I think the issue of accountability goes deeper than merely whether or not Gonzales has committed any crimes. By most accounts, morale at the DOJ is low. Even Gonzales has more or less copped to this. Furthermore, in the best light, Gonzales' testimony shows that he is a poor administrator with a cavalier approach to the most serious aspects of his job, such as when he approved seeking the death penalty after reviewing a file for 5-10 minutes and was unable to offer any details as to why he made the decision he did. Yet Bush refuses to hold Gonzales accountable for his poor performance -- or even acknowledge that Gonzales' tenure has been, at best, rocky.

Way back when, my great grandfather, whose first name was Haywood, wanted a boy to be Haywood Jr. His first child was a girl, so when he and my great grandmother conceived their second child, he must have been sure it would be a boy. Finally, Haywood Jr.! Well, things didn't work out that way; instead, the couple had a second daughter. Not to be deterred, my great-grandfather Haywood plowed ahead and named his baby girl "Haywoodeen." Even in the 1920s that was a screwy name. When she married my grandfather and officially changed her last name to his, she took the opportunity to change her first name, slightly modifying her maiden name into a more reasonable first name: Vicky.

Even at this early stage in the game, a poll found that 52% of the public WILL NOT CONSIDER VOTING FOR HILLARY. The trend in Presidential elections is for the candidates to invariably be less popular as the election cycle progresses. This is naturally the result of all of the negative advertising and press coverage that the candidates receive during the whole dog and pony show that is a modern presidential campaign.

First, Bush gained popularity the closer he got to the 2004 election. Only afterward did he slip back down to below 50%.

Second, most of the public has had little contact with HC since 2000. New York independents polled the same way, but many came to vote for her anyway. People think she is some kind of radical. Once they listen to her, they realize that she is very centrist, on many issues probably to the right of European right-wingers like David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy. Of course, that's why salonistas tend to dislike her.

Her real problem, as I see it, is the blinkered stupidity of leftists who won't bother to vote Democrat unless the candidate hates free trade as much as they do. Or, worse, vote for Ralph Nader (here's a hint, if America wanted to elect Nader, he would be a Democratic). Then the Republican gets elected and guts bureaucratic oversight of corporations so that the corporations can go back to dumping toxic waste into rivers and newly appointed federal judges sign off on restrictions that essentially make it impossible to provide abortion services. Like Lord Dark Helmet said, evil will always win because good is dumb.

Rove looked a lot less creepy back in the day. It's as if his body morphed as a result of a lifetime of evil.

How dare Petraeus attempt to forge ties with Sunni Iraqi by finding common ground with some insurgents so as to eliminate the worst, most violent elements of the insurgency! Just so that we can accomplish the goals of (1) troop reduction while (2) slowly ending the violence. Why can't he be content with leaving the Iraqis to their fate after we destabilized their country? Jackass.

I'd like to hear the "Three H's" husband's perspective -- "I have often found it necessary to beat my wife when she gets sick. It's like they say, 'the body is a temple which you have to hit sometimes.'"

In most jurisdictions, to successfully assert the defense of entrapment, one must not be predisposed to committing the alleged crime. That is part of the reason why it is so rarely successful.

If our invasion and occupation of Iraq stabilized the Middle East and destroyed al-Qaida, then our losses of blood and treasure would be a small price to pay. Just like the blood and treasure spent destroying the Axis powers was a small price to pay for freeing Europe and East Asia/Western Pacific.

The problem is that our invasion and occupation of Iraq has served only to destablized further the Middle East and to provide al-Qaida and similar groups with a great enlistment pitch. We have inadvertantly boosted Iranian influence as well. American prestige has diminished. Moreover, our leadership has shown nothing that suggests they have any idea as to how this mess can be fixed. Enough talk about glorious victory, Mr. Minority Leader. That moment has passed.

You know what I love about the right wing? They are so scared of black people -- so paranoid about black crime -- that they are seriously worried about black people voting twice. Nevermind the fact that harassment, alienation and plain-old sucky voting infrastructure in black neighborhoods actually results in black under-representation at the polls ... no, the real danger is all those black people waiting hours to vote, then getting back in line to wait hours to vote a second time.

To be fair to Mr. Ahmadinejad, if Iran kills all its homosexuals, then Iran wouldn't have homosexuals like American does. I mean, he can dream, can't he?