As some other readers have observed, Michelle Goldberg seems to be affected by Neo-con sympathies and other anti-Progressive biases. Maybe like Bob Woodward, she's currying favor with new sources for her next book. Please don’t let her be a Judy Miller in your midst and keep her away from political stories. I spend money to subscribe to Salon because I trust your integrity, but when I see somebody reaching down and bending over backward to make a tortured case that attacking Joe Leiberman of all people might alienate moderates, I’m the one left feeling alienated--from you.

It's articles like this that make me appreciate Salon as a progressive news source with integrity in both its journalism and its values. It builds trust.

It's good to see all the regular writers back after the holidays, but alot of news coverage was missed as massive stories broke over the holidays (probably by design). Tim did a good job with the War Room briefs, but I wanted the regular hard news coverage and features the rest of your crew produces, especially when you consider how big the stories were that were breaking. I'd appreciate it if you would plan ahead to keep some of your best writers on duty so that the powers that be can't slip bad news out into public view without remark--at least not in this corner of the media. I read Salon as intensely (or wanted to)over the holidays as I do at any other time of year. Movie reviews and "food porn" articles weren't enough.

Didn't Bush make some recess appointments in 2004 or 2005? And aren't those recess appts coming to their end about now? If so, I'd like to see some follow-up stories about what happens next. Does Bush just "re-up" his flunkys with another recess appointment?

Just want to say that I appreciate Salon publishing Juan Cole’s article. I feel like--as an American--I get very little exposure to points of view about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that aren’t (obviously to any intelligent person) biased toward the Israeli side of the argument.

For me, the more I feel that information or a point of view is being censored or suppressed, the more weight I feel it must have in truth or veracity. I listen more closely. The paradox is that by suppressing Cole and others who share his outlook, Israeli defenders may be giving his ideas more power, not less.

Required reading for the year(s) ahead: "Anatomy of Fascism" written by Robert Paxton, a professor who has been teaching about the topic for 3 decades at Columbia.

We're not there yet, but alot of the precursors of fascism are in place: contempt for law (or the Constitution in this time and place), contempt for compromise, contempt for politics, a sense that government has failed, the primacy of the group over individual and universal rights, a sense of overwhelming crisis, rampant Nationalism, hatred and loathing of the left, an Authoritarian leader who has popular support, and a political language that is deeply violent in it's language and implications (read any Ann Coulter lately?).

Any of this sound familiar? Those last two (masses of supporters or "blackshirts", and a language of violence) lead to the last symptom of a true fascist system--violent suppression of political opponents and other scapegoats by individuals acting without official government direction. If popular violence against “enemies” doesn’t break out, then we’ll merely have an authoritarian regime rather than a fascist one.

I hope the question of what kind of "regime" we'll have in place can be avoided by a Democratic route this fall…

I’m concerned to hear a few here talking about going out and trying to arrange their teenage boy's first sexual experience. My dad tried that on me one summer when I was 15 when I was going to visit him for a month. Pulled up with a "surprise" for me, which was his girlfriend's daughter, who had been chosen for me to lose my virginity to. I felt so much pressure to have sex with this girl ("Did you fuck her yet, have you fucked her, did you fuck her?") that I got physically sick the first week I was there, then was impotent when I did try to have sex with her. I was ashamed and humiliated and came to believe that I had sexual function problems for the next two or three years.

Whatever you think about adult women having sex with teenage boys, parents should definitely stay out of their kid's sexual experiences.

I'm happy to see the attitude of this article toward corporations: acknowledging that they can be and are a force for great destruction, but also a force that can be harnessed for good as an agent of reform.

I'm so tired of progressives who bitch that the presence of corporations in the coalition that supports the Democratic party shows that Democrats are no different from Republicans (Hello Nader voters). That attitude is informed by mindless anti-corporatism. I expect a Democratic candidate to express progressive values by confronting the powers that be (like corporations), but also to harness them when they can to serve the greater good.