Better yet, just get rid of all the crap George W. Bush did in his 8 years and then maybe we can get rid of a lot of these problems because I'm sure the phone tapping was probably legal under the Patriot Act.

Indeed, the DOJ has adopted its own binding regulations that impose constraints on its ability to obtain the phone records of journalists. Those regulations require that "all reasonable attempts should be made to obtain information from alternative sources" before subpoeans are issued; that "negotiations with the media shall be pursued in all cases in which a subpoena to a member of the news media is contemplated" unless the DOJ determines that such negotiations would "pose a substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation in connection with which the records are sought"; and that "no subpoena may be issued . . . for the telephone toll records of any member of the news media without the express authorization of the Attorney General". The White House has denied involvement in the acquisition of AP's phone records, but presumably, Attorney General Eric Holder personally approved (Esquire's Charles Pierce, in calling for the resignation of Holder, expresses skepticism about White House denials, but I'm neutral at this point on that specific question).

Link

I have never heard the ukelele played like Jake plays it. Here is his version of George Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

And here is Jake playing my very favorite Beatles' song In My Life.

Republicans just believed that Romney was going to win in a blow out.

She has a large base of support among the voters. She has a demographic base that is wider than Obama's. As BTD says, demographics are destiny. The GOP is on the losing end of that one no matter who they run for president.

And what you are postulating is just what I expect from the GOP and what some of my Republican friends are exactly afraid the GOP will do--69? So older women have no worth in this society? That's a statement worthy of Rush Limbaugh. I hope the GOP uses your strategy because you are going to manage to tick off large numbers of women.

The polls do not back up your assertions at all. Right now they show her beating Jeb Bush in FL and Rick Perry in TX. Yes, they are far out but Bush and Perry are known in those states as well as Hillary.

The devil's in the details.

Of course, judging by all the hit-piece "the truth about Hillary" books that came out in the last twenty years, you'd think she was the former head of the European Green Party, who transforms into the succubus at night to drain the vital life force from conservatives..

And strictly from that standpoint, this is an internal discussion between Japanese politicians, and how that conversation unfolds is going to be dictated by Japanese social protocols. And in that regard, I think that they've made it very clear to outsiders that whatever people like you and me might think of those protocols or the subject matter being discussed, our opinions are going to be completely irrelevant to them.

I'm not saying that's right or wrong, only that it is what it is. I'm certainly not going to defend the Japanese regarding their comfort women, because I have an aunt by marriage who as a child was held prisoner -- along with her parents and two younger brothers -- by the imperial Japanese Army for over three years at the Los Baños Internment Camp in the Philippines, and I've heard her own horror stories.

(She is an American, not Filipina, and her father had been transferred to Manila in 1940 to serve with the American colonial government. Unfortunately, he took his family along with him, and they got caught up in the Japanese invasion after the war broke out in Dec. 1941. Along with thousands of other American civilians, they were effectively abandoned by Gen. MacArthur in Manila when U.S. forces retreated to the Bataan Peninsula, and were then rounded up by Japanese troops and interned, first at Santo Tomas University in Manila, and then at Los Baños.)

So, I happen to agree with you wholeheartedly that the Japanese have yet to fully come to terms publicly with the inherently cruel nature of the Empire of Japan with regards to its non-Japanese subjects, and to formally acknowledge the countless and grievous atrocities that were repeatedly inflicted upon conquered peoples in the name of the Emperor between 1937 (the year Japan invaded China) and 1945, when the Empire surrendered to the Allies.

Whether we can ultimately compel them to do so is another matter entirely, because thus far they've shown themselves to be rather impervious to world opinion regarding their conduct in the Second World War.

I deal with Japanese all the time, and they're really nice people who are almost always polite and deferential. But honestly, it's awfully hard sometimes to figure out for certain what they're actually thinking, because by nature they are very reserved and not at all inclined to take outsiders into their confidence -- that is, until you're invited to go drinking with them. (And let me tell you, a lot of them really know how to pound 'em home.) Once you drink with them, then you've arrived, and the barriers tend to fall away pretty quickly.

One of its centers of worship is the Yasukuni Shrine in the Chiyoda District of Tokyo, which was created by the Emperor Meiji to venerate the memory of soldiers and civilians who died in service to the Empire of Japan.

Listed on its rolls are the names of over 2 million men, women and children -- including a not-insignificant number of individuals who were arrested, convicted and executed for war crimes by the United States after the Empire's surrender in Sept. 1945, such as former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.

The Yasukuni Shrine is understandably a source of considerable controversy in Asia, as Japan's neighbors are for good reason deathly afraid of any possible resurgence in Japanese militarism, and they will frequently file public diplomatic protests whenever Japanese prime ministers makes occasional public pilgrimages there. Of course, in keeping with longstanding Japanese behavior, their objections are simply ignored.