The Taliban are perfectly capable of using white phosphorus in Afghanistan and it is to their advantage to do so. Its propaganda value far exceeds its military value.

At this point there is no proof that we used that chemical in that attack, so I am suspicious of your motivation to infer that Obama used phosphorus against civilians.

The dittoheads drool over Limbaugh's polarizing bullshit because they have no understanding of the way things work, so they accept the blowhards' opinions as fact. The problem with extreme commentary is that it is designed to inflame, and not to inform.

I'm not surprised that Limbaugh's audience is claimed to be 19% of the total radio-listening audience. I see that same 19% hanging around street corners cursing or yelling religious slogans to no one in particular.

The political right wing is becoming increasingly irrelevant, because they have nothing to offer.

This entire argument is based upon a belief that human life is somehow sacred.

Of course, this belief is often suspended when the discussion turns to the death penalty, bombing civilian targets, preemptive warfare, sensible gun control, and substandard or unavailable health care.

Those issues bring out the Christian Right armed with pitchforks and torches and the Old Testament.

Listening to this failed leader of a failed Administration is an exercise in futility. The guy is too far gone to notice the wreckage the Bush years have left us.

To equate Limbaugh with Republican leadership is either the work of an infected brain, or a desire to keep one's face in the media at all costs. Where Powell exhibits intelligence and pragmatism Limbaugh exhibits divisiveness and is sure to keep the GOP as an insignificant minority.

The end result will be the further marginalization of the Republican Party and to this end I applaud Cheney.

As we know, Dick has a heart/artery problem. Had it for years.

He is, no doubt, being spared no effort or expense in his medical care but he will eventually reach the point where the best plumbers in the world will not be able to patch the pipes.

The avoidance of stress is a mainstay of maintaining a healthy (or functioning) cardiovascular system. Added stress causes increased medical intervention, and cost.

It appears that Dick is under a great deal of stress, most of which is self-imposed because of his insistence on being a part of a political world that has finally relegated him to the dung heap.

Self-imposed stress is a definite factor in creating additional treatment costs. I suggest that Dick pay for this treatment himself, and relieve us taxpayers having to pay to keep a fossil alive.

Your post "Bush Crimes" raises an important point about the possible reaction to another terrorist attack on a US city.

The reaction to the terrible events on 9/11 illustrates your point - that the rule of law can, and will, be broken under certain circumstances.

Obviously terrorists will want to exploit this. If 9/11 caused an entire country to lose its common sense and its leadership to fail (as the Bush Administration did) then another attack is not too farfeched.

Bush proved that terrorism works. His Administrations reaction to the 9/11 attacks was more than the terrorists could hope for.

When people like Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh can grab the attention of the national media while sitting on a pile of wreckage they helped to create, the terrorists cannot help but be encouraged.

Does morality work only if it is kept simple, like the Ten Commandments? One of the Commandments says "Thou salt not kill", but society kills in wars, and in Christian America the death penalty is used. This is obviously a failed concept long discarded as unworkable in a modern society.

Now, Christians defend the death penalty and warfare in many ways and often citing passages in the Bible. But the Ten Commandments are believed to be a direct communication from God, and not to be parsed or modified or ignored to fit a contemporary need.

Modern morality is merely a statement of what society deems to be of value at a particular moment in time or in a specific circumstance. It is very flexible.

If ones morality is based upon the belief that human life is sacred then morality has no true meaning whatsoever, because Christian society has determined that the killing of humans is sometimes necessary. Either killing is moral, or it isn't. We cannot have it both ways.

Like rats running a maze, we stampede aver the same paths, forever doomed to repeat past mistakes.

Except the rats eventually find a way out of that maze which is why, in the End, the rats will inherit the Earth.

Isn't John Yoo paid a full-time salary working for the University of California?

....."efforts to criminalize conservative thought, silence dissent and march toward socialism..."

You are not serious. First of all, conservative "thought" is not thinking at all. It is parroting what the radio blowhards blather at you.

It is not to silence dissent. It is to pry intelligent thought out of the parrots.

And the march toward socialism? Isn't that a blowhard phoney talking point that has been repeated ad nauseum?

A small percentage of Americans pay attention to Cheney. This is a natural result of Cheney being on the fringe of the issues and a smooth-talking liar. His main appeal is with the lunatic-fringe Republicans.

With four (or five?) military deferments on his record, Cheney is revealed as a phoney advocate for security.

Cheney's one hope is for another terrorist attack on US soil. I'm sure that he prays for this. In his mind, no doubt, such an attack would vindicate his advocacy of torture and his lies leading to our botched attack on Iraq.

Cheney is good for the Democrats. Mention his name and everyone's blood pressure jumps 30 points. Cheney is perceived by much of the world as a war criminal, an Ugly American advocating torture while the USA promotes human rights, freedom, and the rule of law.