Did you see the Karen Hughes interview on Charlie Rose? Is this woman out of her gourd? It seems to me that the entire concept behind her office (Under-secretary of State for Public Diplomacy) is that the rest of the world is basically like a bunch of red-state idiots that can be told that America is "Good". As if the
Arab "street" has no recollection of our support of the Shah, Saddam, the House of Saud, the dictatorship in Egypt, Israel, or the invasion of Iraq. And Charlie Rose doesn't even bring this up! These are absurd times--to say the least. (My apologies to any red-state idiot reading this.)

Fifteen percent of the U.S. GDP goes to health care with only 85% coverage. In western countries with universal health care, 9% of their GDP goes to health care with 100% coverage. They have lesser rates of infant mortality, heart disease, etc. The solution is obvious, isn't it gentle blog reader? The right-wing resorts to anything to forestall the inevitable solution just to protect wealth, entrenched power, and bigotry. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just drop kick the contemptible yahoos responsible for prolonging our current health-care catastrophe out of Washington, D.C.?