I was disappointed that your article didn't more thoroughly analyze some of the claims Chalabi is making in her column about the state of affairs in Iraq. It reads like talking points fed by the Bush administration, and she barely even mentions the US military presence.

Are we really to believe that the "lush forest of palm trees for which Basra was so famous vanished, an early victim of the Iran-Iraq war?" Is the "derelict refugee camp" of a hospital a "depressing testament to the institution's history" or to our complete failure to restore basic necessities to Iraqis after "shock and awe?" She really tows the line, like a mimic of all the messages coming out of the White House these days: elections are the solution to everything, don't mention the fact that we're absolutely bombing the $hit out of Iraq every day, and keep stressing that Iraqis truly dread "Baathists who haven't been caught and the terror they feel from them" rather than US.

The exasperated "let us head once again into this breach" with which Mr. Manjoo opens his article gave me artificially high hopes that the piece might include a few words on what can be done about the problem.

Whether we witnessed a bona fide conspiracy in the outcome of the election -- involving vote-switching, purging, and systematic tampering with machines -- and whether it was enough to swing the results, OR NOT, the laundry list of dirty tricks, questionable money trails, and downright incompetence is enough to make any American sick. RFK Jr.'s conclusion, no matter which way you look at it, is a sincere and alarming call to action.

Why waste more time with the back-and-forth between these arguments? So if you subscribe to "2004 was stolen" theories, you're a tin foil hat-wearing loony tune, and if you point out the flaws in these theories, you're a shill for the right wing. Very productive. Stop savaging each other, do some homework, and tell us, your readers, what can be done to be sure that we have a fair election next time. There's a point on which we can all agree ...

I have to disagree with Eric Keller's letter -- perhaps "Dems have been the party of too many conflicting goals," but the netroots are not just concerned with winning, and certainly not just with the short term. The past 36 hours in Las Vegas have been inspiring. People from all walks of life and all corners of the country are connecting, collaborating, learning from one another. This is as democratic a community as I've ever witnessed. Speakers field questions for as long as they address each other. An introduction by screen name often elicits a burst of applause, a goofy nod.

This is not about conceding ideological ground to the right, or about reneging on the promises Democrats have historically made (and must make more vocally) to Americans: to support our institutions of education and health care, exercise dynamic diplomacy, to respect our personal freedoms of choice, of privacy, of expression ... and to f*@$^&g get honest! Represent us, not lobbyists. Hire people who KNOW HOW TO DO THEIR JOBS. If Democrats are elected we certainly will not befoul the Constitution with an amendment banning gay marriage, or restricting a woman's right to choose.

It is about reclaiming our country from the undue, and undoing, influence of a small but determined right wing, with an ideological agenda that is wildly out of step with what most Americans want, and whose message of fear is amplified to fever pitch to rattle their base and forestall true justice. It is about stepping up to fill a role abdicated by a mainstream media that is so deeply embedded in the culture of politics, spin, and veneer, many Americans are denied the information they need to participate in our democracy.

Everyone can be a blogger. Bloggers can support and ultimately make leaders. Every blogger can, in fact, be a leader.

Many of us do "hate" George W. Bush. That's just simplistic though, it sounds like we don't have every reason to feel he has utterly failed as President! Where are we after five years of his "leadership?" We are facing a huge deficit and increasing reliance on foreign banks and markets, while arrogant and incompetent policy has multiplied the number of our enemies, estranged former allies, and put American citizens in harm's way for the sake of a trumped-up threat, only to leave our homeland more vulnerable when a catstrophe struck. And will inevitably strike again, with increasing violence as we postpone more decisive action to protect the planet.

I digress. Mr. Scherer wrote:

At every session, every panel, and every hallway conversation, the underlying motivator had less to do with ideology than victory.

I don't know how you could have been everywhere at once, but it strikes me that attendees of YearlyKos are engaging one another in ways that broaden their ideological horizons, the horizons of what is possible in our public discourse and so in our nation's future. Many will return home energized to support a big-tent progressive movement online as well as in their own neighborhoods and precincts -- not just for the sake of winning in '06 or '08, but to do what we must to repair what the Bush administration has damaged and decisively correct America's course for years to come.