What lies? McCain said it and we all understood what his rhetorical meaning was - he wants to be in Iraq for the long, long haul. And many of us disagree with that because we simply don't think that's worth the cost. We understand that his "100 years" remark was symbolic language - we aren't complete morons - we just disagree with what the remark symbolizes.

As for you comparisons to NATO and Korea the difference is that in Europe and Korea, the situation stabilized and the fighting stopped - despite the very occasional clash along the Korean DMZ, there has been nothing like the Iraqi insurgency in either theater of operations. Neither hot war or cold peace involved a guerrilla war.

Also, another flaw in your analogy is that in the '40s and '50s the United States was still the ascendent economic power in the world and we could afford an indefinite occupation to keep the peace AND take care of things at home. That's no longer the case and Americans are becoming increasingly frustrated with incompetent leadership that would prefer to squander our resources abroad instead of spending them here at home.

um, your post seemed like alot of empty flag-waving and chest-thumping to me... do you have any actual facts to back up your assertions, or should we just take your word for it? I think you need to learn the difference between fact and opinion - something that the incompetent neocon architects of this failed war learned a little too late. blah, blah, blah "awesome power" yak yak yak "total commitment" yawn. give it a rest dude. your stale rhetoric is about 4 years too late.

That's an urban legend and a load of hooey. Get your facts straight.

Hey numbnuts - everybody who knows anything about American politics already knows that Byrd was once in the Klan - for less than a year, over 60 years ago - and that he's repudiated the organization and his own involvement in it many times since then. Do you really think that digging up dirt from 1942 matters to anybody today? Get a life, dude. Nobody fucking cares.

Your Obama policy question is both bizarre and laughably ignorant - the President doesn't get to set the rules and make the appointments in Congress. Read the Constitution sometime, numbnuts. lol

...and look at all the negative attention it's drawn to the nutty anti-Obama conspiracists out there. Well done, Mr. Remnick!

I'm as liberal as they come and I thought the New Yorker cover was hillarious.

To be fair, the word "used" doesn't appear anywhere in the origial ad copy - that was Tracy Clark-Flory's interpretation of the original text.

Oh no! The auto industry has finally stepped over the line and used sex to sell cars! Who will be the next industry to stoop to such vile and unprecedented violations of our pure, puritannical American imaginations? I sure hope the brewing industry doesn't begin exploiting the sexuality of young women to sell their products, too. Heavens to Betsy! What is becoming of our great nation!

Here's a thought - I bet the young woman in that ad actually got paid for her participation. And she probably made alot more than Tracy Clark-Flory makes for a week's worth of ginned-up feminist "outrage". lol

Dressing and behaving outlandishly only makes it easier for the press and middle America to dismiss you and your cause as part of a luntaic fringe - it's much more effective to dress normally, behave yourself and keep your message clear and simple. There's nothing wrong with direct action and protest, but when you make it easy for the rightwing to lampoon you and paint you as a crackpot, then you're just wasting your time.

And your BF's fiance is an asshole.

You deserve each other.

What horrible people you are.

ironically, those protest zones got more coverage than code pink did during the 2004 presidential conventions.

You hit the nail on the head when you used the word "tired" - this whole critique is as tired as the original, lame "cars = sex" equation. What I, personally, object to here is ginning up fake outrage for something as tame and lame as this ad. It just feels like a big waste of time to me. Anyone who doesn't get that this kind of advertisting is dumb and offensive by now is never gonna get it... and so what?

I wouldn't touch that crap with a 10 foot pole. I've been to Budvar - I'll take Kozel Velkapopvica instead.

Having grown up in the 70s myself, I'm surprised that Mary Elizabeth Williams is just discovering the sexual undercurrent of ABBA's music now - I mean they were like the soundtrack of the swing set back then, when the mere word "Swedish" was a code word for some kind of imagined, unbridled sexuality.

Why can't Ikea furniture be as durable and well-crafted as ABBA's music? What's the deal here, Sweden?

Get over yourself. I supported Edwards and then Hillary and now Obama and you don't see me whining like a big baby. Do you want four more years of GOP misrule just because your feelings are hurt? Grow up.

a Jew who voted for Hitler - deluded and dangerous to his own people.

We're called Parents.

That isn't gonna change anytime soon unless the drug companies find a way to manufacture an over-the-counter baby sitter/ weekend getaway combo.

... then we deserve the shitty leadership we get.

Welcome to Salon. Now please stop undercutting Obama with all your wishy-washy "It was a great week for Obama BUT..." commentary. We get it. Republicans like to use smear tactics. This isn't really news to Salon readers. Please stop giving the rethugs ammo. That kind of hedging is just lame. We trust you - take a chance. State some bold opinions. Don't be a pussy. Good luck!

It won't solve anything or help in any way, but I've been reading a lot of John Updike lately and that's all I could come up with.