Well, I'm in favor of single-payer, too. But that would pretty much vaporize the health insurance companies. Wellpoint, as one example, has a market cap of about 22 billion. So the shareholders would - poof - lose 22 billion bucks.

I wouldn't be inclined to shed tears for the financial losses of people who invest in companies that profit from denying people medical care.

That said, if that is a concern, one might consider it another reason to support a "public option". That way, there'll be time for people to move their investments away from those corporations.

Does that buy them another 6 months from Thomas Friedman?

I mean, I could almost see it, if they were bulletproof, or could punch through concrete walls.

I have a family member who works in the prison industry, and I can only imagine his is head spinning as he tries to figure out how to agree with his fellow wingers while still gloating at the ego-enhancing idea of have a (presumed) terrorist of his very own to push around.

Why are macho, right wing tough guys so damn insecure?

I've noticed that the idiots who slap "Terrorist Hunting Permit" stickers on their vehicles tend to look like they'd soil their pants if they really had to go up against an actual terrorist. I mean, who do they think they're kidding?

The fools are just fooling themselves and no-one else. Likely as not they've never so much as fired a gun in their lives.

On the contrary, I think it's very likely that most of them have fired weapons ... at paper targets, tin cans, bottles, and the occasional animal. But I doubt very many of them -- if any -- have fired a weapon at anyone who was able to fire back.

(I learned to use rifles and shotguns when I was growing up. But I was never silly enough to think that being able to shoot things made me tough.)

In a devastating recession, a Democratic administration is going to look out for the interests of workers, particularly those in electorally crucial Midwestern Rust Belt states. ...

In a democratically run country you can not continue to concentrate wealth and power in the top 1 percent of the population without provoking a powerful reaction. It was a long time coming -- and it might still be a long way away without the catalyst of the worst recession in 70 years combined with the manifest incompetence of the Bush administration -- but it's here, now.

I'll be happy to be proved wrong, but all of sounds like so much wishful thinking to me. Exhibit A: top-loaded financial institutions bailed out, with hints of more available as needed, no strings attached to benefit Main Street. Exhibit B: working-class-heavy automakers - meh, not so much, and such assistance as is available encourages cutting worker benefits and allows for money to be used to move jobs out of the country.

President Obama isn't the only thing standing between the financiers and the people with the pitchforks ... most of Congress seems only too happy block the way forward as well.

Cheney actually provided logic and reason in his.

I must have missed that sentence.

So again, what's the problem with "indefinitely" holding prisoners of war?

If that's what was happening, it'd be a very good idea to discuss what problems there might be with that. But they are not being held as prisoners of war.

There are specific legal guidelines for how prisoners of war are treated, how they can challenge their status, etc. Which is why the Bush Admin decided to give them a legally-vague label -- "unlawful combatants" -- so they could treat people however they wanted to treat them.

The Obama Admin seems to be on the verge of simply changing the term from "unlawful combatants" to "preventive detainees", and adding a little lipstick.

Stop claiming some grand superiority for doing your fucking job. Oh, except for that one day... but lets not discuss that.

Amazing, isn't it, how they turned their massive national security failure into their very own political gold mine? It's really quite impressive, in a particularly disgusting way.

The attempted terrorist attack that was stopped yesterday in Newburgh New York is a prime example. They were americans that converted to Islam while in prison. Does anyone have a better reason for not placing potential terrorist trainers in our prisons?

I understand that militant Christian militias also recruit quite heavily in prisons. I guess we better start expanding Gitmo in order to deal with all those potential terrorist trainers, too.

Perhaps, just to be careful -- and consistent -- we'll need to start doing random sweeps in communities with large numbers of Christians, and start take people in those areas into "preventive custody" if their neighbors express any vague suspicions about them.

(You must spend a lot of your time doing laundry. All those soiled pants ...)

Meet the new boss

Same as the old boss.

Pete Townshend called. He said to politely ask you not to be an idiot.

Many people call TNR "left of center". Of course, it seems like most of those people are "right of right", and are trying to legitimatize some piece of idiocy they're attempting to pass off on people.

First fatal US abortion terrorism since 1993-1998

Does this only happen during Democratic administrations?

If you mean "Does this only happen when the lunatic fringe of a Republican minority is working itself into a rabid frenzy against the democratically-chosen government of the United States", well, yes, that does seem to be true.

Clearly, Democrats are to blame for that. There's even a respected legal precident involved. I think it's generally referred to as the "Look What You Made Me Do Bitch" defense.