I’m amazed that some people who profess to be liberal or progressive start demanding retribution at the first opportunity. Somewhere along the line the idea of rapprochement must float to the surface of rational thinking because a house divided against itself cannot stand. The idea that Pastor Rick Warren should not be included in the Obama inaugural is ludicrous. It doesn’t matter what the man thinks or believes unless he’s truly criminal, and no one has suggested that. It doesn’t matter if we all approve of him, because under the Constitution he has the right to his own conscience and his followers have the right to peaceful assembly.

If conservative Christians are going to be marginalized by the more liberal wing of the Democratic Party, then those same Christians will be forced to maintain a hard-line on all of their choices. There is a new generation preparing to step on to the stage and they apparently are not as hidebound and superstitious as their parents. Why make it difficult for them to join the mainstream by straddling an old and tired divide that has been kept on life-support by extremists on the far right for their personal agenda?

I’m not thrilled by the choice of Pastor Warren to have a small part in the ceremony but I’m willing to wait and see if anything good comes of it.

I’m amazed that some people who profess to be liberal or progressive start demanding retribution at the first opportunity. Somewhere along the line the idea of rapprochement must float to the surface of rational thinking because a house divided against itself cannot stand. The idea that Pastor Rick Warren should not be included in the Obama inaugural is ludicrous. It doesn’t matter what the man thinks or believes unless he’s truly criminal, and no one has suggested that. It doesn’t matter if we all approve of him, because under the Constitution he has the right to his own conscience and his followers have the right to peaceful assembly.

If conservative Christians are going to be marginalized by the more liberal wing of the Democratic Party, then those same Christians will be forced to maintain a hard-line on all of their choices. There is a new generation preparing to step on to the stage and they apparently are not as hidebound and superstitious as their parents. Why make it difficult for them to join the mainstream by straddling an old and tired divide that has been kept on life-support by extremists on the far right for their personal agenda?

I’m not thrilled by the choice of Pastor Warren to have a small part in the ceremony but I’m willing to wait and see if anything good comes of it.

Unless and until the citizens demand justice for the entire corrupt Bush crowd the nation cannot heal and remains in danger of becoming a non-democracy. As long as we all stand aside and shrug off what Cheney and Bush did (along with a list of coconspirators to long to publish here) we are all diminished. We need an army of special prosecutors to bring everything out in the open (although, like the Germans after WWII we cannot claim ignorance as we’ve all seen the pictures in the papers, on the Internet and on television for almost six years).

The extreme right wing is at war with the civil fundamentals of the nation and Cheney knows he’s protected by them. The Christian right is a sounding board, an eerie echo of moral acceptability while at the same time cheerleading the most immoral administration in our history. It’s rather amazing that these same scoundrels virtually destroyed the Clinton administration with their towering hypocrisy.

President-elect Obama is a powerful force for hope and things will change, but it’s up to the rest of us to see that these criminals who have almost wrecked the United States do not go into a comfortable and privileged retirement.

Why is this news?

Mr. Conason writes: “Can America still afford that kind of stupidity?”

The answer, of course is, that America never could afford it. Not then, not now. The highly paid staff of the Republican noise machine is at it again; the shock-jocks, that TV network, those fascist newspapers. They are all responsible for the situation in which the nation now finds itself; broke, bloodied and bent. While these jackals have every right to say their piece, the citizens have every right to ignore them. One would think working people would wakeup and start to look after their own interests, especially considering what the Republicans are trying to do before they haul out of Washington.

Turn the right-wing noise machine off, tune them out, and soon enough they will drop out!

President-elect Obama has offered to reach across the aisle to the *loyal opposition* (snicker). The Republicans will find it difficult to respond while they’re sitting on their greedy and bloody hands!