Joan, I hope you're right that we only have about 10 days, but I fear it will be more like months. Although Coleman undoubtedly knows that his chances of winning are essentially nil at this point, he has also indicated that he's willing (probably at the behest of the Republican leadership a.k.a. John Cornyn) to appeal not only to the Minnesota State Supreme Court, but also to the Federal Court, should that fail. In addition, even when Coleman loses in the State Supreme Court, Pawlenty has indicated he may not issue a certificate to Franken while Coleman is pursuing his Federal appeal (see Rachel Maddow's excellent interview with Pawlenty from last week http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/rachel-maddow-asks-tim-pawlenty-if-hell-sign).

I have no doubt that when all is said and done Franken will be seated in the Senate, but the time frame is still in serious doubt. The only good thing about Coleman's stalling tactic is that it is earning him and the Republican party lots of ill will in Minnesota, which will likely carry over to at least 2010.

Beautiful strip this week Keef. Your passion about cars in LA and the lack of reasonable alternatives jumps out of every panel. And I share your concern. I've been hit twice in the last two years by inattentive motorists while riding my bike in a designated bike lane! But I don't live in insane LA--which I rode through way back in 1982--but in Austin, Texas. Home of Lance Armstrong. You'd think we'd do a better job here, but the car culture is everywhere in the U.S.

Dear god no. Please don't send them to Texas. There are some of us here that are doing our best to make the state a better place. It's hard enough already without sending them here.

Perhaps we could create the equivalent of a penal colony for them a la Australia. Give'm a few generations of having to live with one another exclusively, and maybe they'll end up with better attitudes. Most of the Aussies seem to be pretty good sorts.

I can understand Obama's desire to move forward with his agenda, which, whether you fully agree with it or not, is very important given our economic, social and environmental state. But, I've also seen this movie before. Even though a number of Nixon's closest associates did some jail time for their unconstitutional activities, Nixon got off without prosecution as did many of the other dirty tricks folks like Cheney.

These criminals turned around, and at the next opportunity (Reagan) came right back and did it all over again. Then we got Bush the lesser, a malleable and gullible "leader," and they seized their opportunity to really screw things up. If we don't want to see the same problems crop up again in another decade or so, we need to make it clear that such behavior will not be tolerated.

And then there's the little nicety that torture is a war crime.

Obama is pushing forward on many fronts and that is great, but I'll wager that rather than being a distraction, prosecution of the war criminals would give the U.S. greater stature and strengthen his hand internationally. I also believe that the majority of the American people are not Fox News idiots and will understand the necessity of upholding the law.

In Cavuto's case, a large head is just a byproduct of a thick skull, not a larger brain.

He seemed like such a nice boy until he started speaking.

"Sometimes a tower and a cave are just a tower and a cave."

Yeah, sometimes. But this doesn't happen to be one of them. The sexual metaphor for a chastity belt/loss of virginity is too obvious. I'm not one who goes looking for sexual metaphors, but the tower and the cave were pretty darned obvious from the moment of their introduction.

I think folks are over analyzing this. Even the premise of the story is a bit flawed/goofy. Carol says that the third sex cannot reproduce with itself and she even gives us a nifty little set of equations in the second panel to illustrate her point.

But wait! The equations themselves don't make much sense. The third sex is really three different chromosomal combinations: ZZ, ZY ZX. Huh? So the Z chromosome is dominant? And if the third sex can't reproduce with itself, how would you ever generate a ZZ type, which presumably could only come from a ZZ + ZZ mating? (Note also that she only shows ZZ + XX and ZZ + XY matings, which would also never produce any new ZZ individuals.)

I'm an evolutionary biologist by trade, so I couldn't resist having a bit of fun with Carol's odd third-sex symbols. Anyway, Carol doesn't seem like the "gay bashing" type, so I'm inclined to interpret her cartoon as a bit of whimsy even if her knowledge of genetics is limited.

Also, the two normal sexes also can't reproduce by themselves (barring massive scientific intervention), so how does the third sex's inability to reproduce with its own kind make it any different than the two "normal" sexes?

Was anyone besides me more than a little uncomfortable with the joke about the military coming back the U.S. and cleaning things up? I know, I know it was a joke, but joking about the U.S. being under marshal law, or, worse, a military dictatorship is not something I like, even in jest.

Even the general seemed a bit nonplussed and chose to say nothing.

I don't think you'll need it. You always seem well prepared when I see clips on the intertubes of your guest appearances.

Since we are all very well aware of the memes that Ms. Cheney is likely to advance, I hope you're given the opportunity to deconstruct them head-on. She's been largely unchallenged for her falsehoods and distortions, so I'm very much hoping you can put her back on her heels when she trots out her predictable talking points.

Go get her!