Tour of the Blogosphere

Foreign Affairs Blog is talking about those few bad apples that keep turning up. From threatening kids with dogs to playing the Meow Mix song for hours on end, our boys and girls in uniform just keep taking matters into their own hands. We've got civilians and foreign governments joining the party too. There sure are a lot of loose cannons rolling around. Someone might get hurt.

The Sorest Loser is also talking torture, but from a more personal position with several different prisoner's experiences related. There's one here about a guy who got shipped to Syria, tortured, found innocent, and released. Oops, sorry. Wrong guy. Have a nice day.

The Progressive Blog Alliance Headquarters has some design changes to propose for American Capitalism. "What if the goods and services offered were examined for their benefits and costs to the individuals and the society alike." What if, indeed. Some interesting suggestions, anyway.

The Barking Dingo has some dirt courtesy of AP. Apparently, when Tom Ridge toured swing states before the election, he did so after consulting with Republican pollsters.
Susan Neely, a former assistant homeland security secretary who attended the May 17 session with Luntz and Ridge... (said) "We asked him his impression of how well we were explaining whatever the issues were of the day..."
See, nothing to do with the election at all.
"We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security."

Great minds must think alike, beacuse over at tunafishnews I found a psychological analysis of the red/blue divide.
Mammals have two primary drives, these being the survival instinct (get food and shelter, i.e. money) and the reproductive instinct (get laid).The first drive preserves the individual; the second preserves the species.
Conservatives generally like guns and money and 90-hour workweeks and killing animals. Liberals generally like sex and art and statues of naked women and the Family Leave Act.
Label the reproductive instinct blue, and label the survival instinct red, and you will never be very far wrong.

The Talking Dog also has something to add to that discussion. In response to President Bush saying he has not ruled out raising taxes on those who earn more than $90,000 a year to help bolster Social Security's finances, the Dog suggests that Democrats take him up on it.
Once the fortress of tax cuts for the rich solitude starts to break down, its time to sneak in other things-- ok, Mr. President, we can fully fund Halliburton/Bechtel, BUT-- we'll have to roll back the dividend and estate tax deductions... YES-- we'll let you drill in the Arctic-- BUT-- SUV tax credits and mileage requirement exemptions will have to be adjusted, other measures for conservation and green technologies will have to be stepped up INCLUDING PASSAGE OF THE KYOTO TREATY.
We can learn to compromise, or we can tear our government apart.

Last but not least, some interesting billboards have been appearing in Arizona.