If Blackwater only has to pay out $250,000 per illegal casualty, they are doing much better then the American people who have paid to date $500,000 per casualty (based on the 600 billion dollars we've spent and the 1,200,000 people who have lost their lives as a result of this illegal war.) . So, all you nay sayers who don't believe that the private sector can do a better job, there is the proof in spades. Why, so many spades, you will never run short of grave digging implements.

Blackwater should be held high as an example of Rumsfeldian war strategy (and you thought these guys didn't have a plan). Now, if we could just convince the Blackwater mercenaries to shoot themselves in the head, we could save even more money! Go capitalism!

1,200,000 dead (thus far) as a result of our invading a sovereign nation on a theory of preemptive war that was based on a pack of carefully contrived lies?

Crimes against the Peace, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity are neither moral nor do we have the the authority to commit them.

Unfortunately, the American people only get to vote on our resolutions for these clowns once every two years.

I long ago wrote off the Republican's as thieves and sociopaths. I'm still most deeply concerned with the Democrats who voted against free speech in condemning the MoveOn.org ad. I mean, the Bushists are proposing further wars on top of their illegal and immoral Iraq folly, and we really need responsible, rational and sane people in the majority.

"I wonder who Gen. Petraeus and his troops think is most supportive."....

Well I'm sure if the troops were free to respond, they would be home with their families.

Fred, your teenage wife could still serve, why don't you send her to Iraq?

1,200,000 dead and counting.

It is interesting that one so completely insulated and numb from reality, would choose (and perhaps is still using) narcotics as his drug of choice.

Moveon is an organization that legitimately argues that an army general that was hired to do its bidding, is being used as a political tool by an administration that started an illegal war.

Rush Limbaugh is a fat, drug addled entertainer, who thinks it is fair game to attack those who followed orders, but realize that they are fighting a poorly planned, illegal and un-winnable war.

It's not the insanity of the media that we should worry about. It is the insanity of the voters that support politicians who defend the likes of Rush Limbaugh that we should worry about.

At this point it is clear... the big lie is falling apart. The rubes who still sign on are doing so at great peril. The rats are packing up shop and planning their exit strategy. Hillary, or some other unfortunate 'fall guy' will take the brunt of a shattered and looted infrastructure. The media will blame them, and the rats will gather in the shadows to wait for their moment to rise again.

"Q How high is the President willing to go?

MR. GILLESPIE: Again, it's policy we're talking about.

Yeah... the policy... like all the other 'policies' that have gutted the infrastructure of this country while stealing astronomical sums of borrowed money to fund anything but good governance and common sense.

And what do we have to show for it?

But do not blame the president. His 'policies', many of which are criminal, are supposed to be checked by the legislature, which has the power to impeach for high crimes and misdemeanors. These guys will be lucky if they can muster together a vote to override a veto of a bill to bring healthcare to children, never mind bringing together the proper war crimes charges that will forever asterisk Bush's legacy.

"The area of laws available for prosecution is very murky."

There is nothing murky about the Geneva Convention or International Law when it comes to definitions of War Crimes, Crimes Against the Peace and Crimes Against Humanity. However, when those laws are ignored, as they are by various despots from time to time, there is only the gathering of evidence.

Blackwater, it's operation within an already illegal invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation, is but one more charge against the architects and instigators of this war. The private companies and their employees will not have the cover of 'just following orders' that the majority of the grunt soldiers will be afforded when it comes time to reconcile the crimes committed in Iraq.

Small solace that International Law and the Geneva Convention have been violated for the one million, two hundred thousand already murdered in this illegal war. The men, women and children who have died will never know if those responsible will ever be brought to justice.

Congress should take note that every dollar that they authorize for this war is aiding and abetting these crimes for which a preponderance of evidence of wrong doing now exists and is in the public record and conscious.

Justice Department issued "another opinion, this one in secret".....

Justice in secret is not justice, it is a conspiracy.

On the one hand, I think the Log Cabin Republican's are a noble bunch, attempting to change the Republican party from the inside out. But as the core has already rotted out, the gays who support the Republican party must be a pretty sorry group of self-loathing masochists.