It's with a combination of amusement and disappointment that I read the comments to this and other recent political articles, opinions, and blogs on the election. Over and over again I see Dickless Cheney, Nobama, Repukicans, Demoncrats, etc. ad nauseum. It seems 99% of people posting choose to immediately proclaim their inability to put forth any logical argument for their positions, and jump instead directly to the lazy ad hominem fallacy.

If you think Palin is wrong for the job, point out some actual legislation she signed or vetoed that points this out. Don't waste time on who gave birth to Trig or the pedigree of one of her speechwriters.

If you think Obama will govern poorly, tell us why his health care ideas are flawed (if they are), don't waste time with thinly veiled "nudge, nudge" hints about kooky ideas like he's going to convert the whole country to Islam.

I guess that's too much to hope for though, since the press can't wean themselves from "up close and personal", soap opera repackaging of the election, and the candidates themselves seem always to devolve to "they suck, vote for us".

It would be good to remember that there are a chunk of folks in the middle who don't view this election with the zealous certainty of the DailyKos & Limbaugh crowds. The middle don't see this election as a pivotal battle of good vs. evil. They'll be happy just to get feel for who will do a decent job governing during the next 4 years.

Before you get too high up on your horses to pillory the hated animal killers, consider that for humans to live, animals die. Having grown up in what was at the time rural southern california, I saw the big mall cover the field where the burrowing owls lived. I saw how the horny toads disappear after the houses got closer and people with their pet cats (major predators) moved in. I'm not going to defend aerial wolf shooting, because I think it's a really bad idea for a number of reasons. But are you really that much better just because you don't have to see the carcasses of the animals that perished so you can live in your nice homes, drive to work, and go shopping?

As for Farley Mowatt's book "Never Cry Wolf", it's a great read (I loved the book), but google up Farley Mowatt "thinly veiled fiction" to see the full story.

The above is directed more at some of the comments getting all preachy and indignant about some animals getting killed. The article itself was good, as it focused on the more important issue (which many of the comments did pick up on). Wildlife population management must be based on good science, and depends on biologist input. To set those policies on purely political grounds is not smart. Having worked on reintroduction of a different endangered species, I've witnessed the unfortunate resistance and pressure from uninformed but powerful vested interests, channeled through their political representatives. It leaves a bad taste for the political "process".

In an election where I thought there was simply no way the Democrats could avoid winning the presidency, I have been surprised. It's no longer a sure thing. Articles such as "The dominatrix", and the full court press to find a chink in Palin's armor by throwing everything that can be found from every direction, without bothering to check whether it's worth throwing have built up a mediocre veep candidate into some Uber woman colossus. Other examples are the at least partially debunked Kilkenny email, and the supposed list of books Palin banned from the Wasilla library (in fact no books were banned, and a number of the books on the list were not even in print at the time Palin supposedly banned them). I like Obama, and thought he was running a marvelous campaign up to the convention. But the campaign certainly seems stalled now, and this obsession on Palin (just look at the subject of opinion pieces at Salon the past week) is doing him no good, and apparently some harm.