For those who don't know, Jon Carroll is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. I can hardly properly characterize his work here except to say that overall he's one of the good guys. So, I was just reading today's column.

Thanks to everyone who responded to my diary yesterday bitching about the lack of a time schedule for YearlyKos. At that time I said:

Maybe I'm missing something here. If so, tell me, and I'll eat crow as appropriate.

OK. I'm here at my Mom's on the South Side, trying to plan out my next few days at YearlyKos. I'm frustrated at the dearth of basic information. For one, I'm frustrated that I have to resort to posting a diary here to try and find what I want. But there does not seem to be any YearlyKos hotline or e-mail address that one can send questions to.

You know, I've been skeptical of Obama's candidacy for the Presidency all along. I just don't buy that if we talk nicer to Republicans all our problems will become manageable.

But I had seen encouraging signs lately. Even BTD, that arch-Obama-skeptic, had some nice things to say after Obama took on the Christian Coalition.

Digby said it:

You will not find anyone amongst us who believes that the Bush administration's executive power grab and flagrant partisan use of the federal government is anything less than an assault on the Constitution.

Greenwald provided the essential gloss:

Is there a single one of those views which can remotely be described as fringe, radical, extreme, out of the mainstream, or even rigidly ideological?
...
Indeed, large percentages of Americans -- if not clear majorities -- embrace each of these beliefs.

Rudy McRomney's clear where he stands. Martha Stewart is famous for saying it:

It's a good thing.

The only disagreement among the Republican candidates is over how best to extend and amplify this admirable legacy.

I just stumbled across this article in the San Francisco Chronicle about draft legislation that would:

pre-empt California and 11 other states from implementing laws requiring automakers to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions across their fleets...

The bill would add language to the Clean Air Act stating that the Environmental Protection Agency administrator could not grant states a waiver for their vehicle emissions rules if "such state standards are designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions." In other words, any state rules seeking to curb global warming would be null and void.

The legislation also appears to limit the power of the agency to set federal climate change rules -- even though the Supreme Court in April ruled that greenhouse gases are air pollutants and the Environmental Protection Agency must regulate vehicle emissions or explain why it won't.
...
Other parts of the bill also are stirring debate. The measure would subsidize coal-to-liquid fuels, which emit about twice the greenhouse gas emissions of traditional petroleum-based fuels

I was just browsing over at Slate and came across an article whose first paragraph confirmed my worst fears about the recent vote in Congress:

Now that Democrats have stripped their troop-withdrawal timetable from the war funding bill, it's clear that American forces will remain in Iraq through 2008. It also seems likely that they will stay much, much longer. The leading presidential candidates in both parties recognize the dangers of a rapid pullout, and achieving stability in Iraq is going to take a decade.[Emphasis mine. DM]

In a recent front page story mcjoan regales us with the following stirring rhetoric:

Never again can a White House counsel be made Attorney General. Never again can a real estate lawyer turned presidential lackey be elevated to a position where he or she can so much damage to our country.

I concur in the sentiments wholeheartedly.

People have been predicting the imminent resignation of Alberto Gonzales for a month or more. I'm sure someone had some kind of Front-Page posting offering a prize for guessing when Gonzales would retire.

In the wake of the AG's recent testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the calls for his resignation have come from increasingly prominent sources, including some Republican Senators. This has further fueled speculation that resignation cannot be long delayed.

He has undoubtedly disgraced himself and criminally degraded his office, but it doesn't follow that his resignation is imminent. In fact, Gonzales will serve out the remainder of his term unless removed by impeachment or genuine physical incapacity (e.g., death).

Larry Kramer and David Sedaris are two of the most prominent gay voices in American culture today. And I'm tired of both of them.

I was perusing the March 19the issue of The New Yorker, 'The Style Issue'. And I almost skipped, but ended up reading, Patricia Patricia Marx's article "Dressin' Texan-- Houston and Dallas decoded" [link is to Abstract], describing a recent sojourn among the elites of those two cities.

And my mind harked back to those days in late September, 2001 when our President advised us that if we didn't keep on shopping, the terrorists would have won. I'm sure many of you did your part. But your efforts were probably pitiful compared to the efforts of these true patriots.

A few disclaimers first:

• It's only by inference that I attribute the behavior and attitudes described here to Republicans, but these are the dominant people in the leading Republican state.
• I've never been to Texas and though I can't say that some of my best friends live there, many people whose work I admire do.

This whole business of U.S. Attorneys being fired and replaced with partisan hacks because they're prosecuting too many Republicans and not enough Democrats is one of the most shameful things to come out of an Administration notorious for its corruption and general wrongdoing. But the worst of it, in my mind, is that, apart from the somewhat tangential issue of undue Congressional influence, it was not against the law.

The story of how the law was changed has been well-reported yet remains underappreciated. On Monday, Dahlia Lithwick posted an excellent  article on Slate whose subtitle asks the relevant question:

Specter Detector
U.S. attorney scandal update: Who's to blame for those alarming Patriot Act revisions?

As someone who lived in San Francisco for most of the last 25 years, I've been a longtime fan of Jon Carroll, a daily columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. But it wasn't until this morning that I caught up with Tuesday's column. The overall theme of the column is decrying the War and the resultant deaths.

This diary is based on material from Jeffrey Goldberg's "Letter from Washington", subtitled "The Starting Gate" from the January 15th issue of the New Yorker. He discusses the overall position of the Democrats going into the Presidential election in the context of the three front-runners.

What was most interesting to me was the discussion of the Iraq War from the 2002 perspective.

In its November issue (i.e., before the midterms) The Atlantic published a profile of Hillary Clinton.  Last Saturday Josh Marshall recommended it and pointed out that the article had been made generally available on the website.

It’s a valuable piece for anyone interested in assessing the prospects of this formidable politician.  Overall the tone is sympathetic, but it doesn’t hesitate to point out the limitations and contradictions of her position.

I know that Slate is considered a bit of an indelicate subject around here. But I have to confess that I was an avid reader of Slate for years. I found it a useful source of information on a wide variety of topics. Since I started following DailyKos in the run up to last year's elections, I have less and less time for Slate. I still get over there, though.

This evening when I went over, I was curious to read Jacob Weisberg's article, which had top billing on the home page with the heading Was Victory in Iraq Ever Possible?

Today's (Dec. 28) Chicago Sun-Times featured a front-page story under the heading Hell no, he won't go. It recounts the situation of Chicagoan Steven Henderson who was honorably discharged almost two years ago after two tours of duty in Afghanistan. Now he has been called up for a tour of duty in Iraq of up to 18 months.

"It would take a miracle for me to put on a uniform again and to carry a weapon in Iraq," he said. "I have no intentions of going to Iraq."