For the reasons Benen states. It's triangulation all over again. Clinton is against the trade deal, Penn is for it. Clinton fires Penn, but not really. Playing both sides.

It seems more likely than not that Penn was told to go to the meeting so he could be "fired" for it. The whole little play was performed in the context of Clinton's tax returns, so served as a pro-working class diversion.

Penn almost makes you nostalgic for Dick Morris.

Might health reasons be in here somewhere? I've observed that when politicos resign for health reasons, it's usually for political reasons. I figure if they resign for political reasons, it's probably for health.

Penn reminds me of that SNL skit where the Chicago guys brag about their quadruple bypasses.

I have to admit that I love the trash, though I have also followed most of the issues that Greenwald mentions. That includes reading all the Hamdi and Padilla decisions, the torture memos, following obscure news threads through the internets.

I'm not entirely sure trash and real news are completely at odds, though of course there is competition for some prime media real estate. I have to say that when I'm working my crap jobs and come home I'd rather look at Britney's butt than John Yoo's evil face. Maybe because of that preference, I sometimes wonder how all that bad news could be sexed up a bit. Metaphorically speaking.

It's not like Hollywood isn't trying. There have been movies on the war and "rendition." They've bombed.

Blacks faced similar trivialization by the media until the Movement was able to dramatize, sex up if you will, the reality of discrimination.

If this administration had waterboarded a pretty white woman, torture would have ended in a day. Instead, the pretty white women are themselves torturers, the victims swarthy men, and the issue gets dropped.

How to dramatize torture? If it isn't already dramatic enough? Those memos, anyone can read those things, they aren't even that legalistic. Especially that Rumsfeld memo on Gitmo. I'm clueless.

Next Top Model is on TiVo, though.

More accurately, 1962=2008.

For those who dreaded or relished the sixties, hang onto your love beads. There's something happening here, etc.

There are major issues coalescing that are far stronger than this election.

--Global warming and resource issues.

--Global communications and the rise of international classes.

--The return to a multipolar world.

--A pendulum swing against the cultural repression waged by boomers.

It's going to be like the sixties on crack.

Hillary Clinton voted for this war, along with many men. She has never apologized, and many men have.

Women have played a role as torturers, as have men. There are some pretty sadistic, bigoted women in this world.

Women have profited from this war, as have men.

Sorry, but it is the height of irresponsibility, particularly when Clinton is running for President, to blame male ego alone for these problems. There ARE gender issues that helped lead to this war, but they are more complex than you allow at all levels.

BOTH women and men need to hold themselves accountable for the mess we are in. Women, particularly Clinton, cannot give themselves a fee pass just because they are women. That's not what we need in leaders.

"America's Top Model" is definitely boomer-approved. I watch it with the sound off while listening to Gnarls Barkely. Not so sure that's approved. That judge's white eyebrows are trippy.

There is definitely a disconnect on how the generations perceive media authority and language. Ask Joan Walsh what she thinks of the word "whore" sometime.

I have a fairly pessimistic view of the outcome of the US venture in the Iran-Iraq-Afghanistan-Pakistan region. The Iraq War was a tactical error as well as a moral failure. I do think the Great Game has some new twists though, particularly with the rise of internationalized media and elite classes. The outcome may be as much Wii as WWIII.

The greater conflict will between the haves and have-nots, particularly as resource issues continue to escalate.

Enough futurism for one day, though. I still haven't seen the last Survivor. That Amanda, whoa.

I'm haunted by that movie. I think I've only seen twice, once on the screen, once on video, but I can remember the whole of it. The second time I noticed some of overwrought direction and phrasing, but it didn't matter. Varda got everything out of Bonnaire.

I'm thinking today it would be interesting to watch Vagabond with Thelma and Louise as a kind of thematic comparison.

Rice is one of the more fascinating actors in the whole drama. She participated in the whole fabricated premise, herself contributing "mushroom cloud." But, I do think that sexism helped shoulder her aside in favor of the evil-as-Nazis Cheney and Rumsfeld. (Nope, no apologies for the Nazi analogies. I wrote it and stand by it. Imagine where we'd be if the Iraq war was as succesful as Poland for the Germans.) When Rice did assert agency, the effect on the war was better--the push for a saner level of troop strength in order to hold the gains. Still, she's one of the bad ones, if not the evil ones.

There are a lot of gendered issues from top to the bottom in this conflict. I am frankly appalled by both Rice dumping the blame on Bush to Congress--but keeping her job, and by Clinton dumping the blame on, well,.whatever man is handy the day the question is asked.

Say what you will about Joan Walsh, she pulls in the hits and the letters. I don't think it's so much the clarity of her writing, but the murkiness. She manged to both say and unsay something at the same time.

Listen to it again Steve, I thought that one guy said that vote would keep his paychecks coming.

Another good show on this point, and more generally: "Bad Voodoo's War" Frontline segment this past week, probably will be rerun.