Liars! Hypocrites!

The people opposing the government option of health care reform talk of "death squads" (Sarah Palin, at her comedic best) and unfair competition to private insurers. Excuse me? Aren't these the same people who denigrate government programs as wasteful, inefficient, unresponsive, and bureaucratic?

So they are worried that the wasteful, inefficient government programs would drive out the private insurers? How could this be? Are the private insurers so greedy, demanding so much in profits, that they would discontinue private insurance?

Cmon people, get real. That means you too Sarah.

Half Empty or Half Full?

Pundits everywhere have been rating the Obama presidency since he passed one hundred days in office.

Politics is the art of the possible, and it is not possible to advance all the agendas that people hope(d) Obama would push. Nor is one hundred days much time to implement policy changes.

In addition, Obama has had a full plate with stabilizing the financial system, reforming health care, and reforming the financial regulatory system.

I liked his speech to the Muslim world, and his approach to both the Middle East and to Afghanistan seems sound.

Let's not expect everything to happen in the first few months.

Thank you, Iowa

Last week, the Iowa Supreme Court issued a ruling that legalized gay marriage, in effect recognizing that marriage bestows a series of rights (such as inheritance, hospital visitation, and so on) that should not be denied to gay couples.

To those people who do not support gay marriage: don't marry a person of the same sex. But don't deny others that right.

Thank you, Iowa!

Torture is not acceptable

Americans should not ever torture, and thankfully one of President Obama's first actions was to order a halt to the use of torture on suspected terrorists.

We cannot close the prison at Guantanamo fast enough. The inmates there need to either be prosecuted in the normal court system (like we did with the first bombing of the World Trade Center; those terrorists were convicted and are in prison) or released. It is inconceivable that they have been held for seven years without trial.

If we torture, and confine people without trials, what makes us any different from the terrorists?