the fact that Obama came from behind and defeated the Clinton political machine with a finely tuned political organization which utilized the Internet to get out its message and raise funds from millions of individual voters as opposed to the "roll-up" funding of his opponent.

I know a lot of folks on the right think that promoting intelligence as 'elitism' is an effective campaigning tool.

After eight years with the guy I would NOT want to share a beer with, I'll go for the guy who defeated the Clintons at their own game and was a "uniter not a divider" of the Democratic Party.

Time will tell...

He figures it's a free ride to the White House, fame and fortune.

When will we get to meet the father?

Maybe the same photographer that did Brangelina's baby pix can do theirs too.

No celebrities here, no way. Not like that cheeky Obama...

... is Folger shutting up.

Oh that it were true.

the father is 25 years old

dad is 25 years old!

Only difference is, my dad is a lifelong Republican who defended Nixon to the end.

He said that "McCain has the personality of a stick of wood, and anyone who thinks that woman would be ready to be president should have their head examined."

He does not think that McCain would survive his term. My dad is going to vote for Obama. He voted twice for Bush, but now feels that the way they abused the military is disrepectful.

He is a patriot who puts out his American flag every day and takes it down every night. If the Republicans have lost my dad, they should be prepared for a few years in the shadows.

great movie, great satire, let's bring it back as a real TV show...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093894/

Where are the outtakes? More more more!

On another note, amazing how easy it is to get a job as a 'security professional' - food for thought.

as long as you understand that the purpose of the news media is to sell soap (aka "fear") then it is clear why "journalistic integrity" is the greatest oxymoron since military intelligence.

. . . at the ascension of Nero, the rise of Stalin, Mussolini, McCarthyism. . .

People kept going to work, minding their business, thinking everything was fine, good little frogs in the pot of heating water on the stove, not noticing at first that anything was amiss.

Yeah, there's a lot "going on," but keep your head down, go to work, do your job, buy stuff, don't question, accept what you're told, shut up, OK?

When McCain is elected president, I predict that he'll resign within six months for "health reasons" and ostensibly turn over the reins of power to Palin. Of course, just like with Bush, real power will be exercised from elsewhere.

Thus will begin the final descent of the American airship of state into its controlled flight into terrain.

If you look how far we've fallen, from Eisenhower to McCain, there's been a steady, stealthy reduction of civility, human rights and honorable men.

Eisenhower stated almost fifty years ago that democracy's greatest enemies lurked from within, not without.

That was when it started - this is how it will end. After all, this is the country that reelected George W. Bush.

To paraphrase John Titor, "nobody in the future likes you very much. . ."

you can have the pitbull spayed

The issue with Palin (and GW Bush) using personal email accounts for government business is that there are state and federal laws regulating the retention of official government records.

Email is a "government record" of the people's business.

As exhibited by this incident, there is also the national security issue of using insecure, unencrypted private mail to transmit sensitive messages.

This is an issue, because if Palin achieves federal executive status, it would be a really bad idea for her to use Yahoo.com to send supposedly secret information over the internet.

Most people do not realize that their emails and instant messages are transmitted "in the clear" and can be easily intercepted.

The use of private email for public business has been also abused by the Bush White House to evade official scrutiny.

This is quite a bit different than a private business owner (not subject to FOIA regulations) using personal email to transmit business information - though for publicly traded companies, Sarbanes-Oxley may also come into play.

Finally, (in Palin's case) it shows poor judgment and a lack of forethought to use such easily cracked security questions and answers on an email account that contains communications related to the people's business.

After all, Palin supposedly works for the people of Alaska and Bush supposedly works for the taxpayers of America.

This is why so many folks have so much to say about it...

Mark Alan Stamaty, where are you now?

(Actually I corresponded with him a few months ago).

Nothing would make me happier than to see Washingtoon on Salon.com...

I will never forget the strip where Patrick J Buchanan steered Reagan's head so far to the right that he traveled back in time to the McCarthy witch hunt era...

It was political, but it was also funny.

Salon.com is primarily about politics, and Opus / Bloom County / et al was frequently so as well.

If you don't want politics or political humor, maybe "Classic Peanuts" would be more to your liking.

In any case, stirring up shit by calling people asswipes doesn't help the tenor of conversation in the comments.

Maybe you hadn't had your coffee yet...?

...for stating the obvious: the emperor not only has no clothes, he has no scruples.

This is the ONLY column written anywhere on this subject that sums up the insanity of what has taken place to date, and what will take place in the future.