Here's the hut:

"No end, and no apparent limit, to the bashing of Cheney and Rumsfeld. Still, no word from Mark Benjamin, supporting his allegation...

that there had been "orders" regarding torture/abuse.

The quote, from Mark Benjamin, that I have challenged: "Years of revelations, however, show that the prisoner abuse started at the top, yet nobody who ordered the abuse has ever been tried or convicted of anything."

OK, Elephant, you're right. Not one of the convicted soldiers claimed to have been directly ordered to do each specific action of prisoner torture. But now that you're done with that pin-sized strawman, do you really think that from Rumsfeld on down that this entire "policy" wasn't wink-winked into existence by those in positions of authority who knew they weren't legally culpable if it ever came out. And yet they were still encouraging of said policy. Sometimes encouragement is all the mouth-breathers of the world need (just look at the majority of "eye-for-an-eyer"s on this thread), and the higher ups knew it.

The fact that Graner (and others) had a pre-determined predilection to cruelty apparently didn't raise any red flags in the military system. And why should it. They're not exactly the best and brightest anymore, are they? They're more likely to be the last-best-hope'rs or the its-either-this-or-jail'ers. None with a lick of college or any real critical thinking skills to speak of. No wonder no one needed to issue formal "orders".

So the question is: At what point do you start doing your Nicholson "You can't handle the truth" routine so we can chuckle knowingly to ourselves thinking "Sure, it's us who can't handle the truth".

I'm surprised you even have the temerity to stick your nose into these parts anymore, seeing how completely wrong you've been about almost everything. Just add one more thing to the list, I guess.

How about Saxby Chambliss. I mean, seriously, "SAXBY"?

I know this is hard to grasp, given how the Bush administration has governed the last 8 years, but policy should flow from the POTUS, not the other way around. Just because Bush's management style was "hands-off" (just another way of saying "I have no idea what I'm doing") doesn't mean that Obama will let his staff and appointees set policy like Cheney or Rumsfeld did.

Yes, Hillary was a "hawk" during the campaign. Some might argue she was trying to make distinctions between herself and her opponent. That being said, she works for President Obama now. He will set the policy - she will figure out how to carry it out. Same thing goes for Emmanuel, Summers, and everyone else appointed to this administration. If not, they will be replaced. End of story.

I'm confident that Bush's "fire-and-forget" approach to appointments will not be the way Obama operates. He's far too precise, and the issues are far too dire, to let that happen.

Just got to get a little "hooray" in for my fav AL MVP.

Oh, yeah... College football sucks!

Just to give the "silky pony" haters on the right (Ingram, Coulter, etc.) a brain hemorrhage...

Hi Wes! Missed you!

If I still lived in CA, I'd start getting signatures right now for a "1-2-3 Props, You're Out" Prop. Or maybe a "3 Props in 10 years only", Prop.

Better yet, why not a "no-more-state-legislature" Prop, seeing as how they'd rather put everything to a majority vote, negating their need to exist for anything but budgetary reasons?

THawk, if you're going to claim that you're the only adult in the room, better to not engage in the hyperbole of calling the most populist state full of "pedophiles... engaged in illicit affairs". THAT's childish..

This has to be a first: a majority of professional athletes voting Dem? I'd love to see some numbers - the pros are notoriously pro-Repub (you know, the whole "pull the ladder up after yourself" syndrome) that it would be interesting to see where they're voting based on race.

I know Curt Schilling is voting for McCain...

Obama has apparently raised enough money to run EVERYWHERE. It's not a 50-State strategy – it's a 3,141-county strategy!

Not all inspirational speakers are communists or Nazis, idiot.

America will be fine. We're still here after 8 years of your party's incompetence! I think we'd do well to at least give the liberal "incompetents" a chance. Funny thing about the Dems: not so good at the politics - really damn good at running things.

Oh, AmericaEyes, is that a concern now? After 20 odd years of Republican financial advantages (sometimes as high as 2 to 1) now it is conservatives who are whining that, for the first time ever, the Dems have figured out a way to have more money?

How disingenuous. How petty. How bitter. The average donation to the Obama campaign is $50 and comes from millions of average, hard-working, middle-class Americans. McCain's donations mostly come from billionaires and corporations.

Explain to me again how Obama is bad for America, especially since half of us are bankrolling his candidacy?

I proudly check that box on my tax returns every year to give to public financing, never knowing who will be receiving the money, because I'm proud of my democracy. "Eyes" would rather that all our pols are bought and paid for by corporations.

..that McCain doesn't have the money to do the same.

The 2007 Red Sox would have easily demolished to 2008 Rays or Phillies. So there!

Not so much the tire-less, out-of-gas 2008 model...

You're gonna love them as the 2010 Red Sox/Yankees!!