Garry Owen, I don't personally give the red stars. I don't give any on my blog; it's way too subjective given the nature of the feedback I get.

I often get red stars, if I post in other letters threads, because I'm saying something that needs to be called out, not merely commenting. In this case, I assume I got one because it's rare that I go into a letters thread in defense of a writer and a story quite that way.

fillups44, thank you!

Thanks David Lieberman, I did not watch the end of that segment, but you're exactly right, it's in the transcript. I'll do my best to bring it up.

I respect MoveOn and the work they do. I think if the point is winning over hearts and minds and creating a constituency for withdrawal, name-calling is a risky strategy.

I was mostly out today and I should have asked someone to moderate my blog for me. I personally would have deleted all the posts that called people "pussy." I think maybe (maybe) you can toss that word around for effect every now and then, but I thought every time it was used in this letters thread it made the LW's point seem more stupid. But deleting all those posts would mean deleting all the posts replying, etc.

I will get smarter about asking for help when I need it from Salon staff on days I'm unable to moderate my letters. And meanwhile, we'll keep warning, and banning, people who violate our terms, and there were some folks who did that today. Sorry I fell down on the job a bit here.

Garry Owen, there are more than 100 letters on our Blackwater stories, and more on Tim Grieve's posts on the topic, so...I don't think it's fair to say Salon readers don't care. Thrasher, I love Marvin Gaye, and I listened to "Graduation" after I'd listened to "Magic" at the gym. I don't think it's an either/or thing, Bruce or Marvin, but maybe we disagree.

Thank you FlapjackJones and farragoNW, and thanks to your children for doing their best over there. I do think the most amazing thing about Bruce is the way he captures normal heroes, warts and all. I hope all of our children come home soon, and he can just sing about the normal sadness of growing older, not growing older trying to save a country that's going off the rails and sacrificing thousands of young people.

tommydsz, I was the first person I knew of to criticize Hillary Clinton for her Iran vote, the day she cast it -- I talked about it on Hardball before the Dartmouth debate, as well as after, if memory serves. And I criticized it on this blog.

I'm not rooting for her, I'm just reflecting reality: the longer the Republicans dither like this, while she's the Democratic frontrunner, the better off her candidacy is. It's not a statement about whether she deserves to win. I'm still making up my mind, like most other voters I know.

Ktdawg, do you really think it's fair to use something I wrote in 2003, in a book review, which was meant as a partial mea culpa for some of the nasty things I'd written and said about Hillary Clinton, as though it's some kind of endorsement of her presidential candidacy? I frankly think that's both unfair and kind of silly. Everyone at Salon went bonkers over Obama in Boston in 2004 as well; that doesn't mean we support him, either. People can wear themselves out finding "evidence" I "support" Hillary Clinton, but I haven't chosen a primary candidate yet, and it seems like a better use of energy to work for your chosen Democrat instead.

And Garry, I've never seen you cave like that!

I'm sorry, Garry, I absolutely shouldn't have said that, I was just frustrated to have a four year old book review used as proof I'm in the tank for Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy. And Ktwdawg, I shouldn't have misspelled your name!

Sorry John Singer Sargent, that was my coding error, it should be fixed now.

Ktwdawg, that's a good story idea. I did a post on Obama and the bill this afternoon which I'd started yesterday. But we'll follow up on Clinton; while Obama at least has said he'll oppose the bill (though he hasn't taken a position on Dodd's filibuster) she is so far silent. We'll stay on it, thanks.

Thanks, conryw. Fixed the link. To Pyrian and calcareous I'd say: Stewart and Colbert are hilarious, and we may be able to count them as liberals -- partly because, as Colbert says, reality has a well-known liberal bias. But they are both entertainers first, and however liberal they seem, they are not at all ideologues, whereas Limbaugh and Coulter are first and formost ideologues who are also (to some people) entertainers. Or so I think, anyway;I really don't have any idea what either of them truly believes.

DLF, thanks for the note. The lack of a letters link to Ruben Bolling's latest cartoon is a glitch with our publishing system we're trying to understand -- it was in no way intentional. I think, in fact, I try to use this blog to let you know about format changes, changes to our letters policy, features we've dropped (I too still miss "The Fix," we're working on another kind of aggregator, stay tuned). If you disagree, let me know. And for general comments you can still send email to letters "at" salon dot com. We still read them!

Guitar girl, yes, that was me at Springsteen in Oakland -- apparently there's video of my section of the pit on YouTube. You should have said hello! Great show, great crowd.

Bill Keller, I've been traveling and will try to find time today to listen to the NPR segment you've mentioned. Thanks.