I believe that it will eventually come out that one of the reasons Bush circumvented the FISA courts will be that the NSA has developed technological advances in datamining of some sort or another. Bush probably wanted to expand the use of these new capabilities in a way that would be severely impeded by the current approval process (not to mention my suspicion that he also wanted to target political/ideological opponents and groups), and so he went ahead and told them to do it sans-warrants. I'm sure this new technology will become a component to the White House's defense in the court of public opinion. Hopefully enough people in the media and Congress will point out that Bush should have appealed to Congress to rewrite the laws to accomodate any technological advances and still maintain the NSA and FISA's established levels of accountability.

I really don't see an indy run materializing for Joe, much less being successful. He was a three-term incumbent with a $12 million dollar warchest and 100% name recgonition. The only advantage he didn't have was the support of the voters.

Apparently this is a trivial distinction to Mr. Lieberman, who has decided that the voters just don't know what they're doing and must be scolded and spanked and reminded that they work for HIM, not the other way around. Oh, wait, that doesn't quite sound right to me.

I'd been a fan of the show since the beginning of the second season. I was fortunate enough to be stuck home one weekend with a bad cold and HBO OnDemand. I watched the entire first season straight through and was extremely frustrated when I could only watch three episodes of the second. Of all the shows I've been a devoted fan, includikng Six Feet Under, Carnivale & Deadwood, none has truly gripped me as much as The Wire and none of those have I rewatched as often.

The most ringing endorsement I ever heard of the show came from an actual low-level stree-thug drug dealer I happened to strike up a conversation with in NYC. We both loved the show for the same reasons, and he was just as taken aback as I was in the writers' ability to show the true nature of crime and punishment in a major U.S. city, along with all the messy connections, ironies and motivations that the 'good' guys and 'bad' guys are entangled in.

If you love the show, keep watching, and make sure that HBO gives Simon the fifth season he deserves. He has always had a five season arc in mind, the first dealing directly with the drug trade, the second with the death of the working class and it's intersection with more criminal elements, the third with politics, fourth is education and the fifth will zero in on the media.

Watching the long lines of poor African American voters in Ohio (in one case 1 voting booth for 3,000 voters), and it reminded me of Katrina. And for the first time it made it crystal clear for me, a young white successful liberal urbanite, how deep and ugly the racism in this country still is. I cried and cried.

"The architects of Democratic victory, Rep. Rahm Emanuel and Sen. Chuck Schumer".

Okay, credit where credit is due, Howard Dean's 50 state strategy had far more to do with this election than anything Rahm or Chuck did. Rahm fought Dean tooth and nail for that DNC booty, and Chuck decided to snub Lamont after he won the CT primary.

This was widely a team effort with very little top-down leadership, but that team effort couldn't have happened without the 50 state strategy, so if you need to crown someone the architect of this victory, it sure as hell wasn't Rahm & Chuck.

"We shouldn't be grateful when the administration agrees to abide by the law. That is expected and required, not something that occurs when the king deigns that it should."

This reminded me of a Chris Rock bit where he talked about people who want kudos for acting like decent, responsible people.

"I take care of my kids!" --You're supposed to you dumb MF!

"I ain't never been to jail!" --What do you want? A cookie!

If they want to win in 2008, the Democrats had better stay at least two steps ahead of the Republicans when it comes to opposing th war in Iraq. Otherwise, Hagel could be setting himself up to be the "Dean" of his party, slowly pulling more and more republican contenders towards outspoken opposition to the war.

I do, however, have little doubt that the republicans will only continue to "talk" a good game when it comes to Iraq. There's still too much of an authoritarian streak in the party to give their opposition to Bush any credibility. Unfortunately, this lip service may be enough to CONvince a decent block of voters that the Repubs are the only ones who can clean up their own back yard.

The Dems need to start taking some big steps, even at the risk of loosing a few legislative battles, just to show that they will continue to be the party of positive ACTION, not more useless words.