Opinion - HuffingtonPost.com

One can well imagine them popping champagne corks at the Department of Energy, along 'K' Street in Washington, in the inner sanctums of oil patch corner offices.

This Thursday evening, approximately 0.05 percent of the United States population will gather together for an arcane ritual in which they will prematurely anoint the next Democratic and Republican presidential nominees.

Courage in politics is rarely the spontaneous type John McCain described as "that rare moment of unity between conscience, fear, and action, when something deep within us strikes the flint of love, of honor, of duty, to make the spark that fires our resolve."

It's not like I'm a fan of the guy.

The movie Charlie Wilson's War is good light hearted entertainment which can also trigger a serious discussion about a pivotal and painful event in recent history. It is based on a book which records the true story, a sober, almost unbelievable account of one man's power to earmark billions of dollars with the help of the Speaker of the House whose motivation was to protect a "good buddy" from embarrassment.

Let's start with what I think is going to happen in the upcoming year. But let me first note that I am not a big fan of projecting what specific numbers will be, or where the market will wind up or where interest rates are going to be, or any of that jazz. There are simply too many variable to consider for there to be any hope of accuracy.

Some weeks ago former Bush political operative Karl Rove put it bluntly to Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama; win Iowa or lose the Democratic nomination.

I just read my New Year's resolutions from last year, and I'm sorry to say that I managed to carry out almost none of them. I vowed to lose two pounds; I didn't. I was going to cook a timballo; I didn't. I promised myself I would leave America Online, and I almost succeeded; but after deciding where to go, I discovered that I couldn't even get my own name as a handle, so that was pretty much that. Last year I even resolved to become a better human being, but then I promptly forgot all about it.

"The thing we ask ourselves these days is, 'What will the Americans do next?'" This was said in 2004 by a London editor of wide experience; how strange for an American to hear! For, though gently spoken, the words suggested the horror of a Colossus; a feeling evidently shared by allies who knew the United States as a friend in friendlier days.

A lot of men don't like Hillary. A lot of men say they don't want to vote for Hillary--even Democratic men. The new L.A. Times/Bloomberg poll, released Dec. 28, shows that only 19 per cent of Democratic men favor Clinton in upcoming caucuses and primaries - less than one in five. The implications for Hillary are ominous: since she can't expect Republican men to vote for her, how can she win the election?

Speculation runs rampant as we approach the final hours until the Iowa caucuses.

In the film "Charlie Wilson's War," the nitwit and deeply corrupt congressman elevated to heroic status through Tom Hanks' ever-charming performance has a meeting with Pakistan's then-dictator Zia ul-Haq in which they broker a deal for a joint effort to "save" Afghanistan from the Soviets.

Oh, how I love the day before the Iowa caucuses. It's the last day when the Democrats have nothing to do but try to impress Democrats, and I like to be impressed.

Democracy is looking sick just now. At the start of 2008, Churchill's nostrum that it is the worst form of government "except for the others" is being tested close to destruction, assassinated in Pakistan, sabotaged in Kenya, massacred in Iraq, strangled in Russia, ridiculed in South Africa and purchased in America. But then it depends on what you mean by democracy.

Next week, I am really going to miss The New York Times.

Written by Mary Olivella, Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, and Joan Blades

What events or actions had the most positive or negative impact on the likelihood that the nation and the world will act in time to avoid catastrophic warming? Here are my picks:

That's the quote of a shock trauma expert, puzzling over the ever-more-puzzling case of the assassination -- or bumping into the sunroof lever -- of Benazir Bhutto, as reported in this Washington Post story. The details get progressively more troubling: no freezing of the crime scene (just the opposite: a strange hurry in hosing it down shortly after the killing/bumping), the fear that pervades the physicians who worked in the emergency room on that case.

Here's what we know about Friday in Iowa: That noise we'll hear is the "giant sucking sound" of the candidates, advisers, reporters and other tourists getting out of Fort Dodge and all the other hick towns. It'll be time to say goodbye to the white people of this unrepresentative state and move on to the the white people of equally unrepresentative New Hampshire.

2008 Predictions from BorowitzReport.com:

I have a presentation called "two circles" that I give to progressive groups and candidates; essentially, trying to make them understand and be more comfortable with the new world of power that is emerging, occasionally conflicting but ultimately integrating with the legacy world they are far more familiar with.

As we ring out 2007, and ring in 2008, our bloggers are looking back on the year that was (goodbye "wide stance," bald Britney, juiced up ballplayers, Melamine-tainted pet food, recalled toys, heavily-armed school shooters, Karl Rove's historical revisionism, Miss Teen USA's views on education ("like such as..."), Bill Clinton's fears of "rolling the dice," Don Imus apologizing, Michael Vick apologizing, David Vitter apologizing, Marie Osmond dancing, Lindsay Lohan rehabbing, Alberto Gonzales testi-lying, Blackwater thugs, and fired US Attorneys) and looking ahead at the year to come (hello primaries, conventions, November 4, and the end of the Bush presidency), as well as offering up their New Year's resolutions. Here are a few of mine:

2007 was the year I finally got old. Either that or the vast majority of the music that came out this year was crap. Or maybe it's a combination of the two. I dutifully checked out the Arcade Fire and Lily Allen and LCD Soundsystem and Bright Eyes albums and tossed them aside with a dismissive "Feh." If I heard M.I.A.'s album, I don't remember it. I didn't even bother to check out the new ones by Radiohead (whom I've never liked) and Prince (who I've loved for over 20 years), and the damn things were FREE.

2008 must be a year of profound change in America. The world is threatened as the planet's population exponentially explodes. Billions demanding more and more of less and less beckon for science not fundamentalism to lead. Seven years of evangelical ruin has left America internationally paralyzed and domestically polarized. Science holds the answer while our own elections, coupled with term limits, hold our hope.

In the last seven years this administration has done little to confront the looming danger that our consumption of fossil fuels presents to the nation's environment, economy and national security.

There is something called the national interest. It is not an ideology. It is not the possession of a single cabal of self-appointed imperialists. It is not achieved by substituting consensus for principle. It is not "bipartisanship" for its own sake or in pursuit of bad policy. And it is not a euphemism for oil.

The soon to be unassed (and not a war too soon) Neo Kids on the Block have not only been the most palpable group of opportunists the country has seen but also among shrewdest students of history, having risen to their profiteering heights by gathering all the information they could about the sheer gullibility of the American masses and using it as though they were dexterous pinball wizards and the citizenry the dumb shiny marble, pinging the populace around the ideological bumpers with their bucking pelvises, hyper-reactive flippers and underhanded savvy.

It's hard to get angry at The New York Times hiring crack analyst William Kristol for their op-ed pages. Not hard because their hiring doesn't deserve the anger, but rather because after hyperventilating it's hard to do most anything.