Petraeus and Obama

A pretty good insight into what Obama will be like as commander in chief. In short, be prepared for the civilians to retake control of the military. Which will be a nice change, since GW Bush has basically ceded his responsibilities for strategic planning for about 8 years now.

Here's a description of Obama's meeting with Petraeus in Baghdad:

A "spirited" conversation ensued, one person who was in the room told me. "It wasn't a perfunctory recitation of talking points. They were arguing their respective positions, in a respectful way." The other two Senators — Chuck Hagel and Jack Reed — told Petraeus they agreed with Obama. According to both Obama and Petraeus, the meeting — which lasted twice as long as the usual congressional briefing — ended agreeably. Petraeus said he understood that Obama's perspective was, necessarily, going to be more strategic. Obama said that the timetable obviously would have to be flexible. But the Senator from Illinois had laid down his marker: if elected President, he would be in charge. Unlike George W. Bush, who had given Petraeus complete authority over the war — an unprecedented abdication of presidential responsibility (and unlike John McCain, whose hero worship of Petraeus bordered on the unseemly) — Obama would insist on a rigorous chain of command.

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1853025,00.html

And is it just me, or does the name "Petraeus" make him sound like some kind of Greek god? McCain surely thinks so. I'm making fun of McCain, not Petraeus, I think the General will go down in history as one of our greatest.

But he's still just a General. It is not his job to worry about things like how our war in Iraq affects relations with Australia, and so on. That's Obama's job. Obama has to consider the bigger picture.

Obama in Richmond

Wow, I just love him.

Obama in Richmond

If this doesn't excite you, nothing will.

http://media.gatewayva.com/photos/rtd/slideshows/20081023rally/index.html

Ayn Rand is dead.. again...

Wow, it must be tough to be an elderly man, and to realize that the philosophy that you've lived your life by actually has some very large holes in it.

Alan Greenspan, de-regulation advocate and Ayn Rand fanatic, admits he screwed up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/business/economy/24panel.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Money quote:

“Do you feel that your ideology pushed you to make decisions that you wish you had not made?”Mr. Greenspan conceded: “Yes, I’ve found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I’ve been very distressed by that fact.”

We all share your distress.

Great new t-shirt , "Al Qaeada fighters for McCain"

Sounds inflammatory, but I didn't write it, the Washington Post did, and now the McCain campaign is scared to death.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/21/AR2008102102477.html?sub=AR

What a fun two weeks this is going to be.

Iceland's bailout

I'm glad I got to see Icleand in it's glory days, i.e. 10 months ago, when I was there for New Year's Eve. As is often the case with small countries, it looks like it's the IMF to the rescue for these guys.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/business/worldbusiness/21iceland.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Interestingly, if you run the numbers, the IMF loan alone is basically $18-20,000 for every person in Iceland. And the government says more loans are coming after the IMF deal is done.

Really? They'll need more than $20K for every person in the country? And we thought the US was screwed. Our bailout plan is roughly $2,000 for every person, a tenth of Iceland's so far.