Republicans already are saying a public plan would put bureaucrats, not doctors and patients, in control of life-and-death decisions.

Alinsky sneered at those who would accept defeat rather than break their principles: "It's true I might have trouble getting to sleep because it takes time to tuck those big, angelic, moral wings under the covers." He assured his students that no one would remember their flip-flops, scoffing, "The judgment of history leans heavily on the outcome of success or failure; it spells the difference between the traitor and the patriotic hero. There can be no such thing as a successful traitor, for if one succeeds he becomes a founding father." If you win, no one really cares how you did it.

We have lost the torture battle, the economy battle, the civil rights battle, and virtually all of the Constitutional battles. Our Democratic Congress has been as effective in protecting us as the impenetrable Maginot Line was in protecting Paris.

Obviously then, our strategy has been a dismal failure. Equally obvious is the fact that if we continue "digging" as we have, we will continue failing.

Now, that would be great for the blogs, and the media, as it will provide tons and tons of fodder for the b*tchng brigade, but it won't help improve our country.

Only one thing will give us a chance to stop the hemorrhaging; borrowing BTD's phrase, "pols are pols," we have to accept that Barack Obama is a pol, has rolled us, and will only respond to polls.

We have to drive his pol(l) numbers down; 40% approval, or lower. To continue expecting him to "do the right thing" is insane, bordering on delusional. If we don't clear the crap out of our eyes, after witnessing the duplicitous campaign he ran, and his first several months in office, then we don't deserve the country we believe we should have. Stalin didn't beat Hitler by finding the "middle ground," but by being a bigger bast*rd than he was. We have to grab Obama by his scrawny little neck with one hand, and his g*nads in the other, and tell him how it's going to be. Since he won't act like LBJ, we should!

The judge was cracking jokes at his sentencing, regarding his personal use claims..."Cheech and Chong would have had a hard time smoking that much" he said.  

Yeah...tyranny is a real knee-slapper, your honor.  

Besides, 28 lbs. ain't that much...it could be for 2 years worth of personal use...or Blount really likes to smoke his friends out.  Regardless, in no universe does he need the chain and cage treatment.  

The Obama administration is weighing plans to detain some terror suspects on U.S. soil -- indefinitely and without trial -- as part of a plan to retool military commission trials that were conducted for prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

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The administration's internal deliberations on how to deal with Guantanamo detainees are continuing, as the White House wrestles with how to fulfill the president's promise to shutter the controversial prison. But some elements of the plans are emerging as the administration consults with key members of Congress, as well as with military officials, about what to do with Guantanamo detainees.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), who met this week with White House Counsel Greg Craig to discuss the administration's plans, said among the proposals being studied is seeking authority for indefinite detentions, with the imprimatur of some type of national-security court.

Sen. Graham said he wants to work with the administration to pass legislation to increase judicial oversight of military commissions, but noted the legal difficulties that would arise.

"This is a difficult question. How do you hold someone in prison without a trial indefinitely?" Sen. Graham said.

The White House had no comment Wednesday about its detainee deliberations.

The idea of a new national security court has been discussed widely in legal circles, including by Bush administration Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Neal Katyal, a former Georgetown law professor and now Obama Justice Department official.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, at a hearing last month, hinted at the administration's deliberations, saying that there were "50 to 100 [detainees] probably in that ballpark who we cannot release and cannot trust, either in Article 3 [civilian] courts or military commissions."

However, the Senate is trying to block detainees from coming to US soil.

US senators on Thursday were to debate a bill forbidding the use of new money to close the Guantanamo Bay prison for suspected terrorists to ship any detainees to the United States.

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The bill would also stipulate that the money "can only be used to relocate prisoners to locations outside of the United States, and only if the Secretary has certified that prisoners transferred to other nations will remain in that nation?s custody as long as they remain a threat to the United States."

The training, which leaders say is not intended to be applied outside the simulated Explorer setting, can involve chasing down illegal border crossers as well as more dangerous situations that include facing down terrorists and taking out "active shooters," like those who bring gunfire and death to college campuses.  In a simulation here of a raid on a marijuana field, several Explorers were instructed on how to quiet an obstreperous lookout.  

Just days after revealing a plan to that would allow the new Chrysler-Fiat partnership to skirt U.S. restrictions on executive pay by having some top Chrysler executives deemed Fiat employees, the automaker filed additional bankruptcy papers today that called for the closure of 789 dealerships -- a quarter of the dealers that sell the company's cars.

Anticipating the closures, more than 100 dealers descended on Capitol Hill Wednesday to convince lawmakers that Chrysler should not close its businesses as a cost-cutting measure. Word that the very company seeking to keep them from operating their dealerships had found a loophole to pay executives more than $500,000 annually outraged the car sellers.