Maxwell St., The White House, and Send in Dog!

Now a few links for the day...

Here is a good article about Maxwell Street, it's fate, and Blues Brothers. I was too young to ever experience the 'real' Maxwell Street, but it must have been phenomenal. Too bad it's stale and corporate there now.

Dick Durbin apologized for his statements, which while maybe a tad exaggerated had the right tone to them. The White House is getting away with abusing and torturing prisoners. And there have even been deaths, though no one has said it was because of torture or executions, (though would anyone be surprised if we found out in the next year or so that American military personal had executed prisoners? At this point, I wouldn't, which is a sad prospect to even be entertaining as a citizen of the United States). But the White House, preaching freedom, liberty, and democracy from their mouth, is openly engage and allowing the abuse and torture of prisoners with their hands. Classic cases of do what I say, not as I do. Of course, actions speak louder than words. And the White House's actions speak plainly: torture and abuse of humans is okay and justified if the people being abused and tortured are not on our side.

I'm surprised at how often I agree with Friedman, or at the very least, his insights into politics. I think he's right in this article, the lack of a 'heir' or 'successor' to W has lead the White House into dangerous waters. They're only going to be their 8 years, and then they're gone. Even if a GOPer is elected in 2008, odds are that person will be much more moderate than Bush. But they'll have to fix W's mess (tax cuts, the War on Terror, Iraq, and spending to name a few)...

Humor is a funny thing. And Steve Lopez writes a humorous piece here about sending 'Dog' (some dude/bounty hunter from a reality TV show) into western/central Asia to catch bin Laden. His point, of course is why haven't we caught this man and how many more times do we have to hear that we're closing in or close? He's the real enemy, but we seem to forget this from time to time. I still say the Democrats should run an add on TV, 30 seconds long, the screen is black, and in white lettering says this: "We have just one question? [five seconds] Where is bin Laden?"