The Salonistas all seem to say, "You can't justify rendition on the basis that Clinton did it. If Clinton's CIA did it, it was as wrong then as it is now."

Fine. I don't recall saying that "Rendition is questionable, but we say it is okay because Clinton said it way okay." I don't recall EVER justifying anything on the basis that "Clinton did it."

All I say is that the Salonistas' moral outrage, their claimed moral superiority over the Bush Administration, is a joke when it becomes clear that the Bush Administation wasn't even the first to initiate it. You can debate the details of rendition, you can argue over strategic matters. Just don't try to claim moral superiority. The way that Salon readers talk about the Bush Administration, one might think that it was Republicans who were strapping on bomb vests and walking into crowded Baghdad markets, or planting explosives on trains in Europe. Sorry; it is our enemies who are doing that.

That was a good one.

Thanks, Joan, for the sanctimonious scolding of Karl Rove for any political name-calling.

Of course, it came right after you had written; " Karl Rove... later managed to get a recovering-alcoholic, AWOL-for-a-year, failed rich-kid 'oil man' elected Texas governor twice, then president twice (although his candidate did lose the popular vote first time out.)"

Julie is the person who wanted you all to know that "www.whitehousechristmas.com" was selling confederate flag christmas tree ornaments. She apparently wanted you to think that the Bush White House (Darth Cheney?) was so insensitive that they would use a White House web site or gift shop to sell confederate flag items.

Now Julie might be a stupid, gullible left-wing web-surfer. That's the likely explanation. Or she may be a clever guerilla-marketer.

She's one or the other. Because in fact, the website "www.whitehousechristmas.com isn't a governmental web site at all. It is a private web site owned by some compnay called "Infosoft" from Milwaukee.

Lou Cannon, perhaps?

Geeze. The only people in desperate need of a fact-checking reporter, if not adult supervision, are Krugman and Herbert.

But here is some more writing on the topic anyway:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjNkZDZjMWU0YjgxZDFjMmJiZjJlMjg0MTg2NTdlNzk=

We have reigned in Gaddafi, checked North Korea and liquidated Saddam Hussein and his sons. We have stood up to Hamas and have forced bin Laden into hiding in caves. Moreover we have exposed the waste, fraud and abuse at the UN and at the World Bank.

With this kind of record against the world's tyrants, does America's standing in the world need any "restoration"?

Oh, I've been paying attention alright. I know that among the Western Europeans who hated us were folks like Chirac and Villepin. Good. I'd rather have Sarkozy like us. If Cherie Blair, a personal friend of the Gores and the Clintons hates us, I'm okay with that. If we get sideways with Europe and Russia over their doing business with Iran, I think that's a good thing. If Mark Malloch Brown, the consummate UN insider hates us, I say that's great! If the editors of the Guardian dislike us, even better!

I know Venezuela's leader hates us. Is that what you're talking about? Cuba perhaps? Are you worried that Assad in Syria or Mugabe in Zimbabwe don't like us? Are you worried that the leaders of Hamas or Fatah have a few issue with us? Ha!

I just wonder what sort of reading that Democrat Senator Robert Byrd is doing today. Probably not something about his own history as a Grand Cyclops and Kleagle in the West Virgina Ku Klux Klan.

And gosh! Byrd is not some long-dead figure who has not held office for decades. (Right? Maybe there actually is some question about that.) Byrd is the current President Pro Tem of the United States Senate!

There is something profoundly offensive, even nauseating, about former Enron advisor Paul Krugman. Oh, I know what it is. It is who he is and what he says.

Like, where did that come from?

Salon readers can't get away with smearing the Federalist Society, which was originally a law student organization, and now is composed of law students, law school faculty, a variety of other legal scholars, judges and practicing attorneys. The Federalist Society is routinely honored to have Justices of the Supreme Court, the Circuit Courts of Appeal, Solicitors General and leading Justice Department leaders to speak and lead discussions.

Is that someone's idea of a fringe organization?