Even GK, who I love dearly (didn't know that, big guy? I still like girls better, though), has fallen into the ditch of liberal Democrat hubris which has followed the elections. I enjoyed the article and even agree with the observations about the states in question. I also GET it that much of what GK says is with tongue firmly in cheek. That being said, this is not, repeat, NOT the time to be talking about all the states and regions the Democrats don't need. It is really disturbing and unseemly, and I'm serious, Keilor, this applies to you, too! You could at least have waited a decent interval before turning this one loose. It would have been a lot funnier.

After some recent displays of outright arrogance from the left - almost like firing guns into the air and dragging political corpses through the streets - it is difficult to read this sort of dismissal talk from anyone. As a southerner I know where this sort of thinking can lead - we've just lived through almost six years of it. Let's not turn into Them, even if I am technically one of "Them" and so worthy of dismissal my own self. Come on, GK, tell me you haven't been making your rubber bullet observations and spinning those Wobegone tales just for the benefit of the North Forty all these years!

The Democrats need everyone, and more importantly, right now, everyone, and most especially those states named (and most of the south)need some Democrat balance - sort of like roughage - added to their ideological diet. Give us all a break and let us play, too, OK?

AGJ has my vote for the best plan put forward thus far to disentangle our troops from the pointless "war" in Iraq. My only question would be regarding the appointment of military co-leaders, one Arab, one Israeli. It makes sense on paper, but in practice would cause a great deal more hostility and division (I believe) than if an Arab or just some random, highly qualified leader of the force would be chosen. But a UN peacekeeping force which includes some of our troops is the only decent way to get our troops - any of them - out of there without exposing the rest to an inordinate amount of danger, and still to no good end.

We - the United States - abetted almost exlusively by the UK, have created the utter chaos, turmoil and general hell that now prevails in Iraq. We own an obligation to try and make it halfway right. It will be decades before anything is ever again close to "right" in Iraq, courtesy of us. The rest of the world is going to have to help us out of this. The UN is the venue for the Rest of the World approach.

If we were to simply "begin to 'redeploy'" our troops we would be leaving the remainder to face almost certain catastrophe. If we pull them all out without something in place of them to try and enforce some sort of order, we will be guilty of completing one of the most heinous acts against a sovereign state in recent history by any invading force.

Let's hope our new legislature has enough clout, and the President enough decency, humility and common sense (yes, I'm dreaming again) to beg, if necessary, for a UN peacekeeping force so that we can remove a goodly part of our ground force and keep the rest from being slaughtered, all due to the whim of a lunatic we all have allowed to remain in office far too long. Time for us to approach this with our battered hat in hand. We've already done the pride thing. It's time for some humility in the interest of the greater good.

What kind of test does one have to pass to get a screed like this put up here in Salon? For the love of god! I know Willie "Heads will roll" Wilson, and he isn't representative of anything but Willie Wilson and some leftover hangers-on from the original Marion Barry Bandwagon of dashiki-clad blithering fools who helped set off the DC "tribute" to Dr. King, better known as the '68 riots. You can only run on fumes so long. Anyone who believes either Wilson or McKissick represent anything other than pure, naked power lust and willful ignorance is just as off-base and therefore just as disposable. Wilson and McKissick are artifacts of a time now long dead and gone, and so is this article. Who the hell schooled DD? This is a sad

piece of work. Black people deserve better than this. The readers of Salon deserve better.

I've been beside myself since I first read Schaller's un-American, divisive, arrogant and bigoted treatise on restoring the Confederacy against its will. This piece applies a little balm to the rash his words raised on my red neck. So long as the United States number 50, and roughly one-third are in the south or are border states (and Maryland was no border state - it was prevented from seceding through Mr. Lincoln's abuse of power toward a greater good is all)I think it only decent of Democrats that they consider working for the enlightenment of people in all 50 of those states, even if most of those people didn't vote for the current majority party candidates (I did and look at the thanks I get!).

It's kinda little and kinda late, but thank you, sir. It's at least coming from the right place.