I dunno, I guess I don't think it's that bad. The guy talking to him was saying permits and red tape slow down or halt projects, and Obama responded with by agreeing that things were "not as shovel-ready as we expected."  I've heard way more offensive stuff from Obama.

Good video!  I think there are many (most??) people don't see a contradiction between science and religion, but you don't hear that view very often.

I disagree, I think the fact of the war is the problem.  Then again, I've never provided legal council to a sitting president.  (...but the night is young!)

When I see Mexican immigrants yelling and waving signs at the yearly downtown protest, I always think ummmm isn't it the Mexican government they should be mad at?  But I think, well, except for U.S. drug policy, that's our fault.  At that point I usually drown our nations' collective sorrows in a margarita.

I left a question.. and I have LOTS MORE!  So I'd love to have more episodes where we can ask questions, it's a great idea!!

In my job, I do (much less fancy) non-government investigations. Friends and coworkers often whisper requests for me to "look something up" for them in databases that are supposed to be accessed for specific legal purposes only. 

In the FBI, I can't help but assume that many agents encounter similar situations...  If the people asking them to "look something up" are fellow federal employees or even political figures, and these quick searches aren't being monitored, seems like it would be simple to perform and justify all kinds of invasive and baseless searches.

Somehow that seems almost worse than rape.

Are there complaints on the ground re: women in combat?

That polar bear is adorable!!

Try watching this without crying.

I voted for McCain for ONE reason - I thought "universal" healthcare from Obama would be more damaging than any warmongering or other damage McCain could do.  However, I figured that if Obama was elected, at least we would see Guantanamo closed, wars in the Middle East halted, and the Patriot Act repealed.  

...Yeah.

LOVE IT!!  But it reminds me of a disturbing actual CIA project, Acoustic Kitty (seriously, that's what it was called) - Per Wikipedia:

Acoustic Kitty was a CIA project launched by the Directorate of Science & Technology in the 1960s attempting to use cats in spy missions. A battery and a microphone were implanted into a cat and an antenna into its tail. Due to problems with distraction, the cat's sense of hunger had to be addressed in another operation. Surgical and training expenses are thought to have amounted to over $20 million.

The first cat mission was eavesdropping on two men in a park outside the Soviet compound on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington, D.C. The cat was released nearby, but was hit and killed by a taxi almost immediately. Shortly thereafter the project was considered a failure and declared to be a total loss.

I totally agree about the "father figure" thing.. Too much power is already concentrated in the executive branch. 

But isn't counting on a "good" president somewhat akin to counting on "good" federal employees to save us?  The great thing about free markets is that even nasty people can contribute to society just by pursuing their own self-interest (within a framework of enforced private property rights).

Reading many of the comments above, it looks like not a lot has changed, (except the ethnicities of the people we want to keep out):

Few of their children in the country learn English ... The signs in our streets have inscriptions in both languages ... Unless the stream of their importation could be turned they will soon so outnumber us that all the advantages we have will not be able to preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious.
-Benjamin Franklin on German immigration to Pennsylvania

We should build a wall of brass around the country.
- John Jay regarding “Catholic alien invaders,” 1750s

What means the paying of the passage and emptying out upon our shores such floods of pauper emigrants — the contents of the poor house and the sweepings of the streets? — multiplying tumults and violence, filling our prisons, and crowding our poor-houses, and quadrupling our taxation...?
- Lyman Beecher, on English immigrants, 1834

The enormous influx of alien foreigners will in the end prove ruinous to American workingmen, by REDUCING THE WAGES OF LABOR to a standard that will drive them from the farms and workshops altogether.
- Labor organizer's opinion article in the Philadelphia Sun, 1854

I LOVE tornado dog!!  And Miracle Poodle!!!  They should have named her Shirataki.  

I always worry a little when I see these Asian zoos with orphaned tigers though.. I don't trust them with tigers, ligers, or any other magical potion ingredient.

I'm in Seattle - We voted down the plastic bag ban just last year, thanks to a referendum.

But my landlord says Seattle will fine our entire apartment complex if they find recyclables in our trash...  To be on the safe side, I think I'll start tossing all my garbage in the recycling dumpster; I'm sure the city can find a biofriendly way to re-purpose all that used kitty litter.