A question for Mr. Greenwald regarding pardons, immunity and the Fifth Amendment. It has little to do with the discussion in question but you are a constitutional lawyer and are therefore most qualified to answer it.

Does the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination protect against incrimination in a jurisdiction outside the United States? I think we're all sure that as Bush leaves office he will issue blanket pardons for everyone in his cabinet and staff for any crimes he/she might have committed during the administration (ala Ford). Fine, I say. They may escape the justice they deserve but now they cannot invoke the Fifth, so they can be subpoenaed before Congressional committees and be forced to testify under threat of perjury. This will allow us to rip the lid off the whole disgusting can of worms that has been the Bush regime and the entire conservative movement in this country. Recently, however I was listening to a radio interview with author Philippe Sands who suggested that many of Bush's people might be prosecuted in other jurisdictions. So my question is, Could, say, Donald Rumsfeld invoke his Fifth Amendment right if there was a chance of him being prosecuted in Germany, the World Court, or a Sadr controlled Islamic Iraq?

According to a friend of mine, a major airline's Chicago division cut their staff of ramp workers, figuring that they could keep the planes loaded using overtime. This resulted in a quite large number of layoffs. It also created a number of more enterprising workers with a lot of discretionary income. Some of these employees would spend their windfalls at a local strip club and one can assume that the dancers were collecting windfalls of their own. Unfortunately, the number of on the job injuries at the airport caused the airline's Workers Comp insurance premiums to soar and the company decided to call back most of the laid off workers. The overtime dried up, the visits to the club declined as (presumably) did the strippers windfalls. There's a lesson in there somewhere. Several, in fact.

Good eye, Tom. But consider that the perp would be handcuffed. And an officer did get in with the stripper, so most likely nobody could get to it.

Even ignoring the subject matter, I saw a candidate who was confused, uninformed and weak. If that McCain video were adequately circulated by the media it would be the kiss of death for his candidacy. He was totally discombobulated by a fair question and the questioner could not be accused of browbeating him (in fact they shared a laugh during the discussion). If this would receive one one hundredth of the coverage that Jeremiah Wright got during his cycle the Republicans would be pouring over their rules books trying to find a way to un-nominate him.

A Rhodes scholar with a PhD in political science and a political talk show scares anyone from TNR, eh? There's a lesson in there somewhere.

This is what happens when trite, cliched talking points are put under the microscope. McCain has nothing resembling an idea in his platform and the women on "The View" found it easy to point that out.

Can somebody tell me why Chuck Yeager is considered a national hero just because he flew faster than the speed of sound? It seems to me that we should be celebrating the engineers who designed the plane. Christopher Columbus has been deservedly taken down several pegs over the last couple of decades but I'm still much more impressed by the leap of faith on the part of the first person who pointed his ships West to get to the East. What gives here?

You made the case for Obama with mathematical elegance. I'm forwarding it to my Buchananite brother for his consideration.

For my money, Mark Knopfler's "Song For Sonny Liston" tops them all. It's quite well written by somebody who knows next to nothing about boxing. Knopfler said in an interview that he thought Liston was about the saddest looking individual he'd ever seen a photograph of and he developed a picture of him based on this. The song is almost as depressing as Son House's "Death Letter". My vote for best sports song ever. It's on the CD, "Shangri-La".

How should Obama respond to the smears when he confronts McCain? Set the record straight or go after McCain as a liar? Take the high road or bring up the Keating Five? Should he be wary of the "angry black man" stereotype or should he rip into McCain? All these answers could be right but since Obama has run a near perfect campaign it isn't likely he'll slip up.

Additionally, it's kind of tragic that the whole edifice of the Conservative movement should collapse on McCain's head but since he has proved to be the only Republican with any stature at all it's fitting. By the way, Glenn, Nixon resigned in '74.

Sarah, you simply got it wrong there.

There can be no doubt that a President Obama will face some serious obstacles after taking office. The far-right attack machine has demonstrated that it won't let the fact that its claims are untrue keep it from making those claims anyway. An improved Congressional majority will leave us with a Blue Dog problem and only the most recalcitrant Republicans in Congress. They will be organized, disciplined and fairly willing to do whatever it takes to derail Obama's agenda and with a less than filibuster-proof Senate majority major problems will arise. There si also the problem of a Federal Bench, over 60% of which is made up of Republican appointees. Yet all that pales in comparison to the corporate powers that will feel threatened by a progressive agenda. I suspect that they will either work to obstruct much of what Obama and the Democrats want to do or, more likely, attempt to coopt the agenda in order to blunt its effectiveness. In either case we progressives need to be educated and to keep our eyes open.