I am pretty sure you were not talking to me about the guitar, but you are clearly right: House bought the guitar for himself. If one the off-chance you were talking to me, well, I re-read what I wrote and saw that I was not very clear at all, suggesting that he was surprised to get a guitar, rather than the viewer.

Also: two posts on a Saturday evening? A post, then coming back to see what others have written in the past, oh, half-hour, just to post a "timely" response to something not even written about what I wrote? Jesus my life sucks when my girlfriend is out of town.

The writing on t.v. is pretty bad. Except on the shows I like. Those are well written. But yeah, all the others are rubbish.

Not to underestimate the Democratic Party's astonishing ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, but *damn* these Republican debates are encouraging.

I believe that the ambassador was attempting to describe the war from the Iraqi perspective.

For Americans, from the prewar run up period when the Republicans and the Administration decided to use Iraq to smear Democrats as being weak to right now, Iraq has been about domestic politics. How can I use Iraq to attack the other party? To much weakened effect, the Republicans still try to paint Democrats as losers, as soft, as incapable of defending America. Democrats have, in turn, happily learned to use Iraq as a way to batter Bush as arrogant and stupid.

Almost naturally, those seeking a middle ground justification to leave Iraq, like Dem presidential candidate Dodd, blame Iraqis: it's okay if we pull our troops out because the Iraqi government hasn't come decide how to properly divide oil revenues between the contending ethnic and sectarian groups and can't figure out how to train effective Iraqi forces in great numbers. Nevermind that we couldn't do those things either. The point is to create a way to justify to ourselves leaving after having destabilized the country.

Or, of course, you can also keep banging away at the broken drum of "fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here." But look how no Republican supporter of the war utters the word "draft" despite all the evidence that our volunteer army is breaking down and needs reinforcements! Not to mention that we don't have nearly enough troops in Iraq to fight a proper counterinsurgency campaign. (Alternatively, too many troops to do it El Salvador-style and focus on training local fighters and swallow some nasty El Salvador-style brutality. Perhaps because that might entail firing contractors like Blackwater and return to using Special Forces personnel to train local forces.) Clearly, Republicans are not serious about winning in Iraq, no matter their heated rhetoric. They are only serious about tying to win elections here in America, where its easy to call Democrats pussy terrorist-lovers but hard to explain why we need a draft if we want to win.

For Iraqis, it's different. Even if we started pulling our troops out tomorrow, Iraqis would still live in a war zone. Most likely, they are still in the first half. Recovering from their awful civil war will take many, many years -- if, in fact, Iraq as it has existed for eighty years recovers at all. I am not sure what proposed solution would or could save Iraq, but I am sure that after America has left Iraq and returned to its traditional blissful ignorance of foreign affairs, Iraq will still be struggling with the mess we wrought.

Substitute teacher Jack Black forms a rock band out of the class he teaching. The rest of the class is sad because they are in the band. Jack Black then says, "Just because you aren't in the band, doesn't mean you're not *in the band*." Then he assigns the rest of the class jobs such as manager, tailor, roadie, etc.

This is what Snow is saying. Just because Bush isn't in the war doesn't mean he's not *in the war*.

This from a guy who crassly mocked the pleas of a woman he put to death.

Jackass.

The judge's ruling was quite correct. Padilla's treatment while incarcerated, though disturbing and unconstitutional(in my interpretation, at least), is immaterial to whether he gave aid to al-Qaida. Simply put, his confinement occurred after the final element of his crime was committed, if indeed he committed any crime. It could only be material as to a confession if any such confessions were admitted into evidence. It is not relevant as to whether Padilla is fit to stand trial, because that is not a matter for the jury to determine (at least in my jurisdiction; I do very little federal practice). Even if one were to grant his confinement some small degree of materiality, evidence concerning his confinement should be inadmissible as it is more prejudicial than probative as to any relevant matter, i.e., whether he is guilty of committing the crimes for which he stands accused.

Salon already keeps count of how many letters each handle has posted and, of those letters, how many have received stars.

I don't know if anyone has thought of this already, but why can't Salon keep the 'anonymous' option and keep record of how many anonymous postings each handle? Those letter wouldn't have to be posted along with the person's other, non-anonymous letters. Still, someone could click on marktgarten, for instance, and see how many times I have published anonymously.