It's bothered me all this time that the secertary to the head of the Alabama National Guard said that the information in the discredited document was true.

Memo to the media covering the 2008 presidential campaign: If derogatory information about a candidate comes out, look first at how the opposition will benefit from the news to find the possible motive for it being leaked.

As for CBS' motives, recall these lines from the movie "Network," as Ned Beatty as network chairman Arthur Jensen lectures Peter Finch as anchorman Howard Beale:

Jensen: "We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies...The world is a business...And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel."

Beale: "But why me?

Jensen: "Because you're on television, dummy."

A pardon for Charles Graner is an appropriate addition to the list of things I'd like Barack Obama to do the moment he takes office. And by that I mean right there at the podium, after he's sworn in but before he gives his inaugural address. Besides pardoning Graner, Obama should then sign executive orders making torture illegal, requiring warrants for wiretaps, banning rendition of prisoners to foreign countries, and countermanding every other extraconstitutional authority the Bush administration claimed to have had. Do it right there in front of Bush and Cheney. Then start his speech. Wouldn't that be great?

Deborah Lawrence ought to gather up some elves and a big workshop to crank out millions of those ornaments. She would find ample willing buyers!

You neglected to mention the "Daily Show" bit of a few years ago where Rob Corddry is driving a stretch Hummer around town and has to stop for gas. He's using a squeegee to clean the back window, then gets into a compact car and drives around to the front of the Hummer and jumps out to squeegee the windshield! LOL. They had a Hummer display at the San Francisco Auto Show last week and I told one of the hostesses there, "I don't want the government to spend $25 billion to save THAT!"

Coulter says deficits are horrible because a Democrat is in the White House and that deficits have risen with every president. Joy Behar rightly points out that President Clinton handed President Bush a surplus, which he instantly squandered. Coulter's response: That was a surplus "only on paper." So, isn't a deficit a deficit "only on paper?"

Ann, we won't know if we'll miss you until you go away.

VA Secretary Shinseki should order the VA to give the reporter his recording back. If he doesn't, President Obama should give the order. This is unconscionable. And as to the commenter who raised questions about the vet's story (i.e. questioning his claim that he was overdosed with morphine twice), those are aspects of the story that the reporter would be expected to verify before broadcasting his report. But he didn't get a chance when he was intimidated into surrendering his Flash card.

The DHS was correct that right wing extremists, including some from military ranks, are a serious terrorist threat, not right wing pundits on cable TV and talk radio, who howled in protest that the DHS report was targeting them.

Good work, Matt Kennard. Your article proves the need for serious investigative journalism by smart, dedicated and hard-working reporters, not bloggers who merely bloviate about the work of other journalists.