Here's what I think.

1. KSM is probably guilty.

2. KSM is probably a loon, thanks to the endless torture than he has endured. If he weren't KSM, he'd probably be declared incompetent to stand trial.

3. But he is KSM, so he'll be tried, convicted and executed--to prove our system of justice works. Furthermore, the presiding judge will run such a tight courtroom that we'll get no whiff of how delusional KSM currently is.

No human being survives endless waterboarding (183 times in one month) and keeps their marbles intact.

Land of the free, home of the brave. You betcha (SNARK!).

Can someone PLEASE cut these hucksters off from their wingnut welfare? Pretty Please?

Neither one has held an original thought in their paranoid addled brains. Now, they're trying to cash in on fear.

Feh....I hope they go broke.

Please tell me how Obama and his minions are NOT homophobic. Would the spokespeople slam all women like this? People of color?

And yes, HRC is the charming group that backed Al D'Amato over Chuck Schumer back in 1998 in an effort, wait for it, to be bi-partisan. Never trust a queer group that can't even use the word "gay" in its title. Talk about internalized homophobia.....

Finally, HRC confuses Obama's lack of overt hate as support. They are going to be disappointed again and again.

Jay777

That sounds about right.

And we Americans can howl about 9/11 being unresolved....I put the blame for that failure at Bush & Cheney's feet.

If Teddy had been healthy this summer he would have publicly and REPEATEDLY shamed them for the use of "death panels," and "Obama is Hitler" crap, pointing out if they stoke these fires, they become accessories to the eventual political violence.

BTW: I'm usually pretty blase on a pol's passing, but Teddy's death has saddened me beyond measure. I'm not quite as cynical as I thought I was....

No, the have no shame, but even more importantly, they have no class. Opponents to any sort of health reform LIE endlessly, fear monger, and exploit the very real economic fear that many Americans hold. It's a hard world right now, and exploiting the economic hardships of working Americans has been the demagogues' trick for centuries....

Grassley is dumb as a box of hammers and is one of the WORST Senators the GOP has to offer. That he was being treated with the utmost deference by Obama et al made this former Iowan crazy.

BUT! Obama has made some really awful mistakes. Rule #1. IF the reform is big and complicated YOU MUST clearly define what the reform is--otherwise your ideological opponents will craft a definition for you. And it does NOT matter if that definition is insane....if Obama isn't offering a clear definition in the midst of blatant lies, the lies win.

Rule #2: When your supposed colleagues lie (see Grassley, Baucus, Blue Dogs), you give them a pass the first time. The second time? You out them--bluntly and publicly with lots of documentation. Actions have consequences, or so we tell our children.

Rule #3: You focus on the goal and hammer, hammer, hammer. On this point, Obama seems to have finally woken up.

I'm fairly certain we're not going to get any sort of reform that's worth a tinker's damn. I just hope what is passed is not WORSE than what we currently have (crappy infant mortality rates, low life expectancies, insanely high costs with pitiful coverage, etc.)

I've been struck by just how backwards the Post is on vaccines. The anti stuff is highly idiosyncratic and quirky, favoring personal experience over empirical data.

Ok. I can do that. In the era and place in which I grew up lived the Amish--who don't vaccinate. There's NOTHING charming about having a 5-year old die from tetnus....That's dying of "stupid" in my book.

Yes, all vaccines carry a risk of side effects. BUT vaccines have largely eradicated a host of horrors (measles, rubella, polio, whooping cough, tetnus, etc). The risks of NOT vaccinating are far, far higher than of vaccinating. It's why you'll see me at the front of the line for any and all flu shots.

By not vaccinating their kids and themselves, the anti-vaccination crowd are playing with everyone's health (because at times, vaccines fail). The greater the percentage of a population goes un-vaccinated, the greater the risk of a major break out of something that is entirely preventable.

We do not have a representive democracy. Congress has become the Soviet Era Politburo, and the there is but one political party, the entrenched corporate interests, of which there are two factions. Our splendidly free press functions as official stenographers, never asking the important questions, but blathering on and on how "manly" W looked in his flight suit.

And the rot runs riot through the blood stream of US politics.

To be fair, the country has been ailing for quite a while, with secret plots, backroom dealing, corporate payoffs and thuggish behavior all in the name of "security" (the 19th and 20th centuries werent particularly virtuous ages) But a body politic can only endure so much abuse before things fall apart.

Stay tuned.....

But between 1991 (the collapse of the CCCP) and 2001 (9/11), "teh gays" were the new communists. With the WTC and Pentagon attacks, gays were displaced as the #1 object of political violence.

That said, what would the US nation state do if all of the over-hyped enemies were to receive a rational assessment? The Pentagon's budget would be slashed, as well as a host of other agencies offering support to the military industrial complex.

The US would be forced to redefine itself. Now, that's probably too threatening for most Americans, who've been weaned on the notion that there are "dark, evil people out there doing dark, evil deads."