"The gentlemen on this forum may be a little hampered when it comes to telling batshit grannies on the warpath to STFU, but rest assured you annoy them no less than you annoy me. Now...... Have a nice evening ladies;)"

Although no one has ever accused me of being a gentleman, that was very nicely said.

Yep, I believe that's how she phrased it.

It was a good idea then and it's a good idea now.

"MA: And he also went over to Iraq to look at the communications capabilities, and he came back with a number of recommendations about even some of the logistical things to help people get those stories out. Now I think the military's getting smarter about it, as you know. . . ."

If I recall correctly, it was The Mercury Group which was contracted to revamp (run) the military's public relations organization in Iraq.

If O'Hanlon and Pollack had half the memory I do, they would have known this also and weighted their article accordingly. (or maybe they should have done their homework before boarding the plane)

If their trip was organized by DoD, that fact should have been exposed in or with their editorial.

If, that is, they had even an ounce of journalistic integrity which, it would appear, they don't. That puts them in good company....right along with Hugh Hewitt, Mike Allen, and others in their Confederacy of Scoundrels.

The absolute first thing a new Democrat administration must do is clean out (delouse) the White House press room.

"You'd think that Kos could afford a professional outfit for this. It does not speak well to actually delivering a product... which at the moment is not being delivered at all, much less badly."

This from a supporter of Bush's war?

Chutzpah, indeed.

"do no credit to the comments section here"

If folks like us want to be considered as (I use this term cautiously) "serious" about subjects initiated on this blog, it behoves us to put extraneous squabbles aside and at least try to stay on topic. There are folks who come here to be educated politically and if the major posters here can't stay on topic, those folks are going to go elsewhere and the education they receive might not be what us best for us and our country.

We have enough real trolls coming in here without mucking the place up ourselves.

You're on your own now.

"I can't tell you how disappointing it is to see you ignore everything that Democrats have done to expose Republican corruption and fall into the trap of blaming them for wrongs the didn't have the power to prevent, and don't have the power to change.

In a word. Horseshit.

"But for christ's sake...smart people out there...fix this!!! Please?"

I'm sure there are a lot of folks who will be glad to "fix" it just as soon as someone cleans the grit and grime off the Overton Window to allow enough sunlight in so they can see well enough to take on the job.

In the meantime, we are at the mercy of elected officials who don't see themselves as employees of the people, any more than the current crop of reporters and pundits see themselves as representatives of anyone other than their own life styles.

"It's sad but everyone has to grow up sometime."

How would you know?

"Why in hell didn't one of the Democratic caucus use either to stop this idiocy?"

You may wish to ask Sen Dodd. Afterall, he asked the same question at the kos convention.

My question would probably be, "Senator Dodd, why are you blaming others for not doing something you could have done yourself?"

"To use another ancient analogy, if we replaced our present senators with horses, who would even notice?"

That would depend entirely upon the viewer's vantage point.

If the horses were headed north, and the viewer was positioned to the south, no one would notice the difference.

"I admit to having a hard time believing such a thing could really have passed. It just seems so extreme I can't imagine how Bush got enough Democrats to go along with it."

It's my understanding that the description of the effects of this ammendment are as you described. All it will take for us to be tapped is that we make an overseas phone call and that Alberto thinks it's ok to tap us. Hell, we don't even have to make the overseas call as long as Alberto believes we're overseas......and there is NO ONE to check up on Alberto. Them apples suck.

The only reason that I can think of for Bush getting that amount of Democrats to support it would be that he has a cache of photos of certain Democrats doing the nasty with a herd of goats.

"If the application for the FISA warrant had gone forward, agents would have found information in Moussaoui's belongings that linked him both to a major financier of the hijacking plot working out of Germany, and to a Malaysian al-Qaida boss who had met with at least two other hijackers while under surveillance by intelligence officials."

If what you say is true, don't you wonder why Moussaoui has not been charged with those crimes?

"Huh!? Moussaoui is doing life without parole in the Federal Supermax in Colorado for being part of the 9/11 conspiracy."

You're quite correct, I was thinking of Jose Padila when I wrote that. My error.

Speaking of Padila, what's the status of Gonzo's case against him? Do you know?

"Of course, perhaps some of these grave concerns might have slowed the blind rush for some Democrats to pass this legislation precisely as handed down by Bush - if they had taken the time to read and digest the proposed law."

You're askin a lot of our civil servants, fella.

To be required to actually read (much less understand) a Bill before they vote on it is downright insidious.