This fear about English no longer being our national language is just demagoguery. It's tied up with everything we are, do, and say, and there's no way any other language will replace it. What's likely, with increased absorption of Hispanic immigrants, is more words of Spanish working their way into English. Nothing new there--English has always adopted and changed.

But the US is remarkably consistent in its values (like Puritanism!)over the centuries.

Every single immigrant group, whether Germans in the 1830s and 1840s or Italians in the late 19th century, Russian Jews at the turn of the last century, Vietnamese in the 1970s and on, every one of them eventually learned English. The first wave might not have, but their children did because they had to. It was the way to get ahead and integrate into society.

Anyone who starts quibbling about what "deny" meant is making excuses.

It's very clear from everything this administration has done and said that the President was not parsing words, he was sending a message to the American people: Saddam wouldn't let inspectors into his country to do inspections for WMD. Plain and simple.

That's how most people would have heard what he said, and that's the interpretation he wanted: the broadest, most categorical one. When it came to making war and making up reasons for it afterwards, this administration painted only in the broadest strokes.

Okay, everybody seems to forget she was being filmed, so it's perfectly logical that the guard thought they were some kind of film crew. "Who are you with?" is appropriate in that case.

And I dispute the ragging on her. She smiled, she was not angry in tone of voice, she just chalked it up to typical treatment. I don't have any way of knowing she's making it up.

Is she a nut job? I'd vote for Ted Stevens of Alaska as the official Congressional Clown after his multpile, weepy threats to resign.

Ah yes, it's a charming story. Salon should have had music to it, the theme from "Peanuts," perhaps? Or maybe go for the shmaltzy with "I Will Survive."

Listen, they kill cats and dogs, and in packs can take down a deer, as reported locally here in Michigan. Yes, they're nocturnal and avoid lights, but why would anyone think they won't someday be a threat to small children? They're getting bigger, smarter, and more competitive.

Meanwhile, I'm waiting for a future Salon piece in which the much-profiled Jennifer Anniston takes up Coyote Rescue.

Please. He's a clown and he's incompetent. Don't dignify him with the label of "tragic." He doesn't deserve it and he certainly doesn't deserve our sympathy.

Dumping McClellan and Snow means absolutely nothing. Treasury has no influence in this administration--Bush has shown that time and again. Bruce Bartlett's IMPOSTOR points out that there's never been a President who changes staff so little, and never one surrounded by so many "yes-men and hacks."

If Stewart and Manjoo are still sweet on McCain, they haven't really been paying attention. What he said on Meet the Press was unequivocal. The guy is a whore. Are we supposed to vote for McCain while reading deep, consoling messages in his eyes? Puh-leeze. I voted for him in the Michigan primary but I've been disgusted with his tilt towards Bush and the Bushies in the last few years, and would never vote for him again. He's a whore, and Stewart was way too easy on him, as was this mash note.

"Did Bush break the law in allowing Libby to talk about the NIE? Probably not. An executive order issued by Bush in March 2003 gives the president and vice president specific authority to declassify documents at will."

This is just mind-boggling in its Nixonian wonder. "If the President does it, it's not illegal"--especially if he says it's not illegal. Who knows what other Executive Orders they have lying around. Message: I prepare.

pwtrash writes:

"Certainly, content in the Bible has factual issues (which are separate from truth issues), but those are mostly not due to transmission or transcription error, but to theological intent."

The reverse is true. Not until several centuries on were trained scribes making copies of these texts, by which point many significent errors had already crept in, given that those transcribing them were not remotely professionals and not always completely literate. Harper San Francisco just published a book whose title I've forgotten that deals extensively with this issue.

Mathews could enter the race to throw the seat to the Republicans, and get something in return for it.

If he practically crept up DeLay's ass and sang paeans of gratitude when DeLay was on his show, he has deeper, darker ties to the Republicans than even the most paranoid of us suspect.

I'd love the airwaves to be rid of his gasbaggery (which is very Senatorial, alas), but shudder at what damage he could do in Congress if he got in by some freak of chance.

McClellan is as nuts and in the wrong as Kevin Kline in "A Fish Called Wanda" when he hangs John Cleese upside down outside a window and demands, "Apologize! Apologize!"

This is tacky beyond belief. Anybody can put a piece of clothing, a hat, glasses on a dog. Try something original.

As a former academic, the sloppiness and omissions in Walt and Mearsheimer's work makes me wonder how they would talk to a student author of such a paper. And more importantly, where is Chalmers Johnson's THE SORROW OF EMPIRE in their discussion? You can't talk about Iraq and American power in the Middle East without referencing his magisterial, brilliant book. And they can't be throourgh professors if they their own work has huge gaps and carelessness.