"Can someone please translate RealName? [who says:] 'I'm a Democrat since probably before you smashed your first Starbucks window. I'm not sure I've ever watched more than 15 secs of FoxNews.' I'm utterly lost on this dialect of Wingnutese. Can someone please translate it to simple english?" -- Iokannan

Jive Lady: Oh stewardess! I speak jive. He said that he's in great pain and he wants to know if you can help him.

Randy: All right. Would you tell him to just relax and I'll be back as soon as I can with some medicine?

Jive Lady: Jus' hang loose, blood. She gonna catch ya up on da' rebound on da' med side.

Second Jive Dude: What it is, big mama? My mama no raise no dummies. I dug her rap!

Jive Lady: Cut me some slack, Jack! Chump don' want no help, chump don't GET da' help! Jive ass dude don't got no brains anyhow! Hmmph!

-- courtesy IMDb (edited by WeikuBoy for brevity)

Paul R.(?): "Rebuilding New Orleans should be a cornerstone of the Democrats' Southern Strategy. It's the right thing to do on every level: spiritual, moral, public policy, politics."

Scooter['s Ideological Cell Mate]: "Considering Dems were in charge all along, what makes you think they will do a better job this time?"

Translation from the 'Nut: 28% PER CENT AND FALLING!!! Man the lifeboats; women and children first! Oh who am I kidding? Out of my freakin' way!!! 28 FREAKIN' PER CENT!!!!!

RealName, this might be a good time to tell you that I've long ago stopped reading your posts. Oh sure, there are times when I'll be reading a letter, sense that something is off with the writer, and realize (d'oh!) it's yet another of the 655 letters (and counting) you've plastered on Salon in just the last 5 weeks. Oops, make that 656. I mean 657. Wait: 658. But otherwise I now look ahead to the writer's name, and skip your letters.

Why don't you start your own blog? as an outlet for your endless, infinite opinions, and apparently unlimited time. You can complain about DFH's, and all of the insults to Israel and the Jewish people you care to imagine. Seriously, dude, get a life -- or, if not a life, a blog. Sheesh, 659 letters? Oops, make that 670. I get it: you hate Islam. BORE-RING!

"Kennedy authorized America's most embarrassing foreign policy debacle of the last century with the failed invasion of Cuba, [and] began the escalation of the our involvement in SE Asia. Kennedy's legacy is a triumph of image over substance." -- ikuiku

1. The Bay of Pigs was set up by the CIA under Ike, and handed off to JFK. Criticize JFK for not standing up to the CIA in his first few days in office if you must; but don't you dare try to tell me how 9/11, eight months into Bush-Cheney, was Bill Clinton's fault.

2. JFK continued, but did not begin, the escalation of American involvement in Southeast Asia. That, too, began under Ike, and specifically under Dulles (the diplomat, not the spy), who backed the Bao Dai govt in Saigon, following the partition of Vietnam into North and South at Geneva in '54. The American military presence grew steadily through the 50's and early 60's until JFK, fed up with Diem, decided to pull the plug on U.S. involvement-- a decision the fact of which was incidentally confirmed by McNamara in the documentary "The Fog of War." Instead, Diem and JFK were both assassinated in November '63.

In the August following JFK's assassination, the Gulf of Tonkin "incident" was fabricated; the Senate voted 98-2 to authorize retaliation; and in early '65 the Marines stormed the beach at Da Nang and the Vietnam War As We Know It began. (The Marines incidentally were greeted on the beach by pretty girls dressed in ao-dais with Hawaii-style flower leis, much to the embarassment of their officers.)

Glenn's question was rhetorical, concerning what GOP Minister of Disinformation Snow meant by a "bipartisan legislative solution" last year; but I was curious, thus Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Act

It seems four different bills attempting to save Bush-Cheney were introduced last year, but none passed. They are either still pending, or became moot when the last Congress adjourned at the end of 2006. (I'd guess the latter.) Then the Wikipedia article had this:

"On April 13, 2007 the administration submitted legislation to Congress [title omitted] requesting that FISA be amended 'to bring FISA up to date with the revolution in tele-communications technology that has taken place since 1978, while continuing to protect the privacy interests of persons located in the United States.' "

Minister Snow might have been referring to the ancient legal doctrine of l'Etat c'est Moi, which, roughly translated, means "the Bush-Cheney GOP proclaimed it, therefore it is." Voila! (See also: No Child Left Behind; New Orleans Recovery; Victory in Iraq; etc.)