Since when is $22,000 expensive? Every car other than a subcompact costs well above that. I have a Prius. I bought it in 2003 for $21,000 and got a $2,000 federal tax credit. The thing is virtually maintenance free. It gets about 40 mpg in good weather, less when it's really cold out. That's better than ANY gas-fueled car, except the teeny ones (maybe).Like all Toyotas, it runs like a top.

I don't get this, this urge to bash the Prius. I can see ignorant Republicans doing it, but not the supposed enlightened.

A hybrid SUV is a con job. Why waste the technology on a lumbering fat ass of a "car" that gets at best 28 mpg. A family of four can fit in a Prius and get 40.

I was fortunate to hear Michelle speak a few months ago. I frankly did not have high expectations--I figured she'd dutifully talk about the wifely issues - children, education, etc. But no - she was positively electrifying. She was as good a speaker as her husband. Equally intelligent and sincere and easy going. I suspect she never knew she had it in her until this campaign.

It is so encouraging to see how people connect with her. Obama's campaign is run the way he used to do community organizing - person by person connections. It's hard work, but it's paying off. Only Obama can: beat the repugs, heal the rifts gleefully created by those thugs, repair our reputation in the world, and stop our march toward fascism. Make no mistake, Hillary is as fascist as Cheney. Nothing will change with her as president.

"...then she turned around and sold him hers for just a fraction of what she'd paid for it."

I live in Chicago and have been following Obama's career since his Senate campaign. The Chicago Tribune ran a good, detailed critique of the Rezko relationship many, many months ago. One key point is that Rezko's wife sold the Obama's a 10 foot wide strip of their property so the Obama's could enlarge their side yard. It is misleading to say she sold "hers" for a "fraction" of her cost. She sold a fraction of "hers" for a fraction of her cost. The Sun-Times is the New York Post of Chicago. Please look in the Tribune archives for better written and researched articles about Obama. It should also be noted that Rezko has been indicted for shenanigans related to his cozy relationship with our corrupt governor (also a Dem, unfortunately).

"The Obama campaign is the only thing that has stopped me fantasizing that the next president would investigate Bush and Cheney and have them arrested and humiliated. That could make me prefer a constructive future instead of a vindictive one."

RUKidding has articulated my feelings exactly. I wanted blood from those scumbags so bad - but it's all so much impotent rage. We need positive outlets for all that energy. This is the essence of the Obama campaign - appealing to our better angels. Yeah, it makes people feel good, but it also builds a coalition of people ready to back and work for positive change.

...but when I read this article, the first image that popped into my mind was the short-lived TV show "Dark Angel" which ran from 2000-2001 (before 9/11). It was about America after the "pulse", some kind of low grade nuclear attack that demolished our electronic infrastructure and sent America into an economic and social tailspin. To keep control of the frightened population, newly plunged into a life of gas shortages, no electricity and a barter economy, the fascistic government that took control engaged in big brother-like surveillance, including drones that recognize biometric data on people and that could target and kill individuals.

How prescient of the creators of Dark Angel. No doubt after the drones kill all the Iraqis, they can be sent home to subdue insurgents here.... Unless, of course, we also get the Dark Angel, a genetically modified woman created in a government lab to be a super soldier, who escaped and now kicks the government's butt on behalf of the oppressed!

...must also be held accountable. His politically motivated persecution of Democratic state employee Georgia Thompson was beyond the pale. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals took the unprecedented step of striking down her conviction and releasing her from prison IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING ORAL ARGUMENT on her appeal:

"In a stunning reversal, a federal court of appeals struck down a state worker's fraud conviction that Wisconsin Republicans used in efforts to paint Gov. Jim Doyle's administration as corrupt. Attorneys on both sides of the case said the three-judge panel likely overruled the trial jury's conviction of former state purchasing officer Georgia Thompson within hours of oral arguments due to a simple lack of evidence. The decision by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, which will explain the judges' reasoning, was not immediately available. During oral arguments Thursday, one of the members the three-judge panel said the charges against Thompson were unfounded. "I have to say it strikes me that your evidence is beyond thin", federal Appeals Judge Diane Wood told prosecutors. "I'm not sure what your actual theory in this case is." [Wikipedia]

Biskupic is a former high school classmate of mine. He was educated - in high school, college and law school (Marquette University)- in a Catholic moral tradition that apparently didn't take. His enthusiastic embrace of Rovian sleaze, hijacking our justice system to serve his own career and the schemes of his puppetmasters in Washington, is an embarrassment to our alma mater and the legal profession. Steven Biskupic must be held accountable for ruining the life of an innocent woman for purely political purposes. I think it would be appropriate for him and the Siegelman prosecutors to take their turn in the federal pen.