I suppose Anderson Cooper is having what could be called an Arthur Kent moment. Some people may remember a dark-haired NBC reporter breathlessly giving us the blow by blow analysis of the first Persian Gulf War. He was dubbed "The Scud Stud". This was 15 years ago. I'm probably one of the 6 or 7 Salon readers who remembers that far back. At any rate, Mr. Kent (alas, no relation to the Smallville Kents) had his moment and moved on. And what man was not ready to prostrate himself before Ashleigh Banfield after the terrorist attacks of 2001? Who did not get that it was Ashleigh's world and the rest of us were all just living in it? Assuming Anderson Cooper is a sincere journalist seeking the truth, this bit of sudden celebrity will faze him not one bit and he will continue doing his job once the klieg lights have faded. Unlike Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, and Kellyanne Conway (who must surely be a Bizzaro clone of Coulter), all of whom continue to insult our collective intelligence and who care not one whit for the truth or anything remotely close. All of whom have held the spotlight for entirely too long past Warhol's required 15 minutes, and all of whom for the sake of what's left of sanity and decency in this country should SHUT THE HELL UP AND GO AWAY.

The Supreme Court can only render its interpretation of the law. They cannot execute the enforcement of the law. Broadly read, as Shapiro's article seems to do, one could argue that the other obvious violations of the Constitution will bring a similar rebuke, and if there were not four radicals on the Court, I would hope for that. This Court has been issuing a series of rulings that seem to be sort of an attempt to have it both ways. With ideologues like Alito and Scalia on the bench, it seems that the Court can't make up its mind about anything, which is in a way worse than having it lean too far to the left or right. It means we now have no settled law and anything is up for someone's "interpretation" of the moment depending on their agenda. It means we have a harder time arriving at the truth, and that's far worse for the country and for the rule of law in general. This is a disturbing trend.

Having said that, it's refreshing that the Court on this occasion gave an unambiguous rebuke to this corrupt administration for deciding that the law is irrelevant to the so-called "War on Terror" where the only standard that matters is, anything goes as long as we win. The Court seems to be saying, "Not so fast", and that's at least a sign that we aren't going over that cliff just yet.

A bold but ultimately empty strategy when one considers that the US simply does not have the money, manpower, or as it turns out, political will to wage war on multiple fronts particularly when one of the players has a nuclear weapon and appears willing to use it, if only to piss off the world community. Besides which, our two previous attempts at "preemption" have failed miserably. We have the quagmire in Iraq which Bush has not the sense of honor and decency to end, and we have Afghanistan which has been completely bungled. Does anyone actually believe they will get it right when the stakes are higher and the players have either the technology for a nuclear weapon, or a few ACTUAL, if clumsy nuclear missiles?

Kim Jong Il is a Chia-pet hairdo wearing psycho and he needs to be contained fast.

The Mayberry Machiavellis are simply not smart enough to know how to do it, so they ask China and Japan to do it for them and call it "diplomacy". Once again, arrogant, unblinking stupidity and incompetence has got us in what Oliver Hardy would call "another fine mess".

If the current trend holds up, and I'm looking past the short term gain of winning back the House or Senate ths year, Republicans will continue to be exposed for what they are: pigs at the trough looking for a way into the Aristocracy, where the "privileged few" breathe that rarified air, and do so at the expense and with the unknowing deference of the rest of us. As that continues to happen, conservatism in practice will be shown to be as anti-democratic and impractical as any attempt to clean a pigpen would be, and be repudiated as soundly as when Europe repudiated religion after centuries of conservative, aristocratic rule, excuse me, oppression.

Conservatism is in fact not about theocracies, small government, or so-called "traditional values". It never was. These are all just talking points that we have continued to swallow again and again because the conservatives have made them look palatable time after time. A means to an end. The "end" of course is unbridled and unquestioned power. This is now nakedly obvious for all to see. When it succeeds it plays on our worst fears. When liberalism and democracy succeed, it plays to our hopes and to the best that's in us. This is why Billl Clinton won in 1992 and in 1996. It's why Barack Obama is the Democratic Senator from IL, and why Deval Patrick is running a strong campaign to become governor of the state of Massachusetts despite all that was said about his "outsider" status. George Bush and his cronies in Congress have played to our sense of trauma after 9/11/01 long enough. After seeing this pretty boy Ralph Reed go down, I have hope that we'll continue to shake off our stupor and let the healing begin so we can be the nation we know we are, and it's about time.

God Bless America