Was it just an ill-considered head? Or are you folks really this ignorant?

Are the lousy behavior patterns from "journalism" so ingrained that you can't break them? (The notion that you must be "balanced").

Ted Koppel, in the last presidential election, said something very telling about the MSM: "We don't report the truth. We report what people say."

I've gotten to the point where I think that the MSM, including Salon, doesn't believe in truth (how postmodern!). After reading Walsh's venom-soaked attacks on Obama during the primary season (while she swore she was neutral! do you folks really think that we're that stupid?), and now this sorry excuse for an article, I'm going to be so so happy to cancel my Salon subscription--not because you don't tell me what you think I want to hear, but because you're not honest even with yourselves.

"it sounds like schmidt et al. are laying the groundwork for a major do-over in '12,"

Actually, I'd say it's Salon laying the groundwork for a Clinton run in '12.

"Sure, the guy won, but he could have won bigger. It's time to give Hillary a try. She *deserves* it."

An eight point win would be 54-46, often called "landslide" by the press--but not by Salon, eh?

...and a lot sad, that Americans tune in to a debate about policy and direction of the country and expect to be entertained.

Here's the word, people, remember it: politics is boring. When it's not boring, we're generally in deep trouble. Oh, and it usually has an aura of corruption that goes with it. What McCain objects to with earmarks? That's politics. The fantasy that we're sending our philosopher-kings to Washington to make laws in the sterile, gleaming halls of the Capitol? Only in Augustine's City of God. Washington was a swamp before it was a city, and it's still a swamp.

As for this particular debate, what we did see was a series of breathtaking moments of arrogance and condescension on the part of Mr. McCain. "That one," the refusal to shake Mr. Obama's hand ("How rude!"), the entire "You don't know much of nothin'" approach to responses--this does not convince America that this is a man who will take a bipartisan approach.

Finally, let me note that I watched CNN last night for the "voter response" line. Interestingly enough, the big big loser last night? Tom Brokaw. Every time he began to speak, the lines took a nosedive.

The GOP is all Up In Arms about "voter fraud" and are looking to demand photo ids at the polls in order to "stop" it.

This, of course, would result in far greater voter suppression than it would cure voter fraud.

And the simple solution to preventing voter fraud is the Iraqi one: an indelible mark on one hand that will fade in a week. After all, it's not the voting that bothers the GOP, it's the multiple voting--right? Right?

Anybody?

Bueller?

This rally took place in Waukesha County. Waukesha is the heart of the GOP in Wisconsin. For the most part, it's rich--GE Medical Imaging is here,and a lot of the remaining manufacturing, legal services,financial services, etc. in Wisconsin. The landscape, which used to be rural ("more cows than people" as the saying went) has changed to rich suburban in the east and enclaves of mansions ("starter castles," some of the older locals call them) to the west. This is where the Wisconsin GOP gets most of its money, most of its leadership, and many of its so-called "ideas." The last major leader from the Waukesha GOP went to jail for corruption; Waukesha thinks what he did--organize using state resources--was just okay.

These people are now desperate. They lost big in Wisconsin in 2006--they thought they'd take the governor's house, but they didn't, and they lost the state Senate, and had their numbers cut down in the Assembly. Now they're looking at a 10-point lead by Obama in Wisconsin, and a potential blow-out by the Democrats across the country. Their stock portfolios have lost over a third their value. Their houses have lost 15 to 30% of their value. They backed Bush, and blame the economy on "the government," especially loans to minorities.

Many of them came to Waukesha from Milwaukee. I'll leave the reason to your imagination.

This is who these people are. They're not ordinary Americans--they're the rich privelged, the power elite, who have benefited from years of the GOP running the country. Sure they're angry. They thought they had it all, and they don't understand how a bunch of upstarts can take it all away from them.

Wow! A new box! Without screws! Wow!

Forget the fact that a Mac costs about $1000 more than a comparable box running Windows.

Wow! No screws!

Except, of course, for the one big one.

"That's a myth that's long been disproven when comparing comparably equipped computers"

I tell you what: go to the Apple site, price a standard Mac, go to the Dell site, price as close to the same hardware as possible, then come back and tell us what you find. When I did this last week it was about a grand's difference.

Pulling out in Wisconsin will have an effect on the other races in the state. Presently, the Assembly is mildly Republican and the Senate mildly Democratic. It's to be hoped that seeing the national GOP effort vanish will strengthen the Democrats in the Senate and send the GOP packing in the Assembly, so that Wisconsin can reassert its proud progressive heritage and stop the state from going over the conservative cliff with the GOP lemmings.

"I never connected," she told a local newspaper. "It was just food to me. It didn't mean anything else."

This is known as "the idiot defense," as in, "I'm an idiot; how on earth can you hold me accountable?"