My question is, how do you bring the national debate back to somewhere rational? Do progressives have a real leader? Gore is on the environment rampage now, good, but what about all the other issues? What about reason?

Sorry to be so late replying to this from page 12, but I've been three days without my Salon fix and it took me a while to catch up on the thread.

One point to be made is that blogs such as this are providing a part of the debate, but the next challenge is to increase the exposure to provide a real counterbalance to the failed MSM.

The next point to be made is that Gore's new book addresses your very question. Titled The Assault on Reason, it picks up approximately where How Would a Patriot Act? leaves off, starting with the extreme lawlessness and utter dishonesty of the Bush administration and continues to illustrate its attack on reason itself, as demonstrated by its contempt of science and substitution of fear for reason. This is presented in the context of the assumption of our founding fathers that our democracy would foster proper action through reasoned discourse. Unfortunately, I'm only 2/3 finished and haven't yet peeked to his conclusion on how we should proceed in repairing the massive damage to our country.

Perhaps we can take some solace in the absence of a clear "leader" for progressives. The last thing our country needs is another daddy figure. The path forward may well be one of moderation, to borrow on the theme of words with dual meanings. We need a moderator for the discussion in a true marketplace of ideas while we moderate the damage done by the radical actions that have taken place.

Why doesn't underlining work tonight?

Putting the Libby and Carville children and Cheney grandchildren through the process of hiding in the undisclosed location at any time after about September 13, 2001 is absolutely unconscionable. The only reason for doing this was to continue to whip up the mass fear that the neocons needed in order to get the Congress and American people to agree to the atrocities they were about to commit. Think about it for just 30 seconds and you will realize that no sane parent would put their kid through that unless the situation were so dire that Libby's attention to the crisis would require every waking second. The fact that he could take the time to organize Halloween activities illustrates just how contrived the situation was, and that Libby fully understood this fact.

Let's see if I got this right. Bush's kangaroo court has only succeeded in convicting a kangaroo skinner and now that court has been skinned. The real actions against captured terrorists have taken place in conventional courts, making the fight against terrorism a matter of law enforcement. It just doesn't get any better than this...

Yes, the Republicans tried to distance themselves from Bush in the debate last night, but they only mentioned deficit spending, poor execution of the war in Iraq and failure to be racist against Mexicans. I think I remember one passing reference to the need to restore integrity, but no speaker had the courage to mention Bush's illegal wiretapping, torture, suspension of habeus corpus, destruction of the Justice Department and general lack of respect for truth and the law. Then again, I haven't heard nearly enough on that front from the Democrats, either. They need to campaign relentlessly on these points and illustrate the guilt by association for any Republican who refuses to acknowledge them.

Keep pounding away Glenn, maybe these topics will emerge into the general discussion in time to have an impact on the 2008 elections. At least getting Howie to understand one point is massive progress!

You sound like you could use some cheering up. While I was reading one of your posts earlier, a little woodpecker slammed into the window by my shoulder. It's okay--he has a hard head and went right back to his business.

My tree soon will have many juicy figs. Wish I could share them with you.

Chirp. Tap.

Seems to me someone made a pretty strong case in the letters on Glenn Greenwald's blog within the last week that Toensing did not work for the Senate Intelligence Committee until after it drafted the bill, but has continued to claim authorship.

C'mon Putin. Don't you know Iran is where we hyperventilate now? Do something "constructive" with us as we try to destroy them.

Theobromine also can be used in treatment of asthma, opening airways to help breathing. Seems like an apt description of Papa-bop's writing to me...

After spending much time recently around horse shows where people tend to camp out in living quarters built into their horse trailers, I have seen many signs pointing these folks to the proper disposal facilities. The major disposal types are for blackwater and greywater. It doesn't take experience to guess which is which when disposing of sewage or washing water. I haven't visited the website to learn the inspiration for naming the mercenary company, because I don't want to ruin my mental picture of the company and its composition.

Actually, I was wondering earlier if Bush had ordered an attack on Iran when the British sailors were detained. If Pace refused, and several high level military types threatened mass resignations (like Justice Department officials led by Ashcroft and Comey), that would explain Bush's work-around with a war czar and now moving Pace out of the picture. Doesn't give me a very good feeling, either.