There have been times when the Human Rights Campaign's support for GLBTs has been lukewarm ... especially the Bs and the Ts.

Es un país libre, ¿no?

Some folks just find it easier to argue against an extreme position that nobody is advocating instead of the reasonable position that is being advocated. It's lazy and dishonest, but not particularly surprising.

Heck, it's been the favorite approach of the Republican leadership for years. It works great for them with MediaCorp, so their wanna-bes assume that it should work in a real discussion as well.

No doubt McCain has already had at least 3 or 4 different stances on this so far. By the election, who knows? It could be into double digits!

Neither speech offers a single specific about how they might go about achieving economic Nirvana.

Speeches aren't for specifics. Speeches are for general approaches. To wit:

McCain: Bush's plan is working great! I'll do even more of what he's doing and even less of what he's not doing.

Obama: Bush's plan isn't working! I'll do things differently.

For people interested enough and/or serious enough about their civic duty, there are more details easily available -- especially about Obama's ideas.

Those feeling so sorry for the ever-so-overburdened wealthy concentrate on numbers around income tax ... conveniently ignoring the fact that the wealthier someone is, the less of their wealth comes from what's counted as income. As that commie-pinko Warren Buffet has pointed out, as an extremely wealthy man he -- when everything is counted -- pays a significantly lower tax rate than his secretary.

The folks crying about the burden on the wealthy also conveniently ignore the fact that the rich get far more for their taxes than the rest of us.

If you're a gay couple traveling to California to wed, chances are your state won't recognize your marriage (unless, of course, you live in New York).

Or in Massachusetts.

Remember us? You know, one of the other states with a bay?

... it should be at a sports stadium. Leave the billboards up and it'd be even more appropriate. It would reflect the degree to which corporations dominate our public discourse.

Just like all the old McCain ads.

But then, what other choice do they have? Anything remotely truthful will -- at best -- convince people who might support them to stay home.

I love dead-tree books but I've got a few ebooks on my Palm Zire, and they'll tag along (and be joined by a few more) when I move to an iPod Touch. I must say, it's nice to be able to keep the entire Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (plus English-French and English-Spanish dictionaries) easy to hand without developing lower-back problems.

On the other hand, a major drawback of ebooks as far as I'm concerned is the inability to borrow and lend them, or buy/sell them from/to used book stores. Sure, in the short run that benefits the publishers, but probably not in the long run.

There's something twisted about a society that is more easily offended by naked bodies than by naked violence.

Feh. Pure speculation that this is "retribution". It's at least as likely that the person making out the seating list wasn't from NYC (or from one of its suburbs, like Connecticut) and thus didn't realize how very very important the New Yorker is.

McCain also called Obama "someone who has no military experience whatsoever."

The high points of McCain's military experience are:

1) barely graduating from the US Naval Academy

2) crashing some planes

3) getting shot down and spending several years as a prisoner of war

I don't see how that "experience" makes Senator McCain more qualified to be President.

Perhaps this is along the lines of how Bush's experience running businesses into the ground somehow meant that he was more qualified to be President.

The article was about people resurrecting their old bicycles.

I look forward to the day when you are able to post something that doesn't involve you assembling sticks, straw, and old clothes and then demonstrating your awesome skill at knocking it down.

Here's some balance: Obama knew before it happened that it was a mistake to go in. The very best withdrawal plan would have been to stay out.

McCain, on the other hand, still thinks it was a good idea to invade and occupy a country that was no threat to us.

Given the choice between one of the people who got us into this in the first place -- and still either doesn't realize or won't admit they fucked up -- and one of the folks who realized it was a bad idea from the get-go, I'm a hell of a lot more inclined to trust Obama's judgment about how to get out.

Total set-up job by the McCain campaign, I'm guessing. I doubt they ever expected the first draft to be accepted.

I hope McCain "smiles" a lot more. I can -- almost, sorta -- understand why some people don't have a problem with Dubya's smirk. But the McCain rictus? Ugh.

On top of that, the Repubs won't take him in. He's a useful tool to them as a faux "Independent Democrat", but nothing more than that. As soon as the Dems no longer need him for whatever small cooperation they can get from him, he'll be competing with the Senate cleaning staff for office space.

After that, it's only a question of how long it'll take MediaCorp to realize that Lieberman is useless even as a talking head. If he has the slightest sense of dignity left, he'll bow out at the next election, if not before. (And then probably ruin that last bit of dignity with a whiny and self-congratulatory goodbye speech.)