Weekly Address: Labor Day and Fair Rewards for Hard Work

This is a difficult time for our country. But I'm confident that we can meet the challenges we face and leave behind something better.

The great E. J. Dionne writes that media stories of mob action at Town Meetings were greatly exaggerated:

The most disturbing account came from Rep. David Price of North Carolina, who spoke with a stringer for one of the television networks at a large town-hall meeting he held in Durham.

The stringer said he was one of 10 people around the country assigned to watch such encounters. Price said he was told flatly: "Your meeting doesn't get covered unless it blows up." As it happens, the Durham audience was broadly sympathetic to reform efforts. No "news" there.

This certainly echoes my experience...

David "Dean" Broder thinks that a "torture probe of Bush officials is a bad idea." It's a good idea, all right, in so many ways...

George Will -- never an enthusiastic supporter of adventurism in Iraq -- says that it's time to leave:

Yet as Iraqi violence is resurgent, the logic of triumphalism leads here:

If, in spite of contrary evidence, the U.S. surge permanently dampened sectarian violence, all U.S. forces can come home sooner than the end of 2011. If, however, the surge did not so succeed, U.S. forces must come home sooner...

Beware of socialized fire departments!... (Thanks, Bill!)

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) thinks we should leave Afghanistan too:

We need to start discussing a flexible timetable to bring our brave troops out of Afghanistan. Proposing a timetable doesn't mean giving up our ability to go after al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Far from it: We should continue a more focused military mission that includes targeted strikes on Taliban and al Qaeda leaders, and we should step up our long-term civilian efforts to deal with the corruption in the Afghan government that has helped the Taliban to thrive. But we must recognize that our troop presence contributes to resentment in some quarters and hinders our ability to achieve our broader national security goals.

I don't disagree, but the part in the middle sounds like "Wouldn't it be pretty to think so" stuff. What makes anyone think that "long-term civilian efforts" will be any more successful than a military presence in a country run by a kleptocracy and where people are disfigured for exercising their right to vote? (Apologies for the absence of a link, but I did read a story on msnbc.com about a poor man who lost his nose and ears to Taliban thugs.)...

Billionaires for wealth care...

I wish...

Burning down the house!...

Jindal says NOLA teaching hospital will be built:

We've talked to the Obama administration several times, and they’ve been very clear to us that whatever money we get out of FEMA, whether it’s what we expect, which is $492 (million) or closer to what they’re offering today, $150 (million), they made it clear they’re open to providing additional funding from other sources within the federal government.