bush is flailing around his new digs in Dallas and spends a great deal of his time educating the masses on how to avoid ever again getting us snarled into impossible crap like this. I'm not sure I'd want to be in his shoes in this term. The political minefields are stunning. Because Americans are so suspicious right now of any leader, his every step is going to be under an electron microscope. Issues like this one where black and white don't even exist in the spectrum anymore are great examples of things that are so hopelessly broken the only solution is almost a coin flip with a guarantee the coin will always land on its edge.

Art