I recall in the days and weeks after 9/11 I increasingly paid more and more attention to al-Jazeera, a network that was not unknown to me previous to the attacks.

As the New York Times drummed up its support for the war, al-Jazeera gradually replaced the NYT as my "canonical" source of Middle-Eastern reporting, eventually replacing the NYT in my bookmark of news sites I kept as tabs in a single browser window.

I would have liked more detail to this story, but I understand that salon is not "Frontline." However I enjoyed reading this and being reminded that Arabs have a stake and an interest in American politics (something we on the intellectual, foreign-policy aware left only acknowledge in hushed tones lest we fuel the echo-chamber of the xenophobic talk radio circuit with accusations of "the left would turn over the rule of America to al-Jazeera and their al-Qaida masters").

I hope to see more coverage like this and less futile re-hashing of the now fete accomplis Obama nomination.

(Get off my lawn you damn kids!)..

Gimme a break. People have been proclaiming the death of Hip Hop since 1986. It will, like every other new form of entertainment embraced by the 13-30 demographic (and more importantly, still loved by the now car, home and investments buying 30-50 set) be co-opted, adulterated and burlesqued by the very same institutions Hip Hop set out to liberate art from in the first place.

Is Hip-Hop dead? Nonsense. Is "rap" dead? Not as long as Hennessey or Grey Goose have enough money to pay off young performers who don't know any better. I think if you asked Common or Kanye or Adam Yauch or John Legend or Mos Def if Hip Hop was dead they would look at you like a crazy person.

Ask Keith Jarrett if jazz is dead, or Tchaikovsky if Classical were dead (or Christoph Von Dohnanyi, Michael Tilson Thomas, Loren Maazel or the Kronos Quartet, to name some people who are, unlike brother Tchaikovsy are very much alive).

Hip hop is hear to stay.

PS - if more American's danced, maybe we'd spend less time at war. And we'd be in better shape. Think about that!

I think I would be able to live with having my IP and perhaps a fingerprint based on a hash of my OS, browser UserAgent string and authentication cookie publish as a consequence for posting to letters.salon.com.

Technically, this would be easy to do. I do not expect salon to do it, and there are privacy arguments against doing it which are valid, but it would put to rest some of the (admittedly HILARIOUS) rumors of sock-puppetry and concern trolling, etc, etc.

Perhaps just post the original referrer that brought the poster to the article?

I'm being silly, of course, but, it would be fun to peruse the access_logs (Psst, "ServerTokens prod").

Let me disabuse you of the idea that Senator Clinton will be anything more than a guest of President-elect Obama on inauguration day.

She is far and above, way past the point at which a split ticket would be of any use to Obama's national election. It will be Clark, Richardson or perhaps a female governor.

HRC is radioactive. Sorry to be the harbinger of sorrow, as James Hettfield would say, but everyone knows that an Obama/Clinton ticket is a fantasy that keeps Karl Rove furiously and vigorously engorging himself several times a night.

Are you lending him a hand? How civil of you.

I bet you won't think its so funny when someone close to you is blown to pieces by an IED halfway across the world. I bet you'll wonder if, instead of ensuring another decade of war because you were too busy thinking with your vagina that you had done the right and smart thing and supported the party, if you would still be able to call up that loved one with the latest joke you heard, feel him or her breathing in and out when you go to hug them.

Well you won't be able to because they'll be dead and it will have been your fault, because you just couldn't accept the fact that you and your candidate are acting like something a gentleman doesn't call a lady.

Life or death. You choose. Those are the stakes. Get with the correct team or, as we say in Russian, pazhul de na hui.

http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/world/2008/05/11/D90JO2Q80_iraq_us_deaths/index.html

Remember that, as you pull the lever for McCain.

And nearly half of all Americans believe that the Earth is younger than 7000 years old.

Far be it for me to suggest a connection.

Type "hysterical" into your favorite dictionary, and apply that to your view of Clinton and Obama. Then ask yourself if thinking with your vagina is a better or worse metaphor for they irrationality of your position.

First, it suggests that your favoritism of Clinton is based solely on sex organs (which, I think, is an over simplification, since your racism comes into play as well).

Second, it is insulting, and I think you are a jerk, and I want you to hurt. Let's be honest.

You and your candidate have been hitting under the belt for months, so, metaphorically, I returning the favor.

Enjoy!

(I may not be thinking with my dick, but I have no qualms against being one. Afterall, you propose to take your vagina and slather it all over John McCain and his bloody endless conflict.)

Sorry to ProudTexasGirl.

I skate the line so close that I often do not realize when I have more than crossed it.

That said, the Clinton campaign is clearly in its death throes. I encourage you and anyone considering voting for McCain to question your motives carefully.