I have had to research the Duke Case for a book I am writing. One of the accused was arrested for a different attack on a woman when he was home on bail!!! He was again cleared.

The Lacrosse team was one of the most flagrantly mysogynistic and abusive of all the fraternities at Duke. They were infamous for abusing women at their 'parties.' Nifong had this history going into the case. He believed the woman accuser, not out of the goodness of his heart, but because the hospital exam showed serious physical damage. They did not test for the use of a rape drug, but it is now believed one was used which is why her story has changed so much and why the men arrested were so sure they would be found innocent. She knew she had been hurt and abused, she couldn't sit down for days. But it is highly likely that she never could get it quite clear because of the affect of the drug.

As with O.J. these athletes hired the biggest and best legal guns, their enormously wealthy and influential parents bankrolled another legal dream team. They went after Nifong and the evidence collection. And then they dismissed the victim as a mental case.

Before you are so quick to do a mea culpa get your facts clear. What this acquittal means is not enough evidence could be amassed to see that justice was done.

Lin Farley

Its called Freedom of Speech. It is supposed to be an American right. It goes along with the saying: "I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

Couched in defending decency the indecent right wing owners of MSNBC and CBS have curtailed our freedoms. And you are applauding them. Shame on you. Get a grip. And get your eye off "what" was said and pay attention to the "right" to say it.

This isn't about decency!!!!!It's about Freedom of Speech.

And those of us who think it is an important element in the arsenal of applied freedoms that keep us a working democracy have lost another round.

Consason, Think. You know better.

Lin

Clinton has been committed for months to million dollar fundraising in Hamptons. It was a big deal when she decided to come to YearlyKos anyway. Gina and Kos blew it!!! Gina says so in her announcement. Let's cut Hillary some slack here!!

lin

This letter is clever, educated and sleight of hand. Homosexuality is about the right to love someone of the same sex not gender. Gender has nothing to do with it. Transgender people want to become a different sex entirely, it has nothing to do with loving your own sex. To equate homosexuality with transgenderedness is to mix apples and hamburger. Which is to say they are completely differeent--not even both fruit! [please pardon the pun.] So gay people do have a right to ask what they have in common with people who want to have operations to change their sex. The article this letter attacks is courageous because it brings out of the closet the fact that most gays really don't undersrtand how their cause got mixed up with the transgender one. Except that transgendered people had been determined to latch onto the gay minority status as a way to bolster their own agenda. This is a clever, manipulative, factually inaccurate and misleading article which means to hoodwink and propagate a falsehood. It is time someone stood up to them. And the man who wrote the original article deserves a medal to buck the sort of backlash writers of this sort will dish out.

Everything is a trap if one has runaway expectations! However, in the case of a woman president, the ups outweigh the downs. The ceiling on what is possible for girls will be raised exponentially Forever!! This symbolic fallout from a woman President is nearly unfathomable like a lake of goodwill that cannot be plumbed. Of course, she will make mistakes, do things one doesn't like, even behave like a jerk sometimes--don't we all? But to elect a woman to the White House would be the crowning achievement of the Second Wave of Feminism. My mother was born the year woman got the right to vote. For her to see a woman President is breathtaking. Please, please, do not underestimate the ramifications of this step in the fight for women's rights. And do not ever think little girls will not be changed because of it.

When he was a candidate he was out of touch, unable to show up in any meaningful way; and now he endorses pie-in-the-sky Obama. Anyone who thinks that guy will unify the country is smoking way to much ganja. Or thinks a religious revival complete with preacher type oratory is the answer to Pakistan, North Korea and Iran. Sometimes I think Kerry is out of his mind.

There was NOTHING racist about Clinton's comments on MLK and LBJ. the Obama campaign wants to make race an issue and they leaped on it and distorted it. I am so losing respeect for that campaign.

Why not call for Jesse Jackson Jr. to step out of the campaign? Why not ask all the obama staffers and spokespeople who inflamed the issue of race to do the same. Why are you singling out Johnson and Clinton after she said she clearly did not agree. Give it a break!!