In the New York metro area, at 4 P.M., we were given "bonus coverage" of the Browns-Bengals game with about 6 or 7 minutes left in that game. The clock ticked down, and the Bengals were mounting a comeback, cutting their deficit from 13 to 6. You could tell this was going to be a wild finish. And....the game was abruptly zapped off the air at 10 minutes after 4, with just over three minutes to play and with nary a word of warning. It was time for the Jets, and that was that. In fact, CBS didn't even switch to the Jets - it first had a 5-minute block of commercials booked, and that's what we got.

Message from CBS to the fan: Screw You!!

Everything that's wrong with prime-time sports coverage can be found in this policy, right down to the bullshit spin that the network suits put on it: "We know it's annoying to the viewer but we are obligated by contract to do it and anyway it would be just as insulting to fans of the Jets if they were to miss something important at the beginning of their game."

Johnston is the New York Times reporter who won a Pulitzer for his writing on our loophole-laden tax code. His writing style is always anecdotally entertaining, and Googling his name will bring up a good sampling. His '03 book, 'Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else' can be found dirt cheap on Amazon.

Johnston documents how the super-rich rarely end up paying the full percentages in the IRS code for their income level.

Here is another case, which happens often on Salon, in which the letters posted make a more compelling argument than the article itself. Also happens whenever Camille Paglia shows up.

My own opinion: I celebrate this blog as a shining example of the spirited discourse the Founding Fathers had in mind. The internet is bringing us to the town meeting, without leaving the house.

The Meineke Car Care Bowl? I am supposed to take these games seriously? What, no Wal-Mart Bowl? No Dollar Store Bowl?

Here's some booming businesses these days - don't be surprised if you see new bowl games with these titles:

1.) Betty Ford Clinic Bowl

(no beer served)

2.) Estate Liquidators Bowl

3.) Evangelical Church of Christ Bowl

4.) Gazullo Brothers Waste Disposal Bowl

5.) Hair Club For Men Bowl

6.) Jenny Craig Bowl

7.) Mildew Control Services Bowl

8.) Paternity Testing Diagnostics Bowl

9.) Urine Analysis Labs Bowl

10.) Valley Sewer and Septic Bowl

Not only does DeLay exemplify everything that's wrong with our current politics, his infamous, smiling police-station mug shot - in which he claimed he wanted people to see God when they looked at him - exemplifies everything that's wrong with organized religion in general and fundamentalist Christianity in particular these days as well.

Wow, you people are a tough audience. Even MoveOn gets bashed here! I could make a good argument, though, that in November of '06 MoveOn did as much as anybody to tip the Senate to the Democrats by working in the closest swing districts to get out the vote with its phone chains and other contributions.

MoveOn concentrated its efforts in the closest races, including the one in Virginia where Jim Webb edged out Mr. Macaca. Also in Missouri, where Democrat McCaskill beat out the Republican candidate who had the strong support of Rush Limbaugh. MoveOn was instrumental in putting the spotlight on Limbaugh's arm-flailing mockery of Michael J. Fox's illness after Fox had come out in support of Democrats.

Thanks for this excellent column AND commentaries. This is the first mention of jazz I can recall in Salon. Would it kill Salon's editors to do one less of the endless presidential horserace or TV-show columns and do more of these every now and then? A column centering on music and musicians? A two-minute clip or two of music samples?

This guy says he's had no involvement whatsoever in any budgetary matters regarding Hillary's campaign, but I see he's had no problem cashing those checks he gets from her. The four million dollars ($3.8 million) was for January alone, he's been compensated over $10 million to date. Last I checked he hasn't yet offered to start working for free.

Guaranteed he'll disappear soon and then resurface in about a year on the motivational speaker circuit, or else doing weight-loss commercials.

....in describing the woeful state of political discourse in the U.S. media. One of the points made in yesterday's G.G. comments was that Beltway pundits dislike bloggers because bloggers are so good at calling them on their shenanigans, wiles and bullshit. Well, there is no better Internet elocutionist than Mr. Greenwald, and I read a lot of them. An added benefit for Glenn's readers is his wit and sardonic tone, which always amuses, even in the heat of contentious battle. Twain, Mencken, Izzy Stone, Molly Ivins - they are all smiling down.

Long may you run. The blogs are changing public life in America.

Cheers.

When Simon talks about real-life city police, social workers, teachers, city-desk reporters and the like, he uses the words 'commit' and 'commitment' when describing the long-term hook up people make with our modern-day urban institutions and their varying degrees of dysfunction. The series spent a lot of time so skillfully depicting how these types of jobs wear people down over the years, as well as the ways in which bureaucracies seem to take on their own type of self-preservation.

i have met many remarkable Wendell Pierces over the years connected with Newark, N.J., going above and beyond the call of duty and quietly doing the right thing year after year. The commitment acts as its own reward.