I think your word style is great, and really fun to read!

As for "man-crushes", I suppose I've had them, but off-hand I can only think of a few, mainly because I've had a life-long suspicion that I'd be disappointed in them. I don't ever recall being impressed by any musicians or actors, for instance. I think a better word for all of this is "inspired by" since that seems closer to the true feeling. For instance, I think Steve Jobs at Apple is pretty inspirational for what he's accomplished with his team at Apple, as well as at Pixar. He knows how to lead quite well. Another guy I'm pretty impressed by is right here on Salon, Glenn Greenwald.

I think I tend to get more inspired by specific acts/works, like a certain movie, book or action. But, I have seen obvious man crushes in other guys. My partner's 19 y.o. son gets them with his friends, who can do no wrong.

I wonder what the opposite of a man crush is? Probably contempt. That's what I feel for Bush (especially the younger one), Cheney, Hoyer, McCain, Douglas Feith, Bolton, Lieberman and a lot of politicos, and well as several talking heads, like Brian Williams, Chris Matthews, Charles Krauthammer, Nicholas Kristof, David Broder, Richard Cohen, etc.

--Ron

Thank you, that was perfect, and crystallizes very well the difference I was trying to put my finger on.

--Ron

<<Clearly there is a difference between irrational hatred and justified hate. Unfortunately, conservatives - as well as many liberals it would seem - would have us believe that irrational hatred is justified and justified hate is irrational.>>

Isn't that the truth? Try reading the sycophants on Talkingpointsmemo.com, who pretend that those who took the time to sign up and protest Obama's cave-in are actually republican troublemakers. A few times they even reference this site and call Mr. Greenwald a liar (though of course with no evidence to back that up other than that they don't want Obama held to account for any slipshod reasoning and pandering he may do). Some call it pandering if Obama were to reject this FISA amendment, rather than recognizing that what he's doing now is the true pander. This election has made me so sick of so many of my fellow democrats. It's hard not to despair. Still, the only way for things to get better is to stick to the truth, even when the political candidates you support are heading the wrong direction, as Obama did.

--Ron

<<The sad thing is, those of us who joined the Obama website to protest his decision to vote yes on the upcoming bill are widely held to be accomplices of Karl Rove, sent there to disrupt the Obama campaign. It would be funny if it weren't so frustrating and sad.>>

I'm so tempted to lay into Obama for this. He was never my first choice, or even second choice. Ironic that all the criticisms laid on Clinton for being so ambitious (as if that was inherently wrong), apply more strongly to Obama.

I will not contribute to Obama's campaign, but instead when I can, will contribute more to the money bomb campaign. At this point, I'm only giving tepid support to Obama, simply because I can't stand the idea of having another f'g republican as president. Thanks, Obama, for killing as much enthusiasm as possible in as short a time as possible. You could not be more plainly two-faced than to act one way to get the nomination, and then immediately turn around and do like he has since then, with the FISA cave first of all in order of infamy, and with the idea that he wants to expand the faith-based bullshit next. I dread what else he'll cave in on. So fuck it, I'm not going to hold my tongue too much, though I am holding back some despite how angry with him I am.

I wish we could rid ourselves of Reid and Pelosi, along with Hoyer and some of the other worse-than-worthless democrats. I hope someone will challenge Obama in the next election and get a real democrat in the presidential office, rather than an extension of the worst democrats.

--Ron

What benefit are we as a country getting from all this secrecy? It has been and is abused over and over. Many times we as a country have been harmed by all these secret operations.

I've thought for many years that we should just eliminate the CIA, and all government secrecy laws. Of course, that's unlikely to ever happen, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be attempted.

--Ron

George Bush doesn't have the right to introduce bills for congress to vote upon. This bill was likely timed to come up after Obama got the nomination, so that he could vote for it and not pay a big political price for it. Do you really think they would have let this get through if he'd come out strongly and unequivocally against it? He could have done so quietly and in person with the people who were pushing this through, who weren't, by the way, named George W Bush.

There is no way to spin this than to say the one person who could have done the most to stop this piece of crap, Barack Obama, chose not to do so. He deserves condemnation for this craven act. I do not want to see McCain in the White House, so I'll still vote for him, though at this point I wish Clinton would somehow get the nomination, and for it to explicitly be because of his cave-ins and arrogant attitude toward his base. At this point, there is no stand he takes that is better than Clinton's, and plenty that are worse, like I don't think she would be pushing for MORE faith-based initiatives!

--Ron

<<Once again here we go with the assinine comments. There are dummies on here throwing stones at obama rather than the man who wanted this bill george bush, it is unbelievable the amount of prejudice and hatred that runs deep in the heart of some people.Look hilliary is not saint and neither is obama but the line has been drawn ,get over it.>>

Yes, he was polarizing, and got people to organize against him because he was so hateful, it did not make us better, it wasted our time. No one should have had to waste time countering hate, rather than working toward real progress. We spent more time trying not to go backwards than in actually going forward. I blame Helms and others of his evil mindset for the waste of time and money he created. So no, there still is no redeeming quality about him. Although it was meant differently, I keep thinking of this quote by Hector Munro (Saki) in one of his stories: He was one of those people greatly improved by death.

--Ron