"...but be prepared to accept responsibility that comes with making the terrorist's goals easier to attain.

Plan to Attack NY City Mass Transit:"--NOB

That's the value of threatening and terrorizing--fear.

Fear breeds a multitude of irrational acts/laws that hold hostage to that fear those who would preserve what's left of a free society.

In your world of (believe that your government has only the best of your safety at heart)--any legitimate or manufactured incident will justify an ever broadening grip of the state to hold its terrified citizenry quaking.

The trust-me-it's-for-your-own-good default position is the mother of much violence and tyranny.

I want my rational, skeptical consciousness determining the quality of American citizenry--no thanks to the NSA, DODI, CIA, and HS, if I must lose my soul to the police-state monolith.

haven't some learned anything from eight years of spin and lies?

"Seeing as we financed and armed a destructive murderous Israeli invasion which cost the lives of a thousand Lebanese and billions of dollars of infrastructure, I'd say its a bad idea."--Omooex

Maybe we should lay aside the inner repulsion that most humans have for inflicting harm on others and save a buck or two.

On the cheap we select all the usual suspects (strange, Mideastern names and skin tones, Palestinian sympathizers, Muslim lovers, etc.) and give them the experimental treatments of ingenious "questioning" and "softening up".

It might produce/unveil some interesting "conspiracies" and save a load of unnecessary invasions, but then the billion-trillion dollar war contracts would shrink appreciably.

"Therefore,those who had skills became even more valuable than the rich people."

At this rate the enviable "valuable" will be distilled down to the "warriors" (soldiers) and indispensable (loosely reckoned) cheats on Wall Street and in Congress.

The rest of us surviving, "skilled", tax victims will gradually die from the "bubonic" fleas eating their way into our mattresses.

"First, the numbers of affected people here are minimal compared to, for instance, the number who died in 9/11. Second, the torture we are talking about while clearly unpleasant, is not even in the neighborhood of the kind of torture that is practiced by others."

By estimating the value or crunching the numbers to find a comfort level at which we may proceed further in our retribution against "the evildoers" one takes umbrage at so much blood spilled.

It's a pathetic exercise in soothing the repugnance one should feel, for example, at accepting well over 4000 American lives killed in Iraq alone to placate the rage over 9-11.

You do not (nor kings and Presidents) have an inalienable right to sacrifice the 100's of thousands here or there for their duplicitous war on terror.

They will proceed with violence as their violence proceeds them.

Glenn's discussion of the inequities within the prison population and more specifically the obscene ratio of non-violent to violent offenders is perfect to demonstrate which politicians think beyond their own career survival.

I'm one observer who would bristle every time that moniker--"maverick" was applied to McCain. His positions never rose sufficiently contrary to the level of "Right" thinking to make much difference. Moreover, there was much posturing, but very little reform after for example, his protracted obstinacy (so-called campaign reform) --McCain/Feingold--a sham, doomed to fail from the start, whether well-intentioned or not.

The real heroes in our Congress rarely get the press and it shows. Kucinich, Sanders, and Feingold are remembered by the citizen-reformers because their stances costs them the significant attention that others like McCain and Specter devour in contrast. Webb, of course, showed his independence from the crowd when he changed parties.

As Glenn concludes, we give those prevaricators a pass when they insist and we agree to accept political pragmatism over useful legislating.

Like crusty crabs emerging from the gritty sands on a oil-spilled

beach of greed's reckless contempt--Hillary was excoriated by the "America First" defenders who couldn't stand the thought that we have an insatiable hunger for those powdery bags coming in from Mexico.

Even politicians like our recently appointed SOS are not immune from the vitriol engendered whenever the issue of solving the problem arises.

She's no rookie of the extremist politics that attack the messenger when the message indicts you--but that notion from the nationalists must have have stunned even HC at first.

It's those sausage-makers (leaders of extruded bull s--t) on Capital Hill that worry me--like that weasel (aforementioned) Specter.

"Sausage-makers" (reconsidered) is putting it mildly, tasteless in his case.

should read-CAPIT-O-L

In the mind and preferred, perfect world of the victimized and beleaguered conservative advocates they would dominate the message opportunities.

They are, after all the majority world view for most smart Americans--the country is basically fiscally and socially conservative and should be represented thus in the slant of its news.

The "victims" of the too-tolerant, left media advancements we are told can't get a date with Coulter and Hannity because the left portrays the right as mean and insensitive.

Jonah Goldberg, A. Coulter, Kristol, A. McCarthy, Hannity and the like own the military, corporate giants and ignorant factions.

However, their ambitious desire to win the battle for limiting the primitive minds will never end until the citizens crave blood and guts rather than truth and peace.

"the liberal bias in the mainstream media is not going to stop and that the need for alternatives will be there."

You must watch and hear a different MSM. Your point to Glenn's "self-victimization" analysis is well made by your unsubstantiated, self-pity whine.

Either you haven't read or remembered the myriad amount of data out there on media bias or can't bear the conflict. Read some--it ain't what you want to believe, but thinking and correctly concluding can be a bitch.