I love lame duck presidencies. They try to foul the water, but someone stands 'em up and tells 'em to pull up their shorts. A pat on the rear and they toddle back into the oval office to pout.

The government that governs best is the one that governs least.

We trod this path yesterday in reference to the funky mismatch in east coast/west coast gender demographics.

I think we're seeing a related trend here in the US. A lot of jobs require a decent network connection but not proximity. This opens up the hinterlands to a female reconquista. Couple that with the fact that many women are tired of metrosexuals.

Umm, why wait for a bus of NYC women to reach san diego. According to Crusty the Clown, you live so very close to the happiest place on earth: Tijuana.

What's the matter with some conservative christians lending their voices and thoughts? I promise you, they aren't the homogenous bunch of knuckle draggers that many folks envision. Sure, salon appears to be leaning left these days, but with the country's massive right shift, who isn't?

There are a lot of conservatives who read salon and contribute to the forums. The quest for decent journalism makes strange bed fellows. In other words, I hope salon never becomes a liberal echo chamber. Debate = good. Echo chamber = masturbation frenzy.

So, bring 'em on! They might help us understand one another a bit better.

The issue isn't allowing or disallowing debate, it's who gets invited. When only believers get past the bouncer, you have a prayer meeting (or bush press conference), not a discussion. I consider the salon ads to be invitations as much as business deals.

This is a perfect opportunity to expose CHMC types to (for lack of a better word) respectable gays. Maybe all they know of are crack addicted tv evangelists, homosexual pedophiles, and that one gay "friend" who was so funny until he committed suicide.

As I was once advised: "Don't waste your time, let the haters sort themselves out."

So, who would you like to invite?

once again, the coulter bashers form a polite scrum and display a frightening gnashing of teeth at one another.

Really, what's the point? She's only funny to her audience. They think she's funny becuase she is so very good at baiting the bashers. If the coulter bashers just STFU then her audience would drift away.

Quit empowering her. React with the boredom most people feel.

You empower her by feeding her audience. They are laughing at you more than they laugh at her words. coulter holds a lens to help them focus their attention on you. She needs your outrage because it is your outrage that is so funny. Yes, she will always have an audience because some people agree with her. Most people just like watching her bait liberals. Your reaction is part of the show.

Silly me, why did i even read the letters in this train let alone respond. I'll take my own advise and ignore the coulter war.

The MSM haedlines will shout:

"LIBBY PARDON DEMANDED BY LAW"

The lawsuits are already being filed. As part of the distribution chain, walmart is liable for selling poison or otherwise substandard products. So, now the cost of cutting corners will hit their books and they will seek a way to sell safe products at low prices.

As always, the solution to these sorts of things is to force the corporations to internalize the external costs. Once selling poison toothepaste becomes expensive, they'll take out the poison.

That or they'll try to buy immuity from congress. You never know.

Here is an article about it:

http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/05/news/international/chinese_lawsuits.fortune/index.htm

Made a very good point. Why was the poll data pegged to Y2k? I that the earliest year it was available? I was very disappointed with that because it smacks of cherry picked data. It's best to leave that sort of crap to the white house.

Perhaps our popularity had been increasing because people all over the world were investing in our gonzo stock market. Maybe, when it crashed, so did people's joy with all things US.

I've lived overseas off and on for 35 years. There were definitely decades when we were not very liked. However, before the elections of '04, I was often told that we just had a bad president. After he was reelected, the american people were viewed as complicit.

I usually managed to turn it toward blaming our current 2 party system. It really is insane.

I fought that one at a local school to no avail. The teachers and admins really wanted to reward kids and had decided that candy was the way to go. Here I had been banishing candy from the house and those ass wipes were handing it out at school.

Then there is the mediocre performance that warranted a candy reward. They lowered the bar so far that the rewards were non stop.

maybe the dems heard the collective groan from the nation and are emboldened enough to do what we gave them the power to do. If they don't, they've pretty much blown their final goodbye kiss to their credibility and could easily lose the senate or house this next go around.

I seriously doubt they expected the level of disgust that their last capitulation engendered.

Anyone that thinks that cutting the cash won't bring the wars end is a fool. Will bush keep the troops in place without bullets, gas, and food? Of course he would, he's a psychopath and he's misused 'em all along. The real question is, will the troops go along with it and who will the public blame? This is the kind of thing that can finally lead to impeachment.

bush's supporters will blame the dems, the rest will blame bush. It's that simple.