the problem with this is that people rarely make this much sense. The emotional attraction of a politics of hate is powerful. Hate is a much more powerful feeling than love, than acceptance and tolerance. It's the emotion that gets people to kill. And a handful of hate-filled people can triumph over a million who aren't motivated to stand against them. Hate is a powerful emotion and as such it is useful in helping people FEEL safe, even when the politics that stem from it actually make people objectively LESS safe.

That is the paradox which we need to address. The policies that will actually increase our national security make a lot of people feel less safe. In order for that to change, we need to encourage people to learn the uncomfortable truth that feelings are not facts. They don't necessarily have anything to do with objective reality. It's a hard lesson to learn.

That is all the comment that is needed. In an environment of massive fiscal deficits, and an insanely expensive war, when more and more people are beginning to see the need to build a renewable energy infrastructure and deal with global climate change, anyone who signs this pledge should be slammed as criminally irresponsible. They want to live high on the hog and leave the bill to our grandchildren. Not only is that bad economics, bad politics it is totally immoral.

And we should take every opportunity to remind the world of this.

Part of the problem with journalism these days is that journalists are taught they have to be "objective". They can't express an opinion themselves, even when the facts of the situation are beyond doubt. This is even expanded to exclude any analysis. This is how journalism is taught. Which leads to the situation we have now, journalism as stenography. It ends up in a he said she said reliance on official sources. Not the reporters assessment of what folks are saying, just WHAT they say. Leaving it up to readers to try and make sense of it, often with little understanding of the context.

Reliance on official sources. It didn't matter that hundreds of thousands of US citizens KNEW Bush's case for war was bogus. No one in Congress was saying it and so nothing appeared in print.

The problem is not that reporters are partisan. They are human and have opinions. I want more opinionated journalism. The real problem is that while it is totally subjective, the MSM maintains the facade of objectivity. The illusion of objectivity.

Mark Hertzgaard formerly of the NY Times wrote a very illuminating treatment of this subject. "On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency". Some fifteen years old but still very timely

Precipitate withdrawal will cause chaos, a bloodbath..... so say the proponents of continuing the US occupation of Iraq.

I would be much more comfortable with this argument if those making it would acknowledge that our STAYING in Iraq is causing chaos and bloodshed of insane proportions.

Their silence on THIS point makes me wonder about their alleged concern for the welfare of the Iraqi people. This goes for Mr. Horne as well.

"There were many attempts, in Egypt, in Iraq and elsewhere, where Arab countries attempted to create constitutional democracies that were squelched," I went on. "I'm not saying they were advanced movements, but they were effectively suppressed by the colonialist powers because they didn't want them to gain independence. This is not a blank-check excuse for the backwardness of the Muslim world, but it plays a role as well."

Kamiya fails to mention the Muslim democracy subverted by the west that has the most direct relevance to the situation in Iraq. (A curious omission to be sure. I would have liked to hear what Horne had to say about it.)

In the 1950s the CIA overthrew the democratic secular government in Iran because its PM, Mossedegh nationalized British Petroleum in the country. And we blame mideast autocracy on their religion. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves. That argument ought to make us blush-- or puke.

Olbermann is over the top for calling the Democratic leadership dumping timelines for with drawal a "betrayal" Over the top? OVER THE TOP?! I'll give you over the top-

how about $250 million dollars A DAY dumped down the rathole of a war of lies? (Now they say that October will be the next time Congress will get to vote on a withdrawal timeline. Four more months at a quarter billion a day. You do the math.)

OVER THE TOP? How about families of soldiers who run the risk of being blown to bits paid so little they have to go on food stamps?

9 more soldiers dead since the weekend, untold numers of Iraqi civilians killed by GIs as well as insurgent bombs.

We're bankrupting our nation, making enemies hand over fist, destroying the cradle of civilization and all so a bunch of gutless yahoos in Washington can say they didn't lose the war. No the only problem with what Olbermann said is that HE WAS FAR TOO POLITE!

signed

A Reluctant Democrat

What basis does ANYONE have to claim that the American public believes that defunding the war means abandoning our troops in the middle of the war? Surveys anyone? This sounds like more Beltwar bulljive used to justify putting political careers before the interests of the nation........