Our democracy has been hijacked by the corporatocracy. Nothing will change, no matter how blatantly the political class defies the wishes of the American public, until we free the press from corporate interests.

It has been my experience in my little red, rural neck of the woods, for example, that support for the war has evaporated, but for the wrong reasons. People still think it's AOK to invade other countries to advance our interests. Majorities still support our occupation of Afghanistan. The press operates under the same assumption. No one in the press questions our "right" to use military force wherever and whenever we please. No one in our press questions spending 50% of national revenues in military and related expenditures. This obscene public funding of the military makes the world a safe place for our corporations to make huge profits, but the taxpayers who pay for the military never get their share. Instead we the people are stuck with bad schools, poor and aging infrastructure, and no health care "system" worthy of the name. None of this will ever be questioned by our corporate press. This sad state of affairs is instead enshrined as the "American Way." They'll tell us we have the "Best Health Care in the World" for example. It's in their interest to do so!

So while yes, we smell a rat in Iraq, we are snowed under with BS on nearly every other subject as well. Until we can overcome this morass of misinformation we will fail to reclaim our democracy.

9/11 is how the neocons convinced the rest of us to commit the unthinkable. It has been thoroughly documented here and elsewhere that they had their eyes on Iraq long before 9/11. So avenging 9/11 could not have been their motive, just their pretext; a handy carte-blanche to do whatever they pleased.

Let us also not forget the financial motives for this malfeasance. Lets not forget those for whom this war has been an enormous success. War profiteers like Haliburton, Bechtel, Blackwater, etc. have done very well for themselves. These companies have close, even incestuous connections with those in power, Dick Cheney being only the most notable among them. It's true that Bechtel left Iraq after it got too hot for them; but they raked in $2.3bn before they left. Are we to believe that the Iraqis were simultaneously capable of attacking us with sophisticated WMDs but were incapable of rebuilding their own country? Of course not. The profit motive was there all along: the military destroys Iraq's infrastructure, and these guys get rich rebuilding it. All at taxpayer expense.

The arguments in this article, particularly the racist angle, neatly cover why the rest of us bought into this disaster. It does not address the issues presented above. After all, the Bush family has had no qualms--racist or otherwise--about dealing with the Saudis, have they?

I don't have the resources or the time to research whether Joe Klein was consistent and attacked the smear of Max Cleland the same way he did the MoveOn ad.

There is clearly a double standard at work here. Karl Rove is just more clever than all of us (or so say the Rove admiring pundits) for pulling off jobs like the character assassination of Cleland. But MoveOn is "childish", etc. Go figure.

Any moron can see that this is a breadboard with LEDs and a battery to power them. I don't expect our "security experts" at airports to be morons either. I think they clearly know and understand that this is neither a bomb or a fake bomb. If they don't they should be fired for being imbeciles. This is all about showing away with their power and authority, reminding the lowlife public who is boss. It's as simple as that.

We are steadily and surely becoming an authoritarian police state. All because so many losers in this Land of the Free and Home of the Brave are trembling in their boots because of The Terrorists.

So, what are those "dire consequences" if telecons are not provided immunity: Accountability? Restoration of faith and respect for the Rule of Law? Reassertion of a healthy democratic process, where citizens know what is being done in their name? Is this what these people fear?

My, how deep is the rot in the keel of our democracy.

I agree with King that these last minute "gotcha" timeouts are crap. It's nothing but gamesmanship. Some people might like it, but I don't feel it's part of the game. So here are some changes I'd like to see:

• Granting a time-out should be up to the discretion of game officials. If the official receives a time-out request so late that he cannot stop the snap, the official should have the discretion of allowing play to continue.
• Alternatively, no time-outs for either team after the offense sets.
• Timeouts should be called only by players on the field. We've got headsets; comm-links; coaches calling every play, offensive and defensive. What's next: are coaches going to be allowed to come on the field and position their players before every snap? C'mon. Lets let the players decide games. Enough of this coaching micromanagement.