I am a retired mailman from Minneapolis. While I totally agree with Greenwald regarding the Ivins case, I can suggest a possible answer to the time of postmark contradiction.

The mail might not have been collected at or before 5 o'clock. The anthrax letter could have been placed in the box anytime before 5, but if the box is collected after 5, it will bear the next day's postmark.

I can attest to the fact that post boxes are quite regularly collected late. If the carrier who collected the box is still alive, ask him when he emptied the box that day. Or am I missing the obvious, that is, he already has been asked by the FBI?

Omoo:Every box posts the time of collection. However, the box is rarely collected on time. The carrier, or collections route carrier, cannot collect the box before the posted time, but he can any time following the posted time. Yes, the collection is part of the carrier's route, so it is always known who is supposed to collect it and when. It is considered a major sin to forget to collect a box.

I want you all to know that I am Jewish, and therefore those who will fault me cannot attempt to apply the "anti-semite" epithet. Anti-Zionist I will accept.

Because the "Jewish vote" has become inexorably intertwined with the Zionist State, its shameful history and its unforgiveable role in contemporary Middle Eastern US Imperialist policies and wars, no candidate for office can even express dissent about Israeli policy without forfitting credibility and legitimacy.

That is paralysis, censorship, and denial in a psychological sense on the part of an entire governing body, and an entire electorate. All US politicians buy into the myth of Israeli moral purity, and it is only so as to avoid the inevitable "anti-semite" label.

This is one of a multitude of myths, created by generations of repetition, pundit perpetration, and automatic, unquestioning fidelity. To agree with anything Ahmadinejad-ian is to find ones self de-legitimized, marginalized, and otherwise humiliated. There are many other examples: for instance, that Democrats favor tax and spend, and Republicans favor fiscal responsibility. Or, that Osama bin Ladin should be "taken out" and whatever Pakistan or Afghanistan policy supports such action must be pursued. I would like to also mention the absolute marginalization of anyone who has the nerve to imply that there may be unanswered questions to the official 9/11 story.

Palin and McCain have only to resort to this mythology in order to legitimize their more seriously indefensible policies.

As long as these myths shape the debate, no realistic debate or policy adaptation can prevail. Israel must be identified for the brutally anti-democratic and repressive regime that it truly is before the cloud can be raised from the middle eastern political discussion. As for the 'love' professed by all of our political courtiers for the Zionist State: where the hell does that leave me?

I am Jewish, although thoroughly acculturated, in fact I do not practice Judaism nor attend services. I am 65, so I've been around the block, and I aver that every Jewish person I have ever known has been a Democrat, if not a liberal one. Quite a few, including yours truly, have been involved in radical or socialist movements, as well, although these buttons we don't wear out in public. So I'm not surprised that even grandma down in Florida has come around to Obama, because it really, really feels strange to me to even consider the concept of a Jew voting Republican. What do Republicans represent if not white, Christian elites, the very ones who barred my father from their clubhouses and my older brother from their college fraternities? We all knew that Nixon was overtly an antisemite. Which party resisted the Civil Rights movement,at a time when Jews and African Americans had converging purposes? Which party through decades upon decades stood for toleration, and the rights of minorities, and equal justice, and progressivism? It wasn't Republicans. So the recent amplification of a few immoderate, arrogant, nationalistic, and even jingoistic Jewish opinionists--such as Kristol and most of the PNAC-ers--does not make a people's character mutate. These are little voices made loud by the money and influence noise machine. Obama need not worry about we Jews, we know who McCain fronts. Except for me, I might vote for Nader.

Heru-ur:

· They can just f'ing walk?

Yes, they can. And, they will. And they have:

They plotted to assassinate Kennedy. (King, et. Al.) Only Oswald didn’t walk.

They slaughtered millions in the utterly unjustifiable (and immoral) invasions and occupations of Vietnam and Iraq.

They overthrew the leaders of foreign nations who they didn’t like, and established puppet regimes (Iran, Chile, Nicaragua, Haiti come first to mind).

A few paid a mild price for the crimes of the Nixon administration, but not Nixon, Kissinger, or any other important decision maker.

The jury is still out, but they have not demonstrated convincing evidence to contradict the suspicion that they at least allowed 911 to happen, if not arranged its happening.

These are merely some of the crimes, I’m certain readers will remind me of others. They’ve all walked, the perpetrators as well as those who supported them with propaganda and financing.

They will continue to walk, just f’ing walk, because the mobsters rule the courts and the prosecutors. Gonzalez is not likely to indict himself.

Worse than that, political “opponents” are afraid to seek justice for fear of political disruption, partisan rancor, the high cost of congressional investigations, and so on.

It was Nixon who said on TV, “if the President does it, it’s not illegal”. That includes the cold-blooded murder of innocents. Yes they can, they will, and they have.