Dear Anonymous,

Note, the aircraft carriers are POINTING the missiles rather than FIRING them. Saber rattling (when there is capability to back it up) is a form of diplomacy. Rough-hewn, primitive kind of diplomacy, but diplomacy nonetheless. People are much more willing to negotiate, it seems, when they are threatened with violence than when they are receiving it. When things start exploding, it's too late to talk and the fight-or-flight instinct sets in, so the nation you're trying to sway to your will splits into two populations: the refugees and the insurgents. At which point it's all over.

On a different topic... you know, I used to view the press as a bunch of vultures, especially given their appetite for lurid details of, say, the sex life of Bill Clinton. It was perhaps at that point that the press completed its transformation from a bunch of journalists to a bunch of paparazzi. However, I see now that the annoying pervasiveness of those who ask uncomfortable questions and scribble down every word into their notebooks is much preferable to the alternative. The alternative, of course, being the complacent scribbling down of propaganda they're fed.

Helen Thomas rules, yes. And someone pointed out that it's sad that she isn't, actually, doing anything remarkable, only her job, which SEEMS remarkable in contrast to all the rest of her colleagues. But let's face it, the true heroes are those who do their job in a climate where doing your job is impossible, and perhaps fraught with certain dangers, such as losing your career. While, thankfully, our nation does not yet imprison or assassinate adversarial journalists, the truth is nevertheless no longer welcome. Good thing that some in the business insist on keeping it up. Even the most unremarkable things, in certain circumstances, become heroic.

Yikes! Okay, we'll see if the threat goes through. At the very least, it's an escalation in this game of chicken. Of course, if you permit me to dream for a moment, wouldn't it be awesome if W. and Vice ended up in jail? Mmm...

...okay, dream over. Of course, now they've got four options. One, turn over the docoments and possibly face much longer and much more assured jail time. Two, remain in contempt and risk going to jail that way. Three, wrangle a blockage of the Senate or House vote so that the contempt procedures stall. Four, dissolve Congress and institute martial law.

Which do you think they will opt for?

Hey! If Mexican farmers start getting richer and providing, you know, JOBS in their own country for their own people... maybe we'll see fewer illegal immigrants in the U.S. You think? Maybe? I wonder if I've just stumbled on a solution to our "illegal immigrant problem."

Yeah, I know. Brilliant. Nobody's thought of that before. But stay your applause, because I'm sure things are more complicated.

By the way, you who rail against "GM crap" which is "proven to increase obesity", etc. May I have a link to that startling information? And while we're at it, may I point out that what we call "corn" now is by no means a "natural" plant. It's so far removed from its ancestor that it can't even reproduce without human intervention. So is wheat. So is rye. So are legumes. And let's not even get into triticale, the wheat-rye hybrid which is, I hear, sold in them health food stores. You would lose your organic pesticide-free lunch if you knew how they were able to get a hybrid of two distinct species. (Hint: it involves nasty harsh chemicals, and yes, genetic modification.)

(Disclaimer: I am not a spokesman for Monsanto or any other Evil Corporation (tm). I am merely a molecular biologist who dislikes when people equate genetics with evil. I also do not think that genetically modified crops are perfectly safe and are a panacea to all the world hunger issues. I, however, believe that humans were genetically modifying crops since before we knew what genes were or invented the word "modify".)

"I mean, look. I think, okay? It's the thing I do. It's my job, the thinking. If you walk into the Oval Office on any given day, you'll see me there, thinking. I'm a thinker. The Thinker. I've given it some thought. Not ALL of my thought, mind you, but some. My thought is too precious to give all of it to this matter, much as I love Scooter. Do you love Scooter? No? Well, you're a traitor to this nation and must be destroyed. But we'll get to that. Look. Don't fuck with me, okay? I said Scooter goes free, so Scooter goes free. You fuck with me, you end up in Gitmo without habeas corpus. Got it?"

And then he got Dick to shoot the reporter in the face.

If by know you mean actually had information stored in his brain cells, then Gonzales can claim actual lack of brain cells and lack of information input. At this point the Administration is using the Idiot Defense: sorry, we couldn't have done anything illegal because we're too damn idiotic to do anything at all.

People go to jail for criminal incompetence, don't they? I think "governing while stupid" should be a crime. Please tell me it's a crime. Anyone? Any lawyers?

I think if the Democratic Congress started, in earnest, to push for impeachment of the whole gang, all of it, right now, they would have the country rise up behind them. Americans want regime change. Now. (Shall we go into the streets and wave the American flag? Would that help?)