Near ALL of the stated objectives for G. E. Bush's military invasion of Iraq were proven unrealistic for decades before Bush's invasion began. The borders of Iraq were deliberately created (artifically) by Great Britain and France to break up the major ethnic/religious groups in that area (so that British oil companies could more easily control the oil resources in that area by playing those ethnic groups off against each other thereby avoiding any united oppostion). The entire existence of Iraq has been one bloody story after another. As in the former Yugoslavia, only a ruthless dictator could effectively maintain control under those circumstances. Like G. W. Bush, Obama's attempt to maintain those unrealistic borders is a HUGE (BLOODY) MISTAKE!

Iraq should be allowed to break up into three separate countries along its ethnic/religious lines, and if one or more of those three contries decide to merge with a neighboring country having the same ethnic/religous bankground, then let that happen! In either case, the resulting countries will be in a far better position to effectively deal with the ISIS radicals in their respective borders. All the Obama Administration is accomplishing now is to pepetuate the anarchy created by those unrealistic Iraqi borders.

The citizens of the US are guilty of the ultimate sins of ommission. We are all somewhat guilty for our compliance. Everytime we make a purchase at the gas pump or elsewhere.

How can the people of this nation or the world validate democracy and justice by the actions that have taken place ? How will we measure justice for our citizens when we allow international war criminals to escape justice ? We scarificed our credibility, and any positive diplomaticve progress through these actions. Few care ! Nothing has jeopardized Americas security and sovreighnty more that this. For a suposedly Christian nation, few if any religious organizations have openly discouraged the wars or encouraged their young men and women to avoid serving in these wars. I believe we will ultimately pay a horible toll for our actions and our denial.

While the Bush/Cheney actions in Iraq are morally disgusting, doubt any president will

initiate legal action against a previous administration:

1. Usually more pressing problems for the country to deal with.

2. They want immunity for their own grim decisions from the next president.

ct

Prog rep -- What drivel? Do you not think that the repeal of Glass-Steagal contributed heavily to the crash of 2008? Do you not think the stopping of the enforcement of the Sherman Anti-trust act was a key contributor to the flattening of the median wage for the last 30 years?

For Thom to provide the facts to support those statements would require a book. I think it is called "The Crash of 2016" or maybe "Screwed".

Chi Matt -- I like your suggestion. It is so sad that Obama is not the dictator that the repugs call him.

The Right has been able to associate liberals with atheist because of FOX and people like Rush Limbaugh; they have replaced pro-choice with pro-abortion; they spin everything Obama and the Left does into something wrong or evil . We know the problems this country is facing but our biggest problem is speaking over the money that is spent vilifying the Party and hiding the truth. The GOP knows we speak the truth, the money has to be spent to vilify us so that people will not trust us and therefore will not listen to us. If we can find a way to get people to listen, their common sense will take over and they will know how to vote.

The Right wants us to just believe them, the Left wants people to find the truth and the truth will set us free.

We should talk to as many young voters as possible because waking up an apathetic young person is much easier than changing the mind of an older Republican; not impossible, I was a Republican for over 30 years and I changed....I didn't drink any kool-aid, I just got informed; I read, fact checked, stopped watching FOX and had to admit that my liberal sister, who I had argued with for years, was right.... it's never easy to admit you were wrong but not doing so would have made me an idiot on top of being wrong.

Note* I am new to Thom's site and I know my comment was off topic, but I thought I was responding to someone's comment but when I saved my comment it showed up with the comments on the trade agreement...sorry. I do have a comment about "fast track". I voted for Obama and this is the first time that I am scratching my head about his judgment. This certainly isn't enough to make me go to the right, but WTF. It is pointless for me to contact my congressmen, Lindsay Graham, Trey Gowdy, Tim Scott etc. I would rather contact congressmen that are on the fence but you can't get through unless you are in their district or state. If there is a way, I wish someone would enlighten me.

Remember when the Orange Man was literally passing out checks from the tobacco lobby on the floor of the House?

Howzabout that letter Issa sent out shortly after being sworn in asking his donors what regulations they wanted to see relaxed or eliminated?

This is why we need public campaign financing.

Politicians who get campaign donations from business will support what business wants regardless of how what business wants will hurt others because they want those campaign contributions again when they run for re-election.

It's like

Business donor: Hey, my political slave! These regulations that say I must contain and store my company's hazardous waste in a way that it may never contaminate anyone or the environment is costing me money. See what you can do get rid of these regulations.

Political slave (bought & paid for politician) : Yes, sir I'll do every thing I can to help.

A month later, congress, Washington DC

Political slave: I propose to do away with these EPA regulations because it costs the hard working taxpayers of this great nation way too much money and do nothing to help them.

Two months later at a campaign rally

I'm a God fearing, gun loving, pro-choice American and I need your vote so I can go back to Washington and break down the beurocrocy of over-regulation that's costing you, the taxpayer and consumer your hard earned money.

a week later

Business doner to political slave: I heard what you proposed in Washington and I heard your speech last week. I'm spending another million on ads to help your re-election.

Ploitical slave: Thank you! Any thing you need, just give me a call.

This is how politics works, It's sad to say.

Remember, there are good reasons for regulations. Regulations keep bad things from happening.

Here's a write up of the New Democrat Network from their early days:

• Launched in June of 1996, by Senators Joe Lieberman and John Breaux, the New Democrat Network is a national network of citizens and elected officials committed to making the Democratic Party the majority party of the 21st century and the Information Age.
• The New Democrat Network endorses candidates who advocate a new centrist, progressive approach that fosters economic growth, opportunity and fiscal responsibility: a renewed sense of community that honors citizenship, faith and family; a smaller, smarter government; and strong American leadership in world affairs.
• Does this sound like any Republican talking points you've ever heard?

Yes, the oceans are key to our collective survival, but they're being destroyed just as the forests around the world are being destroyed and we're eating posion in the form fertilizers. Perhaps the needs of immediate survival is more important to our future survival. Then again, maybe profit now is the motivating factor; leaving the fallout for the future.

Not every time a white cop does something to black or Hispanic or Asians is it race motivated. Sometimes it's actually to control the situation the best they can. Sometimes they are actually breaking the law and/or being a dangerious threat. As I recall, it was mostly black teenagers at this pool party so the likelyhood that a black teenager being stopped first is pretty good.

Can you trust anything that comes out of the Repuglican Party?