Guantanamo could be a model prison now, but that doesn't matter, any more than making a model prison out of Abu Ghraib or The Bastille would matter.The stain of the sort of prison it was is still on us, and will stay on us until, by closing it, we admit what happened there.

Would someone explain to conservatives, and maybe even to Obama's advisers, that we nationalize banks all the time. The FDIC does it with smaller banks that don't have their own lobbyists. The FDIC takes them over, cleans them up, and reprivatizes. Goldman Sachs and Chase are just bigger.

Who'd a thunk it, the DCCC wasting its money on a dumb negative campaign. Wow, that's never happened before.

Anyone have a mop? I seem to have dripped sarcasm all over the floor.

I don't mean doubt about Obama's birth certificate, but doubt about the literally delusional state of American conservatives? Conservatives who still have functioning brains may not want to spend their time debunking their own loonies, but unless and until they're willing to do so, conservatism will remain an intellectually bankrupt philosophy.

The 911 hijackers who attacked New York flew over the Indianpoint nuclear power plant. Had the chosen to hit the plant instead of the WTC, they potentially could have rendered most of the New York metropolitan area uninhabitable for decades.

Tell me how we bomb (or plane) proof nuclear plants, and I'm ready to listen to building more. Until then, accidents and waste just aren't worth talking about.

I don't normally donate during primaries. I'm still recovering from emptying my pockets for last year's campaign (not to mention the Franken recount fund) but I put in a few bucks. I also don't know the other candidates, so Joe, I'm really trusting you. He sounds like not just a Democrat, but the sort we want. http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/21621

Bachmann knows urban hip. After all, she drives through Minneapolis between her district and the airport. She doesn't talk to anybody, but she sees the big buildings.

I could well accept that details of different incidents and conversations blended together with no intention to deceive, but remember that the point of the story was the inability of the federal government to cope with a crisis. If officials were actually taking the reasonable step of finding out who was in a boat in case they disappeared, then the story doesn't support Jindal's point.

I understand jebldmm's point about how much attention Jindal is getting. Maybe it's that we expected clarity and boldness from Obama, whereas Jindal said a bunch of questionable things that needed debunking. Maybe we've gotten used to being on offense instead of defense. Maybe conservatives haven't found effective lines of attack on Obama so we don't feel a need to defend him.

I sometimes wonder when politicians go on satirical programs like Colbert, but maybe they think they make bigger targets of themselves if they don't, or they hope by showing a sense of humor to counter the image of themselves. It's hard to know the effect. John Hall might have gotten in to Congress by daring to go on Colbert. Mike Huckabee made repeat appearances and they at least didn't hurt. McCain might have helped himself on SNL and the Daily Show. Eleanor Holmes Norton is semi-regular on Colbert and she's getting her vote for DC, so maybe playing along works.

I never know what to say, but my sympathy.

If you want to make liberals sympathize with somebody, aim Limbaugh's mouth at them. I happened to catch Steele saying that, and I figured this would happen. I can believe Steele is wrong about almost everything and I can even suspect tokenism, but I give Steele this much: he goes into the belly of the beast, by which I mean liberal interview programs (D.L. Hughley in this case, and he's been on Real Time), whereas I can't see Limbaugh going on such a program if he can't bluster through the whole thing.

Actually, I think we should be worried about Steele, because he's one of the few Republicans smart enough to realize they can't be content competing in just selected areas. He may not understand blue states or urban areas, but he does know he needs to. I prefer my Republicans holed up in the exurbs. As an active Democrat, I expect to be on offense in Republican areas for one more election cycle, but after that, maybe not.

Maybe they attack the DMV without cause because after many yeas of going after the post office, too many people have figured out that the post office is cheap and efficient. At least every state has its own DMV, so there's a better chance of finding one that's bunged up.

Hey, I know: if we're looking for an example of bunged up bureaucracies, how about banks? Oops.

Vouchers have been tried several times now, and with no discernible effect on the quality of education. Conservatives once had a point that vouchers were a new idea and hadn't been tried. At what point is it no longer true that they haven't been given a fair chance? Maybe, just maybe, there isn't a substitute for adequate funding of public schools.