Glen,

Regarding the authenticity of a Public Affairs Officer (PAO) e-mail, maybe someone has already brought this up, but

why would he (and all our PAO-s who use e-mail) NOT digitally sign e-mails?

Wouldn't it make sense to prevent the possibility of spoofing?

The Digital Signature is a common features in e-mail clients now. And it has been part of the Microsoft Outlook mail client for years.

I'd like to believe this issue is just another example of incompetence, but ....

Thank-you for your integrity and your vigilance.

I don't have a degree from Yale, nor do I have a law degree.

You see, I'm just a rube from Western Pennsylvania with a Poli Sci & Economics degree from a small Presbyterian Liberal Arts school half way between Pittsburgh and Erie.

Sure, I went to a private school with the help of scholarships (no doubt funded by "Greater New England Yankees"), but those damn Yankees wouldn't pay for food, so my buddies and I often went squirrel hunting so we'd have some meat in our meal. (Yes, we went deer hunting too!)

When I graduated at the top of my class at the end of the Golden Reagan Era in 1984, I was blessed to interview with some of Pittsburgh's finest companies; HJ Heinz, US Steel/USX, Westinghouse, Allegheny International, Rockwell, and others. Well, none of these companies were hiring very aggressively (3 of them are no longer in business!), so i took a job as in a private residential care facility for severe and profound mentally retarded adults as a primary care giver. I made a whopping $5.25/hour. (The owner who makes her money on government checks is now a deca millionaire!)

I finally got my ticket out of there in the US Navy, where I served for 10 years, seeing action in Panama and the Persian Gulf. Landed in the Pacific Northwest and got a GOOD job at the top of the .com boom.

My rube father lost three jobs and nearly lost the house on a 2nd mortgage foreclosure, when good fortune shined on my mother and he died of a heart attack. The life insurance sold with the mortgage gave my mom the house free and clear.

We never thought of ourselves as rubes, or bubbas or any term like that. We learned these terms from Yale educated folks who love and understand the common people. You see 'em on the TV all the time.

Bitter? Yeah Mr. Lind, my Scotch-Irish a** is bitter.

Did I mention how mom died of cancer because her health insurance would not pay for treatment?

Clinging? No, I am neither clinging to guns or religion.

If I cling to anything it is the memory of my dead (murdered?) friends who wound up in Iraq while their brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers struggled to buy a house, cloth their children or send their kids to college.

Generally rubes like me have learned to fight, and we've found our champion in a smart and not-yet-sold-out Harvard grad.

We're mad as hell and ready to kick A**.

No doubt Senator Keating 5 will "portray himself as the candidate who defends the dignity and pride of working-class and lower-middle-class", but you know what?

Us rubes know the difference, and we KNOW how to win. And so does Senator Barrack Obama. :-)

Of course propaganda remains a most effective political tool in the USA.

Unfortunately, this is not going to change in the next 60 days.

Regarding Palin and the MSM, who cares? The chattering class and their corporate paymasters didn't do its job on the Iraq war, so we'd be idiots to think they'll do the right thing now.

In the end, this election is a game of numbers. Undoubtedly the Palin selection (and its accompanying game plan) will boost numbers for McSame. But a thoughtful approach by what's left of journalists (like yourself) can make the difference.

Palin's record is full of holes in comparison to the 'reformer' BS being fed.

Point them out. Again, and again and again. Day after day after day.

It won't win the war, but it will win the battle.

We got rolled on Iraq.

Shall we be rolled again?

As usual, Glen is one of a handful of journalists to do the homework, and once again he has shown us in black and white what is going on..... we (YOU and me) are about to be screwed by the Washington elitist consensus.

What are YOU going to do about it? Blog?????

What Glenn has written is correct, but can't go far enough.

The GOP propagandists and fellow travelers are not the problem, the passivity of the American people is the problem.

Shambles under GOP rule is right.

Lowlites: Attacked on 9/11; Iraq War; Katrina; Resurgent Taliban; "Financial Crisis"

Today, a reasonable reading of the polls shows Obama likely to win in November. Likely?

What more has to happen before people march in the streets demanding Bush's, Cheney's etc.. heads? And mean it?

How shall one measure the devastation this government has wrought on us? Dollars? Lives?

No, let's sit back and blog.

How this Republican or any Republican's taking the "low road" to the White House can surprise any one is beyond me.

McMavericky is is not a Maverick. He is, and always was a Republican.

Which road did Nixon take to the White House?

(Clue: Watergate)

Which road did G.H.W. Bush take to the White House?

(Clue: Flag burning, Willie Horton)

Which road did G.W. Bush take to the White House?

(Clue: Florida, Swift Boating)

McSame has never lived a life of personal honor. He has mouthed those words. It has always been about HIM. Why on earth does any one think it changed?