Nifty!  Bet McCain is pissed, though.  Now they may have to pay benefits.
Pentagon to phase out unpopular ’stop-loss’ program – CNN.com

The military will phase out its “stop loss” program, the contentious practice of holding troops beyond the end of their enlistments, for all but extraordinary situations, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Wednesday.

Which, from GOP-speak, translates to giving in to every demand.  After nearly a decade (or more) of not caring at all about what the Democrats think and/or want, after two terms of GW and just storming through any legislation they want, I hardly think the GOP would know bipartisanship if it came and bit them in the ass.
Oh, and not for nothing, but Obama doesn’t need the GOP.  He’s got 59 votes in the Senate and unless they are going to filibuster every bill (which will only make certain they lose another couple seats in 2010) they are pretty much out of luck.  
I gotta say, though, I’ll bet these folks are awfully glad they didn’t use their nuclear option a few years back.

GOP senators say Obama off to bad start – CNN.com

“If this is going to be bipartisanship, the country’s screwed,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, told ABC’s “This Week.” “I know bipartisanship when I see it.”

Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, said Obama was off to “a bad beginning,” out of step with the vow of bipartisanship both men made after Obama beat out the Republican presidential nominee for the White House in November.

Still!

’nuff said!

Damn the Polls: McCain’s Irreducibles Beg to Differ | The New York Observer

“I don’t believe these polls,” said America Blanca, a 44-year-old small business owner from Miami who wore a red dress and was visibly pumped up by the rally. “Not one of them. Because it’s the kids answering the polls on the computers. Their parents are not home and they are answering and they will not be voting. I think if he is losing, it is only by a little spread. Very little.” She held the tip of her pointer finger about two inches from the tip of her thumb.

Asked if her business made more than $250,000 a year, the cap under which Obama has proposed cutting taxes, she said it did. Told about Obama’s proposal, she answered, “I don’t give a shit. I will never vote for a black man.”

So, his big test was to NOT launch his bomber, NOT start a war, and NOT disobey orders.
I gotta tell you…most days I accomplish that.

McCain reminds Biden he’s been tested in crisis – Yahoo! News

“I was on board the USS Enterprise,” McCain, a former naval aviator, said in the capital city of Harrisburg. “I sat in the cockpit, on the flight deck of the USS Enterprise, off of Cuba. I had a target. My friends, you know how close we came to a nuclear war.”

Obama details his ‘economic rescue plan’ – CNN.com

McCain told voters Monday that they should elect him because “what America needs in this hour is a fighter.”
“I will fight to take America in a new direction from my first day in office until my last. I’m not afraid of the fight, I’m ready for it,” McCain said at a rally in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Lines like this always make me think about a scene from Other People’s Money.  For those of you who haven’t seen it, Danny DeVito’s character is, basically, attempting
a hostile takeover of Gregory Peck’s company, New England Wire And Cable.  Peck’s daughter, Penelope Ann Miller is trying to help her father keep the company and prevent DeVito from slicing it
up for sale. 
Peck, more or less, has one line again and again throughout the movie.  “We’ve got to fight him!”

Thats fine and all, but he’s not actually willing to, you know, fight.

Peck:We’ve got to fight him!

Miller: Well, we could borrow some money and…

Peck: This company has never borrowed money and we aren’t going to start now!  We’ve got to fight him!

Miller: OK, we could reincorporate in Delaware where takeovers are much harder.  That doesn’t mean moving the company, just changing the location on the paperwork.

Peck: NEVER!  This company started in *some new england town* and its going to stay there!  We’ve got to fight him!

Miller: *suggestion which shows an understanding of the facts in play*

Peck: NEVER!  *statement completely ignoring the real world* FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!

After this scene, I couldn’t help but side with DeVito on some level.  Peck’s character simply didn’t understand the real world, was stuck back in 1950.  Worse, he denied the real world.  Wonderfully inspiring in that he refuses to give up any of his ideals, but absolutely useless otherwise.  A fighter who didn’t know how to fight.

And thats John McCain right there.  The man doesn’t know anything about economics and possibly even less about diplomacy and international relations. 
Sure, he has goals, I suppose, but even though he’ll never give up, he simply doesn’t know how to acheive them.

But it sure do sound good, don’t it all?

McCain: Obama lead growing because ‘life isn’t fair’ – CNN.com

Sen. John McCain jokingly said Thursday that Sen. Barack Obama’s poll numbers are rising as the economy seems to sink “because life isn’t fair.”
Sen. Barack Obama is widening his lead against Sen. John McCain in recent polls.

“He certainly did nothing for the first few days,” McCain told Fox News on Thursday. “I suspended my campaign, took our ads down, came back to Washington, met with the House folks and got on the phone, and also had face-to-face meetings.”

Now, leaving aside the questionable facts of McCain’s activities and the lack of positive results from those activities, doesn’t the old man sound a little, I dunno, whiney?

Think Progress » McCain: I’m glad I deregulated Wall Street.
Yes, thanks John.  We really needed that deregulation after those horrible, lean years under Clinton from 1992 to 1998.
Jeez, man, are you going to be just like GW and be unable to admit to a mistake???

Obama’s running mate has associations with some lobbyists (like almost all people in congress).
McCain has 5 (or 7, depending on who you count) on his campaign payroll.
Yeah, that’s the same thing…