I've seen clips of the whole Coulter quote, and yes, she did call John Edwards a "faggot." That was the word she chose to use; and yes it does make her "a racist or a homophobe." Nor am I aware of any racist or anti-gay slurs being used against Republican presidential candidates at any Democratic gathering comparable to the one Coulter was addressing or on a corporate media show such as GE/MSNBC's 'Hardball.' The Gop should be ashamed.

There might be people on Teh Left who are as hostile to civilized discourse as Coulter; but such people wisely are not allowed anywhere near the corporate media or serious political gatherings. As long as GE/MSNBC (and TIME, etc.) provides platforms from which lunatics like her can spew hate, Dems will be placed in the awful position of having to either try to ignore unelected ratfuckers like the Swift Boat Vets for Bush or wading into the mud with them in order to respond. But never do I see any Gop wives being forced to defend their families from accusations of enjoying their child's death, etc. (And I hope I never do.)

"I'd like to shun Bill Moyers every bit as much as some of you might like to shun Ann Coulter... The difference is that Bill Moyers is occupying time on my public broadcasting station, and Ann Coulter isn't."

Sorry Elephant, but you lost me there. Are you saying Bill Moyers called a Gop presidential candidate a "faggot"? Are you saying Bill Moyers accused a group of Republican women of enjoying their husbands' deaths in Iraq? Are you saying Bill Moyers expressed regret that more conservatives have not been killed by terrorist bombs? What exactly are you saying?

If Bill Moyers, one of the finest journalists of our time, somehow descended to the level of a Gop guttersnipe like Coulter, my respect for him would vanish -- just about as quickly as his media platform would be taken away. Until then, the question remains, why does the U.S. corporate media continue to help give voice to extremist right-wing hatemongers?

Isn't the phrase "al-Qaida gunmen" itself juuuuust a tad suspect? Isn't that like saying "Luftwaffe sailors" or, worse still, "Kamikaze militiamen"? Isn't it already a tipoff?

Then again, in light of "Camp Victory" hmm (rubbing chin) I guess it does makes sense.

"What is the nature of good and evil in the post-Sept. 11 world? The same as in the pre-Sept. 11 world. Torture and lying to start wars of choice were evil then, and are evil now.

"What lessons does history have for a president facing the turmoil I'm facing?" See: LBJ, Vietnam War. To wit: at least have the decency to admit you screwed up and retire asap.

"How will history judge what we've done?" Very harshly, notwithstanding the right-wing noise machine/corporate media cheerleaders, who are trying to forget y'all ever existed.

"Why does the rest of the world seem to hate America? Or is it just me they hate?" They do hate you, more than you can possibly imagine; but, thanks to you, they're starting to really wonder about all of us, and not just the most ignorant 28% y'all represent.

Poor little Scooter spared prison, because IOKIYAR

I have heard it said that the rise of the Ottoman Empire and the fall of Constantinople in particular, by closing off trade routes to the Orient, spurred the Christian nations of the West to explore sea routes around Africa and (eventually) to the New World. The wealth of those nations was vastly increased as a result, helping (eventually) the rise of modern capitalism. This would be like al-Qaida taking credit for the Dow at 13,000, because the U.S. occupation of Iraq in response to 9/11 has enormously profited corporate America; but I suppose their point is well taken.

Gibbon, after spending roughly the first half of his great work exploring the causes of the fall of the empire in the West (Christianity, incidentally, is found not guilty), devotes his attention to the fall of the empire in the East. And one of his constant themes -- indeed, his eternal lament -- is that it was endless petty internal warfare among the Christians that allowed a large portion of southeastern Europe and eventually Constantinople to fall to the Turks. The story of the Ottomans in Europe is still the story of Europe's divisions, not its unity, which for the most part was non-existent.

None of this is meant with any disrespect to modern Turkiye or Turkey, a country clearly on the rise, which I have visited and enjoyed immensely. Istanbul is a beautiful city, and with its hills and bridges resembles San Francisco (without skyscrapers). The EU should embrace the Turks rather than push them into the waiting arms of the fundamentalists.

I am old enough to remember all of the American presidents beginning with LBJ in 1965. Within that context, the sick things that are happening now, including but hardly limited to the pardon of poor little Scooter (who won't lose a dime), are wholly unprecedented.

Bush-Cheney are worse than LBJ, who lied America into war but at least had the decency to leave when things went south. Worse than Nixon, who presided over a lawless regime but at least had the decency to quit when things went south. Worse than Ronald Reagan, who presided over another lawless regime but claimed he was asleep the whole time, and as we now know, probably was. Worse than George Bush Sr. (or Harding or Hoover, etc.).

Not just worse, but marked by an off-the-charts level of evil, stupidity, and incompetence, the likes of which have not been seen since the days of Commodus, or at least George III.