Did you notice something about the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group Report?  It recommends all sorts of changes, all of them far short of actually ending the war, but it recommends them all to the same person responsible for the disastrous situation we're in now.  It doesn't suggest what Congress should do to rein in an out-of-control president.  Rather, it recommends that the President do dozens of things.  Here's one of them:

"RECOMMENDATION 22: The President should state that the United States does not seek permanent military bases in Iraq. If the Iraqi government were to request a temporary base or bases, then the U.S. government could consider that request as it would in the case of any other government."

In spring 2007, Timor-Leste will hold its first national elections as an independent nation. Join ETAN in supporting free, fair election in Timor-Leste!

Voters across the country will choose their parliament and president. Given the tensions and violence that have plagued Timor-Leste this year, many worry that the election may not be free or fair. As we did for the crucial referendum in 1999, the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) will send nonpartisan, international observers — and we need you!

Please consider volunteering with ETAN’s Observer Project (ETAN-OP). We especially need you if you have election monitoring experience; are familiar with Timorese history and culture; or speak Tetum, Indonesian or Portuguese. ETAN will provide training, so please apply even if you don’t have experience.

Tis the season -- peak garbage season, that is. These 10 trash-busting steps can help reduce your contribution to holiday waste when wrapping, packing and opening gifts...

1. Give gifts that don’t require wrapping. Tickets, memberships, subscriptions, gift cards, and certificates for babysitting, snow-shoveling and other services. Or how about just an e-card and a hug?
2. Make the wrapping part of the present. Present gifts in baskets, tins and other reusable containers. Or wrap them in scarves, handkerchiefs, pillowcases, cloth napkins or tablecloths.
3. Don’t wrap presents for pets. Does Fido really care?
4. Hide unwrapped gifts and make finding them part of the fun. Provide cards with clues for finding them. Hang jewelry and other small items right on the Christmas tree.
5. Use gift bags instead of wrapping paper. They’re just as attractive and readily reusable.
6. Buy recycled wrapping paper. Look for paper with a high percentage of postconsumer waste.
7. Avoid foil, metallic and glittery papers, which are not recyclable.

“What kind of a society isn't structured on greed? The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm; capitalism is that system.”
---Milton Friedman

What kind indeed? Certainly not a prodigious society such as ours. Thanks to Capitalism, the United States is replete with opulence, might, and benevolence.

Guided by the brilliant foresight of Hamilton, manacled by men like Keynes, Galbraith, and FDR, and ultimately granted a refreshing degree of freedom by the heroic intellectual efforts of Rand and Friedman, Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” has wrought a citadel for those wishing to pursue healthy greed, self-interest, and enlightened oppression. While Capitalism in the United States is still afflicted with the diseases of a mixed economy, government regulation and socialistic tendencies, America’s socioeconomic system is far superior to any rival, past or present.

Washington - This photo of condemned Iraqi ex-strongman Saddam Hussein amid exotic weapons of mass destruction, taken just before the liberation of Iraq, was released Saturday by the White House. Proclaiming that the long-awaited evidence of Saddam's deadly weaponry was now irrefutable, Presidential spokesman Tony Snow displayed the picture of Saddam with bow and arrows [read the original NY Times article] at a special briefing for the Washington press corp.