@Marcus - Metro has been going downhill for the past decade, especially over the last 5. It's not "entitlement" as much as it's "why is every major decision so incredibly near-sighted and botched?" Like - 1) not installing slip-resistant tiles on outdoor platforms when they had the chance a few years ago. They essentially become ceramic Slip-and-Slides in crappy weather. Or 2) putting in non-standardized elevator and escalator equipment. They made the decision to put in custom equipment in many stations for aesthetics, not for practicality, ease of getting replacement parts or lower maintenence costs. Or,
3) repeatedly ignoring NTSB recommendations about getting rid of dangerous trains, the 1000-series. And, 4) finding out that the network that they based their automated train control systems on was actually severely lacking, and directly responsible for the horrific accident on the Red Line last year. Then there's 5) rehiring bus drivers and train operators who have texted, made cell phone calls, or even gotten into fights with passengers or 6) repeatedly increasing fares with a marked decline in the quality of service.

My basic commuter bike was stolen from the White Flint Metro about six weeks ago. Still haven't received a police report from their police staff. I would ask "why don't they have a camera on their bike parking/entrance area?" but hell, that'd be common-sense. My 15 year old, 5-ton mountain bike was stolen from Columbia Heights about ten days later, through two locks. The thing wasn't any better than the junker bikes from K-Mart or Wally World. I actually feel sorry for the bike thief on that one. Good luck trying to go up hills on that one.

From what I heard around the water-cooler on Friday, the idea of NK's announcement is essentially posturing by Kim Jong Il. Their missiles have a Scud's chance in hell of hitting the Western Hemisphere, let alone pull an arching loop to even come close to Hawaii. The Administration is viewing it as just that - posturing - and the Navy is already more than ready to shoot the sucker down if it heads Hawaii-wards. So's the Air Force. And, Hawaii has plenty of anti-missile defense systems already. That's if the Japanese don't shoot it down with their defense network. *IF* the darned thing comes anywhere near the U.S. waters, we've got two carrier groups within 20 hours of capable of making Pyongyang look like Dresden in 1945.

The worst thing that could happen to KJI is for the thing to actually hit U.S. soil. He'd take a bigger shit than Copscotch in detox.

It's a similar attitude that the ruling class has towards the military in general. As the military is increasingly made up of lower-class, lower educated folks, their words and actions from the field fall on deaf ears. Remember Rumsfeld's quote in response to U.S. Soldiers being butchered by IEDs and ambushes due to improper armor? " ... you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time." Complete and utter disdain towards the troops.

So, when those same troops step forward and say "waterboarding is torture," including CIA operatives, DOD officers, former Navy SEAL Jesse Ventura, etc..., we naturally get the same response from that ruling elite.

That was probably the most intelligent bit Mancow has had on his show in years.

I like how the Fox News Conservatives keep pushing the figure that Obama's quadrupled the deficit in one year, as though the Debt and the Deficit are the same thing. The deficit is a yearly figure that varies based on tax collections and spending measures. The debt is the amount the Government owes based on many years of deficit spending. They have to say "quadrupled the deficit" because that sounds scarier than "Obama's spending nearly a trillion more this year than we'll make in taxes." It also hides the inconvenient truth that the Republicans doubled *THE DEBT* during the W term, while growing the GDP by 20%. Not a good return on the investment. After running six years of consecutive 9-digit deficits under Bush, a trillion just ain't that scary any more.