That last line should read: Same goes for Chelsea Clinton, or any other adult child of a Presidential candidate who actively campaigns for their parent.

When I watched the show in question, as Olbermann made the remark I took it to be a metaphor, not a statement of implied violence.

I'm tired of everyone being so oversensitive that we aren't picking up on metaphors or other rhetorical devices. Granted, what Olbermann said was poorly phrased, but that's the risk of live TV.

Oh well...even though I'm far more sad and disappointed in my party than I thought I'd be at this stage in the race, I'll still vote for the Dem nom, whoever that may be. I just wish we weren't tearing ourselves apart in the process.

I'm glad it was you, King, who did the honors for Mr Carlin. The only other Salon writer who could have done him justice is Gary Kamiya, and he's probably asleep at the moment.

When I heard the news a little earlier, I hollered NO! and cried for a little bit. I learned about George Carlin's genius from my mom, and so hearing that we'd lost him just reopened the wound that was losing mom 3 years ago. I know, it sounds weird, but there ya go. It even made me feel better to see that George was still around when he was on Countdown with Keith Olbermann recently, like a reminder of my mom and what made her laugh.

I saw them in 2005 at Atlanta's ProgPower music festival, on their first visit to the U.S. They're a great band, although when I got their album before the festival I was expecting them to sound harder than they are. I was thinking more System of a Down, but Orphaned Land are more like Queensryche in their sound.

I can't speak to their politics as I haven't listened to the album much since I got it, but after reading this article I think I'll dig it up and get re-acquainted with it.

And I have to agree wholeheartedly with Michael in Vegas. If CA would finally legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana (and no other drug), we could erase the budget problems, fund our schools and roads and pretty much anything else we need to take care of. Plus with fewer people being arrested on minor marijuana charges, the prison system would see at least a little relief in prisoner volume and that would mean a smaller prison budget.

I'm not going to hold my breath, but oh, a sensible drug policy would be a beautiful thing.

Alex, I don't think you posted this from the future, at 10:50(am) EDT. Did you mean 01:50 EDT?

Yes, I am that anal about things like timestamps. :)

The main headline/link on the front page of Salon spelled 'manners' wrong. It's currently 'maners'

Nice try, but you're no Jonathan Swift.

Lifelong Eisenhower Republican, but more out of tradition (his family were small business owners). He's always been socially liberal but fiscally conservative, but this year he changed his voter registration to Democrat. He told me it was specifically so he could cast his vote in this historic election, for either the first woman or the first African-American to run for President. He decided to vote for Obama, and was all fired up about it back before the CA primary (where we both live). He really likes what Obama has to say about pretty much everything, and I think that the Republicans have lost him forever, at least as voter registration is concerned; he never was a straight party ticket voter.

Once again, a great column. Gary Kamiya is one of the reasons why I re-up my Salon subscription every year, along with King Kaufman and Table Talk.

"We are one of those people that make over $250,000 a year, and I don't agree that that makes us rich," said Melinda Sacks, who runs her husband's law office in San Clemente, referring to Obama's answer at the forum that put her in the "wealthy" category. "Even with that kind of income, we struggle to pay everything we have gotten ourselves into."

Oh, and who's fault is it that you're struggling to pay it all, hmmm? Why the hell are you in hawk up to your eyeballs, especially if you're self-employed or a small business owner. What part of 'conservative' don't you understand, lady? Damn. I am so sick of the sense of entitlement and total lack of self-awareness from people like this woman.

I understand why Obama accepted this invitation, but I don't have to like that he pretty much had to take it. As the spokesperson for Americans United for Separation of Church and State said on Countdown Friday night, we have too much religion involved in our government these days (paraphrased). I wish we as a country were beyond this particular litmus test for anyone, but especially our public officials.

Why are we so stupid?

< pet rant >

Because over the last 40 years our educational system has been systematically dismantled and re-made so that instructors 'teach to the test' as the schools are held hostage to test score results. No time to teach critical thinking, and with nutjobs clamoring to have intelligent design and/or creationism taught alongside real science, school districts scrub anything of substance from the rest of the curriculum. Now, with an electorate that can't think for itself, the RWAs have cranked up the noise part of the signal/noise ratio so that the average American can barely find the truth. Of course, that assumes they even want to find it..most folk have been satiated into a coma on junk food and reality TV and gossipy infotainment.

< /pet rant >

And that's why the crap thrown by monkeys like Limbaugh and Hannity and the rest sticks when it shouldn't, and it stains us all.