I do believe the house will impeach Obama but even if they get a small majority in the Senate they won't have the 67 votes in that body to convict. "In their minds, impeachment will stigmatize him forever." That worked out really well for them with Clinton didn't it? He left office with one of the highest approval ratings of any president ever. But the Republicans are insane with hate, and much of it has racial overtones. So yes I think the House will at some point impeach Obama.

Tolkien was good at adding characters that added little if anything to the overall story line. My favorite was Tom Bombadil who Jackson left out of the trilogy.

I will miss KPOJ but this has more to do with the leveraged buyout by Bain Capitol than politics. Clear Channel is laying off hundreds all over the country in order to pay down debt that it absorbed when Bain bought them.

@HyperIon Not being a boxing fan I had to Goggle it but that is a great analogy.

John I'm not as gloomy as you - I think Obama will win a second term. But I;m gloomier that you because I don't really think it makes much difference. See here!

My favorites are Roger Moore and Pierce Bronson. As someone who read all of the books the just seem to fit the image better. Daniel Craig was pretty good and I can't really think of anything Sean Connery did that wasn't great. The only thing that was good about the Lazenby film was Dianna Rigg.

@Doug You are right of course but as Joseph Tainter points out people rarely if ever voluntarily give up growth and it has to be forced on them. Unfortunately the thing that forces them to do it is collapse of the existing system. The current financial system is going to collapse and very soon.

I think this is the twilight of this civilization. As has happened in the past the institutions have simply become so complex they are unable to respond to external changes. The only question is whether the decline will be fast or slow. I'm leaning toward fast.

@amspirnational No it does not.

Earl I think the same can be said for liberal talk radio - Thom Hartman comes to mind but not Ed Shultz. John Thanks for the clip, I should have done a search for that myself.

They are building houses here again - the wrong houses. A family with one or two children does not need a 4 or 5 thousand a square foot house but that's what they are building. Even if they use the greenist of building construction the house is still not green. It still takes more to build, heat and cool it. My wife and I raised two sons in a 3 bedroom 1500 square foot house and we had a good life. Homes are like cars - the bigger they are the more profit there is to be made.

Sorry Charles D I find that article to be absurd. Everything I have seen would indicate that Romney has too little knowledge of foreign policy issues to be able to make any policy decisions. Like George W Bush he will simply turn it over to others and judging from his advisers those others will be the same people who are always looking for quagmires like Iraq and Afghanistan.

@Batocchio Thanks for the links, I'd missed my friend Lance's review and your's was great. I will put the movie in my Netflex Que again.

@Edstock I regret that I can't enjoy "Smiley's People". I am hearing impaired and need English subtitles or CC.

I think this is just a reflection of the US population in general. A local TV station here just got several new young reporters. Their English is terrible.

The Euro was always a bad idea for everyone but Germany. It was an attempt to create an economic Third Reich. In the end it didn't work out any better for Germany than the 2nd world war. The Neoliberalism that became popular in Europe didn't help.

I think this is a non issue. I was a complete asshole in high school - I don't like the person I was then. There are plenty of things to attack on - no need to go back that far.

I remember ten years ago when I signed the do not resuscitate order for my father - it was a real bitch. I was told he would die within 24 hours but he was a tough old bird and it was 6 days of hell for us and in spite of the morphine drip I'm sure it was hell for him. That changed my life and my attitudes on death. I came to realize that death is not the worst thing that can happen to you. There is a hell but it's not a biblical one but the one we create here on earth with the help of the medical industrial complex.

Exactly - far too often big ideas = bad ideas and the results are catastrophic. Romney is advancing Bush 43's big ideas which have already proven to be catastrophic.

I suspect that Shep is a Mississippi conservative but he's an intelligent one. I understand that part of his contract was he could ignore Roger Ailes' daily talking points.

Good post John - you know how I feel about this. I was a care giver for my father for the last year of his life. Medicare probably paid over $100,000 dollars for medical procedures that may have extended his life but reduced the quality of that life to near zero. I finally said enough is a enough and had one doctor out of four who was on my side. More recently I have been the care giver for my mother and learned to just say NO. No surgeries, no tests for things they couldn't do anything about anyway. The same doctor who fought me when I said no to further intervention for my father is now on my side with mother. When I had to call 911 a few months ago he lauded me for ignoring everything the hospital told me to do - yes we are talking lots of tests. He knows what I expect so I don't know if this is how he runs his practice generally.

Brucie The HTML created by Word is still incompatible with blogging platforms.

We seem to be ignoring the politics here and yes a lot of politics goes on in the SCOTUS and has for years. The problem is the politics are really complicated. The rejection of the ACA would be good for Obama in November. It denies the Republicans an issue for one but it also gives Obama an issue to fire up the base – the SCOTUS itself. The next president will appoint at least two and possibly more nominations which could change the face of the court. The conservative members know this,

This will not be a constitutional decision but a political one. You can talk about the constitution and precedents all you want but it's irrelevant.

I read Fisk's column earlier today and I'm not really clear about what he is trying to say. I agree that we are in deep shit when a General has to tell his troops not to take revenge. But he doesn't really seem to talk about how this came to pass. Even I, a lowly blogger, have some ideas. A "serious" journalist should have some as well.