I remind myself every day that at least we're moving away from the direction of the last eight years, to a better direction

Could you please describe this "better direction" - in concrete terms? I would ask that you address 1) economic policy and Obama's relationship with Wall Street and the banksters, 2) executive privilege/the unitary executive, 3) gay rights, 4) rendition and prosecution of those behind or complicit in torture, 5) the future of campaign finance reform, 6) threats to Social Security and Medicare, 7) Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, and last but not least 8) the state of our "news" media. I would add others, but I have to sign off for the moment.

I love Washington, a city reviled by the right even when they were in power but which inspires in me a simple patriotism not so different from what I felt in the fifth grade. One does feel elevated in a city that honors public service, which this one does, and not only on Memorial Day.

99-99/100th percent pure tripe. Some of us on the left revile Washington because the right is still in power. In case you hadn't noticed, dear Garry, the right now encompasses both Republicans and Democrats, and you'll find it right at home in the White House.

When did you become so full of it?

I can barely make myself look at photographs of prisoners being tortured. At this point, I can barely make myself look at photographs of Obama, torture's latest enabler. And yet the news is full of images of a grinning Obama, rich, home free, deeply duplicitous, apparently untouchable, and enabled by the complicit, greedy MSM.

I really wish I didn't have to live in this country anymore.

You will learn that President Obama is "evil...

In his complicity with ongoing cover ups of torture, Obama is evil. Every bit as evil as Cheney.

One of the "left's" newfound specialties is situational, selective ethics. Okay to trash Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin - and her daughter, not okay to trash Sonia Sotomayor. Joan Walsh, a woman, is editor-in-chief of Salon, but I don't recall any attempts during the primaries or the general election to rein in rampant misogyny and sexism on this site. The latter were abundantly evident on many other so-called prog blogs. Does one have to be a)female, and b) also a minority, to merit cries for fair treatment from the "left"? Apparently so.

Where the hell was I? Right here on Salon, getting ripped every which way because, a) I was a Hillary supporter, and b) I was naive enough to pick a screen name which reflected my gender. Joan Walsh may have written about MSM sexism (must've been pretty mild commentary b/c I don't remember this), but I don't recall any attempts whatsoever here on her own site to rein in flagrant, often really nasty, sexism and misogyny on the part of both writers and commenters.

Palin has no one to blame but herself because she accepted a nomination she was in no way qualified for and instead of admitting that compounded her lies which just inflamed the entire situation

To repeat the old, tired, argument: Palin was no less unqualified for vice-president than Obama was for president. The MSM treated (and is still treating) Obama with kid gloves. Palin was made an object of ridicule almost from the get go. I may not agree with Palin's politics, but I'll certainly defend her right to dignity. Palin was widely portrayed as a Barbarella bimbo. Was Obama portrayed as Sambo? No.

Salon was my introduction to blogging, and it was pretty brutal, so perhaps I'm not remembering your writing entirely correctly. But I do remember - and quite clearly - your allowing extraordinarily mysogynistic, sexist, and hateful comments on your threads to stand without comment (and you were routinely responding to individual commenters at the time). You even joked around with some of these commenters. And I do remember your succumbing to Palin derangement syndrome. Do you consisder it enough to stand up for the dignity of one woman, and allow other women to be thrown to the wolves? I don't.

jeezie-creezie, dude! Hillary lost to the guy. She's gotten over it and moved on. Will you ever grow up and do the same?

Well, I suppose we all should have just grown up and gotten over racism, too. By your lights, Rosa Parks should have been a good sport and resigned herself to the back of the bus.

Well, this wouldn't be the first time you were way off base, nor will it be the last. I've been following your posting career while reading Glenn Greenwald's blog. I do get a hint now and then of guys ganging up on you, and almost feel sorry for you. But I can't make heads or tails of some of your posts, except that you are fated to be an Obama apologist for life. You seem to believe that anyone who doesn't approve of him is a closet Bircher.

Why anyone would try to take criticism of Palin as signifying insincerity in defending Clinton is beyond me.

You're being a bit disingenuous here. The objectifying of Palin as a malevolent Barbarella went way beyond "criticism". This sort of characterization is of a piece with the bitchifying of Clinton as ballbusting Shrillary. Also, your characterization of Palin as a buffoon is interesting, seeing as how the woman apparently hasn't anything been like a total failure as governor of Alaska. And no, I'm not a second wave feminist - I didn't even make it into the first wave back in the Sixties. I'm simply not fond of the extreme gladiatorial school of public discourse.