troll: One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.

Close to 3000 letters in (mostly) outraged response to Joan Walsh's last 3 columns about Obama and Clinton.

Ordinarily, someone will step up and diplomatically suggest "Don't feed the trolls" when a columnist is attacked so mercilessly.

But what's the correct reaction when the troll is the columnist herself?

@donnaquixote:

"I wonder if those who have cancelled their subscriptions to Salon felt the same way about Daily Kos or Moveon.org..."

Daily Kos and Moveon.org don't charge admission to their occasional craziness. I already pay Time-Warner and my local multiplex a lot of money to shovel crap at me. There's a limit to how much I want to spend to get irritated.

I can use the money I save on a Salon "premium" subscription to phone up a 900 number dominatrix.

Or better yet, contribute another bump the Obama campaign.

I heard someplace, George Bush doesn't care about black people.

What's up with that background? Is that Joan's Fortress of Solitude?

Or is that one of those fancy ambient light displays where the background provides a halo reflecting the mood of the subject?

I hereby claim coinage rights for the term Salonanism.

Glenn Greenwald and Rebecca Traister, both with anti-Obama headline features this week? Who's the editor at Salon, anyway? Some vengeful die-hard Hillary supporter?

You guys should be on McCain's payroll. Great job undermining the ultimate goal, you twits.

@ casual_observe

what's the "the ultimate goal"? This year it's eliminating the Republican reign so repairs can begin to the damage they've done, and we can roll back the violations of constitutional rights already perpetrated.

@ Jim in VA

"The ultimate goal is having fundamental Constitutional rights."

Exactly. And which party and candidate do you think will do most to preserve those rights?

You guys are throwing a fit over a battle, while Obama is focused on winning the larger war: getting elected.

Let's exterminate the termites before we worry about the repaving the foundation.

For once can we let the Republicans be the ones who have wavering doubts about their candidate?

Olbermann's segment about the FISA issue was titled "In it to win it." Is that concept so complicated to grasp?

"Generation Kill" -- which is based on the eponymous book by Evan Wright..."

Anna Karenina, eponymous. Moby Dick, eponymous. The Godfather, eponymous.

Generation Kill, eponymous? ...eh, not so much.

...how is it a "lovely moment" when McCain reveals himself once again to be at least the equal of G.W. Bush when it comes to clueless bumbling prevarication, and maybe surpasses him in clumsy inarticulate chicanery.

Stop grinning about Viagra like a 3rd grader and cut through the fakery. Or maybe it takes one whimsical old coot with a 1000-yard stare to appreciate another.

@ prytania

I'm sitting at home in Kentucky too, and I live right next door to hillbillies. There are hillbillies all over town -- and it's a town the western flatlands.

You don't have to live in the hills to have hillbilly values, and the Palin clan prove you don't have to live in Kentucky either.

I'd say, "If the shoe fits..." but that test doesn't really apply to the barefoot and pregnant.

"Can Palin ever come back?"

Will you ever go away?