Could people stop jumping on the LW for wanting a "perfect wedding"? That's the headline-writer's phrase, not hers. And she never used the word "trashy". Headline writer again. Cary did use the phrase "white trash," but the LW didn't. There's plenty to criticize in her letter without putting words in her mouth.

I really wish Salon were more careful about this. It's not the first time commenters have been led to savage a LW for word choices s/he didn't make.

I agree with another poster that this was a great format for Kucinich. I find it refreshing that he resolutely refuses to accept GOP framing of issues. (Immigrants: evil terrorists or just shameless thieves of our children's future? Discuss.)

I also thought Edwards was successful. I feel that this group of candidates tends to get caught up in demonstrating that he or she is the smartest kid in the room. Edwards always remembers that the goal is to garner votes, not just admiration.

But it is heartening that pretty much each of these kids is generally the smartest one in any room they've been in. Can even the most partison say that about the GOP crop?

You are getting so tiresome.

Your mom owes me big time. I totally invented creaming a stick of butter with sugar and adding an egg and vanilla and then mixing in flour, salt and baking powder, and then folding in chocolate chips. No one ever would have thought of it if it hadn't been for me.

Can't we please go back to criticizing Cindy for stealing vicodin from her charity? Now that's theft we can all agree about. And comparatively few of our moms go in for that particular hobby.

The parallel cover would show McCain in the act of fathering his illegitimate black baby. Remember that one?

Let's see: It's edgy. It's satirical. It's based on a rumor that's "out there." It's completely untrue. It's racist. And it originates with Rove or one of his ilk.

Of course, a true parallel would be a cover based on the Democratic Big Lie about McCain. But as far as I know, that doesn't exist. As others in this thread have pointed out, the McCan cover is based on the truth, while the Obama one merely depicts right-wing lies. Not the same thing at all.

The mother couldn't remember where she'd heard it before, only that it had been recently.

I wouldn't pressure them to change their vote, but I would decrease their monthly check by 10% and send that amount to liberal causes, in their name. Make sure they understand what you're doing. They'll get a lot of liberal literature in the mail -- maybe they'll read some of it some day. You can treat it in a light-hearted way.

I watched the clip with great interest, having read Glenn's background. I put my head right up to the computer and really listened hard. I still just barely deciphered what the Obama spokesman was saying, because Hannity just yelled over him as he made what would have been, under any normal circumstances, masterful rejoinders. If this is as good as it gets on Fox, and I'll have to take your word for it that it is, then I have to agree with your original statement. There is no reason to go on that network to be yelled over. It offers them legitimacy and, in fact, doesn't even allow an opportunity to refute them. What actual Fox viewers saw, or think they saw, was Hannity beating up on yet another effete liberal.

I wish Obama's guy had made the point that it's not hard to figure out when Hannity agrees with someone: he lets them speak. Anti-semites don't get shouted down. Anyone who isn't a 22%-er does. QED. But of course, Hannity wouldn't allow a statement like that to be heard.

Your girlfriend's first boyfriend is your best friend, and his current girlfriend is your girlfriends's former roommate? Do I have that right? (Correct me if I'm wrong, cuz I don't care enough to go back and read it again.) This whole situation is just so incredibly incestuous and juvenile! I'd say you're all "settling" for whoever is convenient. Let her go. And get out more. You need a wider circle of friends.

Does anyone know who wrote Obama's speech? (Or McCain's, for that matter.) Obama's sounded very Colbert-ish to me.

I remember studying the Civil War and its aftermath in high school eons ago. The teacher explained to us that upper class whites weren't, for the most part, and with lots of obvious exceptions, the virulant racists. The real racists were low-class, non-slave-owning whites who were afraid that if African-Americans were declared the equal of whites, there'd be no one left below them on society's ladder.

So let's treat Laurel and other garden-variety bigots of her ilk with the pity she deserves. If society doesn't hate gays anymore, who will be left below her?

I thought I was pretty much done with Cary. But the last two days have been poetic and moving, and also, I suspect, genuinely helpful.

He just wrote what I thought was a very snarky article in the Times about what dim bulbs his friends are: refusing to share, insisting on steak, bitching about being taken to one-star restaurants too many times, trumpeting his real name when he was incognito. Were you one of them? I figured he must be in the market for new friends, or was such an unlikable guy that he was forced to dine with losers.

I haven't seen this (and lord knows I don't have any intention to) but your synopsis makes the movie it describes sound like a typically clueless example of "Hollywood Does Mike Leigh."