HOT5 Daily 8/22/2010

1. "Increasingly Unhinged" From reality. 

Representative Sample: Disconnection from reality, arrogance, unwillingness to accept criticism and to discuss other points of view, contempt for and hostility toward broad swaths of the American population–these have become the hallmarks of the Obama adminstration and its enablers in Congress.

2. "Why Bother?" The latest round of the Israeli-Palestinian "Peace Process" farce. 

Representative Sample:  onlookers and officials could barely muster the forced smiles and rote expressions of optimism that normally accompany the “beginning” of (OK, the never-ending, fruitless) direct negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.

3. "How Much We Really Spent on Iraq" A look at the numbers and some perspective.  

Representative Sample: Turns out the war from 2003-2010 cost about $709 billion, which is still a lot, but not astronomical by today’s standards. In contrast, the whole Vietnam War cost about $698 billion in 2007 dollars.

4. "U.S. ‘combat troops’ have not left Iraq" Speaking of Iraq... I often disagree with Ricks, but he's correct here. The idea that U.S. combat troops have left Iraq is completely delusional when 50,000 still remain. If Bush were still president, he'd be bashed repeatedly for this pretense. Obama would probably be a loud voice calling him a liar for that claim.

Representative Sample: This is fiction pure and simple. I just don't get how the nation has swallowed this and why members of the media are not reporting facts the way they are rather than the political PR message the Administration wants portrayed. Does anyone not think that the likelihood of continued combat operations is a reality?

5. "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH WITH THIS MOSQUE FOOLISHNESS" Ground Zero mosque burnout.

Representative Sample: Build it. Don’t build it. Move it. Bah! Everyone has an opinion. That opinion has been expressed ad infinitum. No nuance has been neglected. No angle uncovered. No stupid, silly insult or smear has been left under the mossy rocks from which they sprang.

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