The year-end debate about the Iraq Study Group's unequivocal diagnosis of failure and its grim list of uncertain remedies is the real measure of the hopelessness of the mess America made. The ISG's 79 recommendations - some wise, some impolitic, some impossible - is itself a confession that all the choices are bad.

That's not the commission's fault: No one else has a persuasive idea either, least of all the president - the self-proclaimed decider - who started and ran this misbegotten war.

As Nick Carraway says about the privileged and insouciant Tom and Daisy at the end of "The Great Gatsby": 

"They were careless people ... they smashed up things and creatures and then they retreated back to their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made ...."

So this is to be Saddam’s last weekend. So be it. The guy was a dick; let him die. No skin off my ass. The old bastard is even wishing us well in his exit, telling his people not to “hate the U.S.-led forces” –CNN Excellent.

Another barbaric country whose savage inhabitants are one execution closer to democracy.

Excellent.

Do we get to hear about the actual dynamics of the power struggle in Iraq? We might be interested in hear it in plain language...very confusing, of course. If you are an average American citizen, it may be too complex for you to understand...I will try to break it down in simple terms.

This is an estimate of the number of combined sufferers of Cancer, Aids, Multiple Sclerosis, chronic pain, and dozens of other diseases and injuries that would benefit by the legalization of Medicinal Marijuana.  Daily suffering and nausea is a way of life for these people, and our state government eases their burdens by prosecuting them for trying to get some relief from this agony.  Our state leaders have refused to step into the 21st century with a growing number of states that have legalized the use of medicinal cannabis for pain, muscle spasms, nausea, wasting syndroms, psychological disorders, etc.  Many believe that Marinol is medical marijuana, but they are wrong.  Marinol is synthetic THC (the active ingredient in cannabis) and only works some of the time, and only for nausea and wasting syndroms, not for pain or muscle spasms.  Our leaders refuse to acknowledge current studies that show marijuana is a safe and effective treatment for a variety of maladies, instead pinning their hopes on Big Medicine's synthetic concoctions that often cause more damage than they treat.  Just one look at recent drug recall lists and attorney advertisements show the fallacy of this faith in

To fully grasp the allure of Barack Obama -- Democrat from Illinois and media sensation -- it helps to start with his two fellow senators from neighboring Indiana.

In 1996, Richard Lugar ran for president as a brainy, issue-oriented moderate and all around decent guy. He said back then that the voters had tired of the mud-throwing and cheap sound bites in Washington. "If they really want shouters and screamers," the dark-suited Lugar said, "then they'll vote for someone else."

Lugar lost the Republican nomination to Bob Dole, who then lost the election to Bill Clinton.

Indiana's junior senator, Democrat Evan Bayh, recently visited New Hampshire to weigh his prospects for a 2008 presidential run. He was flattened by crowds running to see Obama, and dropped out.

What was Obama saying that other centrists would not have? Absolutely nothing.

Obama talked about ending the nastiness in Washington and taking personal responsibility, and that government can't solve all problems -- platitudes emptied of all controversy. If anything, his colleagues from Indiana would surely have offered more exciting commentary.

Competition has been fierce for the fifteenth annual P.U.-litzer Prizes.

Many can plausibly lay claim to stinky media performances, but only a few can win a P.U.-litzer. As the judges for this un-coveted award, Jeff Cohen and I have deliberated with due care. (Jeff is the founder of the media watch group FAIR and author of the superb new book “Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media.”)

And now, the winners of the P.U.-litzer Prizes for 2006:

* “FACT-FREE TRADE” AWARD -- New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman

In a press corps prone to cheer on corporate-drafted trade agreements as the key to peace and plenty in the world, no cheerleader is more fervent than Tom Friedman. During a CNBC interview with Tim Russert in July, Friedman confessed: “I was speaking out in Minnesota -- my hometown, in fact -- and a guy stood up in the audience, said, ‘Mr. Friedman, is there any free trade agreement you’d oppose?’ I said, ‘No, absolutely not.’ I said, ‘You know what, sir? I wrote a column supporting the CAFTA, the Caribbean Free Trade initiative. I didn’t even know what was in it. I