As the successor to George Bush weighs possible Attorney General choices, Patrick Fitzgerald ought to be at the top of the list.

So why in spite of this, do multiple comments here say it can never happen because Bush won’t go for it?

Just curious.

You seems to be one of the few here who doesn’t take himself/herself too seriously.

Perhaps I overreacted, my apologies.

As a pretty new blogger i’m not sure if i’m following you…I haven’t seen a whole lot of flaming here..some disagreements yes, but not alot of name calling…nothing like a whitty response though to make your day..
Then you said:
However recently and I won’t mention any names there has been a serious amount of off topic chat room like exchanges between posters…

yea, but Bill, if i understand your comments..How else to build a community than some chatting amongst bloggers? I have found a rich colorful group of people contributing to today’s news and events and personal worlds also being discussed.. I think that is what a community on line is like…
So i’ll bet no one attacks you for age,race or anything else here..Just tell us what you think about politics and let’s talk..BTW.. I’m a lifelong Dem so we probably agree on alot of things..
Regards Bill

Blackwater charges the government$.I,222 per day for the services of a private military contractor. This is equivalent to $445,000 per year, over six times more than the cost of an equivalent U.S. soldier.

So, $445000 / 6 = the equivalent U.S. soldier would cost less than $74166 per year, which is a cost of $74166 / 365 = $203 per day for the full-time soldier; versus in the thousand dollar range per day for the ‘temp’ Blackwater contractor.

I can’t tell how much if any non-salary benefits compensation is figured into this, but on the other hand, full-time soldiers could be deployed to other duties when they’re not assigned to DOState duties.

I used to come to this site because first of all I like the topics that were presented especially written by Larry and of course sometimes by Leslie and Susan. I also liked the stimulating posts where I learned at lot about the current issues of the day being discussed here.

However recently and I won’t mention any names there has been a serious amount of off topic chat room like exchanges between posters. While the right of free speech still exists in the country, I find these exchanges to be way more destructive than constructive and not even very entertaining.

Since I don’t have the time to do chat room type quick responses I don’t feel there is much I can add to discussions on this site.

If someone doesn’t agree with a point I or anyone else has made, I welcome a challenging viewpoint not an attack on my character, my age race or anything else.

If I want to get attacked all I have to do is go to a right wing moonbat site, which I did once, and say ” I am a curious Democrat can we discuss an issue”? I received an email from the site administrator banning me from the site. So much for “free speech”.

I feel an sense that tolerance for discussing opposing views on this site has become less tolerant and exchanges are more combative than constructive.

I used to post on Huffpo but the same thing has happened there, unless your are online all the time you can’t get a word in edge wise.

I would hate to see that happen here, because this site has always seemed more of a community than a lot of others where most of the posting is just blowing off steam.

So please for the sake of the community could we have a little more civility??

Master-Contractor: Don’t leave home without it.

Good legal advice Hoopster!

“The initial State Department report of last month’s killing spree involving Blackwater employees was written by a Blackwater contractor working in the U.S. Embassy’s Tactical Operations Center in Baghdad. The report was distributed under the letterhead of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security.”

LOOOOOOOOL! Who’s the spinmeister, again, Rob?

After listening to Waxman Committee hearing on Blackwater (still in progress), and reviewing FDL on-the-fly approximate transcription, it doesn’t appear that anyone knows what the cost would be for military to provide the services to DOState that Blackwater is hired for. The closest they got was something vague from Griffin:

Griffin: The cost for a State Department special agent to be deployed in a high threat area is $500,000.

which is not quite the same thing.

I would not be surprised if GAO or some other in Fed could estimate and find the military could do it for less, and hypothetically greater accountability. The potential for cost savings would be in the area of compensation outside of salary, where the military’s costs can be spread over a much greater number of individuals. You know, buy bulk. Also the military, internally at least, does not have a profit margin.