this is an adventure

“Human rights groups are beginning to question President Obama’s commitment to their issue as the administration engages authoritarian regimes, retains the option of sending terrorist suspects abroad to places where they might be tortured and puts off a presidential meeting with the Dalai Lama.” If you aren’t reading Glenn Greenwald, you need to.

“The decisions that the president will make for the next stage of the Afghanistan campaign will be among the most important of his presidency,” Gates said. “It is imperative that all of us taking part in these deliberations, civilians and military alike, provide our best advice to the president candidly but privately.”

“While the decline in the savings rate and the growth in household indebtedness since 1980 has in part reflected a shift toward more consumption, conspicuous consumption in the classic sense has not been the biggest driver of declining savings. Instead, the growth in indebtedness has largely been driven by demographic changes and housing prices.”

Bill Frezza asks an important and underasked question: “Everyone no doubt remembers the proverbial recipe for boiling a frog. As our federal government confronts the catalogue of “crises” roiling the country, who is keeping track of the accumulated powers that will remain as a permanent legacy of these troubled times?”