The American people have a high opinion of this country's goodness. Polls show that the majority of people in this country think it is the greatest, most generous country in the world. They also believe it is the moral leader of the world. Sadly, those who believe this the most are nothing more than war crimes enablers.

History is replete with examples of power gone bad, much like the example given by the Bush administration. The truly sad thing is that the people that actually enable this evil will never be held accountable for their support. Without a doubt, every person who voted for Bush/Cheney in 2004 has blood on his or her hands.

Long before the election, it was well known that the Bush administration encouraged the use of torture and was in the habit of imprisoning people with no more cause than unproven accusations. Those imprisoned were denied all legal rights and were held under what amounted to unending imprisonment.

Well, it took a while and hate-wing radio did it's best to demonize it and tried to make jokes about (and we all know how bad hate-wingers are at comedy, intentional comedy anyway) but it qualified for the ballot! See below for the full Monty

In the eyes of most Americans, and in the eyes of most Democrats and most progressives (such as readers of this blog), the India-US nuclear deal gave away too much for too little.  

I happen to believe otherwise ~ for 2 reasons.  I have diaried on the first one previously.  This diary is about the 2nd reason!

In my opinion, this deal is the smartest thing done by President Bush, and that history will remember him kindly for it (if the deal survives).  

The background to this is that signatories to the NPT (Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty) are granted access to nuclear technology and fuel from each other (via a Nuclear Suppliers Group), while non-signatories to the NPT (India, Pakistan, and Israel) are precluded from access to nuclear technology and fuel.

India does not need nuclear technology, but it does need fuel... at least in the short run.  It has plenty of thorium (about 13% of the world's known reserves), but the "Thorium cycle" is very difficult to master (noone has mastered it yet), and they (the Indian Scientists) will not be ready for another 30 years or so.  In the meantime, India is using Uranium, but it has very little of uranium (less than 1% of the known reserves).  As a consequence, India produces very little nuclear energy (only 4000 MW).

It is also a growing country, with plenty of coal (about 17% of the world's known reserves) that can be easily burnt to fuel it's energy needs.

And therein lies a small problem that can destroy the whole world.

I like Obama, so I'm not posting this diary to stir up trouble but it might as well be me posting it before some "PUMA" folks start going nuts.  Ottobvs has been speculating as to how much HRC would be leading McCain if HRC were the nominee; well, Rasmussen provided some clues in his most recent poll of three matchups: HRC v. McCain, Gore v. McCain, and Obama v. Bush

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_c ontent/politics/election_20082/2008_pres idential_election/obama_leads_bush_by_tw enty_but_clinton_does_better_against_mcc ain

Obama leads Bush hypothetically 54-34 in this poll.  We should have amended the Constitution to allow this guy to run for his third term.

Obama also leads the varmint-hunting tool Mitt Romney 49-41 and the Huckster 50-39.

HRC leads McCain hypothetically 50-42 while Gore leads McCain 50-43.  On average, Obama has led McCain 49-44 since he claimed the nomination before a recent "tightening" of the race according to Rasmussen. Hopefully, Obama will revert back to a five-point lead in Rasmussen and that this "tightening" was just statistical noise for a week.

Rasmussen essentially supports my belief that HRC would be performing better than Obama against McCain by around three points; it should be noted that she is not leading McCain by the 15 points that some have speculated she would be leading him by at this time.  In the end, Obama will defeat McCain by six points in my opinion (the margin of victory for Big Daddy against Bush I) while HRC would have defeated McCain by nine points (the margin of victory for Big Daddy over Dole).

I hope Rasmussen does more nonsense polling and tests my theory that Obama would be performing better than HRC against Huckabee; they'd both probably be defeating Romney by the same margin.

Have at it guys and gals.

Maybe President Bush is smarter than he appears. After all, it takes an aspect of cunning to introduce a proposal that would require federally funded medical institutions to hire health care providers who don't believe in abortion or birth control, and present it as an "anti-discrimination rule." I imagine even Houdini could not achieve such an act of illusion.

This just in:  "U.S. Considers Increasing Pace of Iraq Pullout" (NYTimes.com)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/washin gton/13military.html?_r=1&oref=slogi n

The amazing thing, to me, is how so many people apparently were unable to predict this very action.   Ok, so I'm 57 years old and have personally witnessed 10+ election cycles in my life time.   Is that, alone, what made me able to predict with 99% certainty that Bush would be pulling out troops this Fall?  

We ALL KNEW it was TRUE... NOW WATCH THE VIDEO!

See GOP and Bush lobbyist, Stephen Payne, offering access to key figures in Bush's administration, for opinion spinning, in return for large six-figure donations in part for the private "Bush library".
"The exact budget I will come up with, but it will be somewhere between $600,000 and $750,000, with about a third of it going directly to the Bush library," said Payne, who sits on the US homeland security advisory council.

Payne, who claims to have raised more than $1m for the president's Republican party in recent years, said he would arrange meetings with Dick Cheney, the vice-president, Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, and other senior officials in return for a payment of $250,000 towards the library in Texas.Payne, who has accompanied Bush and Cheney on several foreign trips, also said he would try to secure a meeting with the President himself.

Watch video:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/wo rld/us_and_americas/article4322684.ece

More on Mr. Payne:
http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/payne.pd f