I replaced my $50 cable subscription with a $20 Netflix subscription because I refused to subsidize the Faux News - Republican Party's Propoganda Channel - and I really haven't looked back

I did not like paying for ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic amd all those other sports channels which as I understand it, represent a disproportionately large share of one's cable bill - especially if you don't watch them. Don't the cable companies understand that some of us resent subsidizing propoganda and paying for expensive programming that we don't watch?

I'm sure that somewhere between the current 1-size-fits-all-150-channel package and single channels ala carte there could be a happy medium of packages of channels that share similar demographics. A G-rated family friendly package should be just 1 of a dozen or more such packages.

I do miss Comedy Central. Jon Stewart is maybe $5 per month funny - but nowhere near $50 per month funny. When my cable company puts together a $20 per month package that contains even half of the dozen or so channels that I watch I'll reconsider cable.

15 feet?! 8 feet?!! Isn't that kind of generous? Why aren't these protestors being given all the same freedoms that the Secret Service gave anti-war protestors at the Republican National Convention in NYC during the summer of 2004? As I recall then, the Federal government thought that 1000 yards and out of sight from the target of the protests was plenty of freedom of speech for those protestors. Why give these clinic protestors any more than that?

I think that we are seeing how toothless the American Family Association really is when it comes to these boycotts that they have tried. The AFA's membership is composed of people who won't forego saving a few pennies on their next purchase of underwear by not shopping at Wal-Mart - even though Wal-Mart directs a global network of suppliers that engage in very family-unfriendly activities like child labor. AFA member buy Fords for the same selfish reasons that they buy Wal-Mart underwear. And Ford has been successfully selling vehicles to them and other people acting in their own rational self interest for years.

AFA members will always sacrifice their "Christian" ethics to their materialistic wants. Count on it. Wal-Mart does.

Good essay Joe!

It perfectly captures exactly what really sticks in my craw about this crime. To quote the article:

"But he (AG Gonzalez) also confessed that the administration had abandoned the idea of new legislation because getting a bill through Congress 'would be difficult if not impossible.' In other words, Congress would refuse to pass legislation authorizing activities its members had supposedly approved after Sept. 11, 2001."

Bush committed a crime. As the AG's quote shows, Bush knew that he was committing a crime. And this week Bush admitted to doing it in public, on videotape.

This is a slam-dunk impeachment - or rather would be, if the American people had the political will or the Republican leadership had any ethics.

We can't invade every oil-exporting country that makes this threat. First Iraq, now Iran. If not Iran perhaps Venezuela?

We'd better be get ready for this to happen sometime within say the next 10 years. Unfortunately we are all about as ready for this coming economic disruption as Ford was for the last one.

I can't help thinking that this dollar/euro petroleum issue closely resembles the Silver/Gold -backed dollar issue of the McKinley/Bryan election of 1900 that gave us that great political parody and parable, "The Wizard of Oz". Oh this is going to be funny!

The Republicans electing the corrupt Roy Blunt to be majority leader will be seen by the Democrats as as good for them in the same way that Republicans saw electing Howard Dean as good for Republicans. (Though I like Dean.) Electing Blunt means that Republican corruption can be a marquee campaign issue for the Democrats come November.

Good! I hope they do elect the corrupt SOB! So that we can keep airing their dirty linens in public.

I guess we can lump "Potomac Pete Pace" into the "political hacks who will say anything out of loyalty" Hall of Fame, along with 2003's "Baghdad Bob" (what was his real name?) But while Baghdad Bob was just a PR hack, Potomac Pete is responsible for prosecuting a war. Oh well, maybe Potomac Pete can switch careers and get a job with al Jazeera in few years just like Baghdad Bob.

Once again, we in Wisconsin can be proud of Senator Feingold. Other Senate Democrats (and any Republican senators of integrity) should stand with Russ Feingold on this censure.

Thank You Salon for bringing John Fante to my attention. I've never heard of him before.

Perhaps with two of Arturo Bandini's "sons" on the Supreme Court maybe Fante will start to resonate.

This essay made me realize that a rare opportunity for a memorable and memorial speach has passed us by. After 9/11 we should have heard another Gettysburg Address. Since then as Dubya seems to always tell us, though never so eleoquently, "Now we are engaged in a great ... war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure."

With what cheap words has Dubya tried to inspire us? "Dead or alive"? "Bring 'em on"? C'mon! I've read the Gettysburg Address many times, including one time at the Lincoln Memorial. All I can say, with a nod to Lloyd Bentsen another great American who recently passed, I know Abraham Lincoln. Dubya you are no Abraham Lincoln.

Peter Drucker beat you to it - "the purest waste of time is making the unnecessary efficient."