I live in San Deigo but travel to San Francisco occasionally. I see the same thing in both place. These were such beautiful, pristine places full of open space and natural wonder.

Today, they're rapidly become a more tropical/green version of Midwest strip-malls with the same mindless, endless franchises.

Go bike around the bay. While you may find pockets of goodness, it will mostly be franchised, multinational capitalism at its worst.

Obviously, Dubya should be impeached. And, like an abused spouse considering alternatives ... I ask, what are the alternatives?

We impeach Bush and then we get Dick Cheney, the real architect of the war. What would happen to us if he became the next president ... having the power without the machinations of back-door influence. And, suppose he dies of a heart attack or in another duck hunting incident. Then, Condeleeza Rice is our president?

I think we should just wait it out. The Repblicans are self-destructing. Let them stay the course.

If Cheney died of a heart attack or in a duck-hunting incident, it would'nt be Condi in charge but Nancy Pelosi ... and that would be a good thing.

I've been working in the WWW/IT business for 10 years now.

The most flawed thing about Nielsen changing web ranking from page hits to page time is understanding how people use the Internet. When I get my Salon or NY Times email, I click on all the "articles of interest" and open them up at one time. Then I read them, one-by-one.

According to Nielsen, the last web page I read would have the longest page-view time. Is that relevant? NO. Because I read the most interesting articles first and the least interesting last. And, sometimes, I don't even bother reading the last ones.

People tend to blithely forget that Laura Bush is a "former" smoker who has been caught taking a puff now and then.

Hey, what's up with the color. Halfway through the boring manga, the USN didn't bother to colorize it any more. If the Defense Dept want to waste tax dollars they should at least finish the job ... oops, Iraq.

This kind of "baiting" used to be called "red baiting". I guess now it is "blue baiting" with posing Palin as a dominatrix. Has it really worked for the red party?

I think we should just call call her out on issues and opinions. If she does that and the majority vote still votes for her (in those safe electronic voting machines),then so be it.

Frankly, all the voting is rigged. I'll still vote but I might as well be living in Central American or in Africa (the continent, not the "country").

This really sucks. My mom is a fundamentalist Christian like Palin and I wouldn't either of them running the country or making important decisions.

I'm not being snarky here, but the plural of "memoradum" is "memoranda" ... not "memorandums".

Hey Cary,

I love reading your articles, but one thing I didn't see in your reply ... why the f@!k is the daughter reading the dad's emails?

A couple years ago, we used to joke about PBS and the "Perricone Prescription" for aging. They've been doing this for some time now ... which is why I used to be a PBS donor but don't do it any more. Shame on them.

I'm an avid reader of your articles on Slate ... just kidding, I meant Salon.

Joan ... what were you thinking? Your article reads like the "heads-up" I have to give my mom when when I get into an email exchange with my crazy, right-wing uncle.

There is one person who put Fox "News" in their place, and that was Barak Obama. When they started attacking his immediate famly last year, the Obama campaign cut Fox out ... no debates, no interviews, not allowed on the campaign trail ... nothing. Rupert Murdoch had to invite Obama to lunch as assure him that it wouldn't happen any more, in order to get Fox back in the loop.

When the right-wing is able to have a civilized dialogue and agree to disagree, then we should engage in debate. But that isn't the political world we live in.

Why not just offer this kind of information in English and Spanish. That would cover about 90% of the population. For the other 10% ... well, hey, we're in a budget crisis.

I was a big supporter of Obama ... donated the max to his primary and his general election.

Like many ex-pats and volunteers in Nepal at the time, I watched the election at the US Embassy, televised by the Air Force channel (no kidding). We all hugged each other and cried with joy and pride when we learned that he was our next president.

But now, I'm rather disillusioned. There has been a six month history of blaming the past administration and then embracing or upholding some of their worst policies. Won't go into the compromises on Gitmo, health care, and energy that water-down true reform.

If we truly want change, to keep hope alive, and to bring Amerca bacik to embracing the Constitution, I'm not sure this is our guy. And, by the way, the recent luau held at the White House kind of ticked me of ... in this recession/mini-depression, there should be a message of austerity, as that is what most Americans are facing right now.

OK, so opinion polls will tell you this and that.

But, when people vote it is, thankfully, still a private thing. And conservatives have been trounced rather roundly and will continue to be trounced, barring rapid inflation.

The conservatives need to get back to their roots and focus on their core values ... less government intervention, lower taxes, et al. Instead, they have married a rather harsh wife in the guise of morality.

Separate yourselves from moral and religious issues and win back your base and all those independents who think you have some good ideas. But, stay out of the bedroom and the classroom, and don't wage senseless wars any more.