IMO, both hats make her look foolish, most of the time.

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd took investigative journalism to a new "high" when she decided to do some of her own research on Colorado's legalized marijuana scene.

You have no direct knowledge.

Speaking of fools, there is nothing like a fool with no experience running his mouth.

I mean, you can't even keep up with the conversation. Try some fish oil.

Point. I called for a courts martial.

Point. I believe he is a deserter. Maybe a collaborator. That is based on what I have heard/seem from his fellow soldiers who have no reason to lie. In fact, they jeopardize their careers by "speaking truth to power."

Point. That is my right.

Point. I won't be part of the proceeding.

Point. Somewhere in the thread someone quotes an Admiral re picking someone out of the water who has either jumped, fell or was pushed overboard that you do back and pick him.

Point. That's wrong. You do not interrupt combat operations thus endangering the ship, the mission and the rest of the crew to save a single man.

Point. By trading 5 high level terrorists Obama has endangered the troops who serve and Americans all over the world.

Point. He did it because he thought it would help his worsening poll numbers. That is despicable.

Point. By supporting Obama his slime drips all over you. Even the staunchest Repub finally caught on to Nixon's lies and paranoia and withdrew their support.

Over and over, we keep hearing about the deaths that were the direct result of Bergdahl wandering off.  

But not so fast on that one, okay?

But a review of casualty reports and contemporaneous military logs from the Afghanistan war shows that the facts surrounding the eight deaths are far murkier than definitive - even as critics of Sergeant Bergdahl contend that every American combat death in Paktika Province in the months after he disappeared, from July to September 2009, was his fault. All across Afghanistan, that period was a time of ferocious fighting. President Obama had decided to send a surge of additional troops to improve security, but they had not yet arrived. In Paktika, the eight deaths during that period were up from five in the same three months the previous year. Across Afghanistan, 122 Americans died in that period, up from 58 in 2008.

[snip]

Two soldiers died during the most intense period of the search after Sergeant Bergdahl's June 30 disappearance. Both were inside an outpost that came under attack, not out patrolling and running checkpoints looking for him. The other six soldiers died in late August and early September.

[snip]

Mr. Bethea wrote that of the six men killed in August and September, two died in a roadside bombing while on a reconnaissance mission, a third was shot during a search for a Taliban political leader and three others were killed while conducting patrols -- two in an ambush and one who stepped on a mine.

He suggested some connection to Sergeant Bergdahl for several of the deaths, saying the Taliban leader and a village that was in the area of one of the patrols were "thought affiliated with Bergdahl's captors." He also said a village in the areas of the other patrol was "near the area where Bergdahl vanished."

[snip]

A retired senior American military officer, who was briefed at the time on the search for Sergeant Bergdahl, said that even though soldiers were instructed to watch for signs of the missing American, they would have been conducting patrols and performing risky operations anyway.

There's a lot more; I suggest you read it.

The reality is that we really do not know all there is to know, other than the fact that what is happening right now is a rat-fking GOP  campaign, a  massive rat-fking by Republican PR flaks, and you've bought into it, hook, line and sinker.  It does not appear that you have considered that what these braying former unit-mates of Bergdahl are saying may not contain as much truth as you think they do.

As to State of Mind:  I'm sure that we all can develop and should practice a bit of patience in waiting for the facts.  This shouldn't be a matter of spin nor smear.  

Love the quiet confidence of Thorton and the emerging confidence of Lester.

It's going to be a messy ending.

Analysis, is what I do, so I never consider noticing trends to be beneath me. Hiding what I notice, however, is. I can't help but bring it out into the open. It's like a boil, you know? It needs to be lanced.

Sorry.

So in fairness, feel free to do the lancing when I'm the boil. I know, I know... plain speaking and honesty is often considered boil-like, so I'm setting myself up here. But fair is fair. Besides, I don't want to hang on to my poisons either.

I remember Charismatic...he had a shot.  Thank god he survived to be a stud in Japan...who has a better retirement than a top thoroughbred, eh?  

But that's why they load them into the gate and run.

An internal military investigation found that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl intentionally sneaked away from his forward operating base in Afghanistan just before he disappeared in 2009 -- and that may not have been the first time he left the post without permission, according to officials familiar with the probe.

"We have no indication that he intended to leave permanently," one government official familiar with the investigation told Military Times. However, the official noted, the investigation did not have potentially critical input from Sgt. Bergdahl himself.

Several soldiers in Bergdahl's unit told investigators that Bergdahl talked about his desire to leave the base unaccompanied and that he may have done so and returned unharmed at least once before the night he disappeared for good, the official said.

The internal investigation, known as an AR15-6, was completed in 2010 and remains classified, but several officials familiar with it have disclosed its results under condition of anonymity.

The investigation determined that there was little doubt Bergdahl walked away from his unit before he was captured.

But as for a court-martial?  Probably not likely:

Yet many legal experts say a prosecution of Bergdahl is unlikely. There is an "unwritten policy" to avoid court-martialing service members who have spent time as POWs, said Eugene Fidell, a military law expert who teaches at Yale Law School and is a former president of the National Institute of Military Justice.

"I don't think they'll do that in this case," Fidell said. "Unless something comes to light that suggests that he was a turncoat or joined the other side or assisted the other side in some way. ... There is no public indication that any of those things are true in his case."

Greg Rinckey, a former Army judge advocate who practices at the New York law firm Tully Rinckey, agreed.

"There's going to be an investigation, I'm sure, but do I expect to see a court-martial? No," Rinckey said in an interview.

Also color me skeptical that this administration is not above keeping certain unflattering records and papers away from the media if it suits their needs.

The more I read about this the more I get the impression Obama doesn't care what the soldier did.   He wanted him back.   The majority of his administration thought the deal was too good for the Taliban and the soldier in question was not enough of a win to justify it.

Obama then decided he didn't care what most of his advisers advised and what he knew congress would say and made the deal.

That's it.   I guess if he doesn't care that this soldier might or might have not done or didn't want to know then in his mind end of debate.

All the criticism is fair but ultimately Obama is the president and if the Army is willing to do his bidding and Congress won't hold him responsible what does it matter?

It's another note on his legacy and partisans and Americans will take their respective sides and we'll all move on.

Obama's approval is already tanked on foreign affairs and his executive ability so what does he care?   I get the sense he feels he has 2 1/2 years to force through whatever he wants and popularity be dammed.  

He'll trot our the Obama scandal playbook, his supporters and some in the media will play along and he'll deal with he consequences.