They have to offer speakers from the far right, because it is essential dogma that Obama is pure evil, and thus one must oppose every single position and utterance.

When you have chosen "d) demonize your opponent at every turn" as your de facto political strategy, you eliminate, perforce, any chance for compromise, because of course you cannot make a deal with the devil. To be seen agreeing with anything said or done by your opponent is to erode your stated position that the opponent is evil personified. To find common cause with your opponent, on any issue whatsoever, is to lay down with the devil.

This is why no Republican office-holder can ever vote in favor of any Obama-supported legislative initiative. To do so is to capitulate to the forces of darkness, and you will be hounded from the party.

Some will say that Obama, by cultivating a personality-driven campaign in the first instance, is to blame for now being at the receiving end of what is essentially a cult of anti-personality. But I suspect that the far right in America, which has essentially taken over the GOP, would have found a way to move similarly against any Democratic president. Obama's personal story simply made it easier for them.

Me thinks they dost protest too much.

Take a look at what Carter actually said: "I think an overwhelming portion of the INTENSELY DEMONSTRATED ANIMOSITY toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man."

This doesn't mean that you're a racist merely because you oppose him, but that if you're one of the folks who believes that he has absolutely no right to be president (for any number of professed reasons), then -- to paraphrase Jeff Foxworthy -- you MIGHT be a racist.

This gets back to the whole "disagree without being disagreeable" concept, that seemed to be so sorely missing from much of what we saw in coverage of of the Town Hall sessions last month. When someone shows up frothing at the mouth, demanding that their congressman do something to get Obama out of the White House, you just know it's not merely a conservative political philosophy that's motivating them.

I hope that Palm is able to maintain this platform.

I was an early Pre buyer, upgrading from the 755. And while the Pre isn't perfect, my iPhone-using friends indicate that their device also has its flaws. The big difference that is cited are all the "cool" apps available for the iPhone, but good God, how many toys do you need (and how many of the iPhone apps are anything more than just "cool" for the sake of cool)?

It seems to me that there's a fair amount of general Pre-bias out there among the tech crowd, but for a business user like myself, it's about as good as anything else I've seen.

Is it too much to hope for that Stein has also been banished from the CBS Sunday Morning program (or might soon be)? Nothing ruins my relaxing weekend routine more than the irrepressible urge to scream, complete with popping neck veins and spittle, every time that wrong-headed, self-righteous cretin appears to prattle on about how the poor need to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and/or accept their sorry lot in life.

When you bemoan the lack of honesty in the political class, it's tough to criticize a guy who mostly just tells the truth. Almost everything listed in this post was inarguably a true statement of fact, and the rest are likely true. I suppose you can take the position that at times it's better to just keep your mouth shut, but I'd rather -- frankly -- have my leaders err on the side of too much candor than too little.

Apparently, "the Hammer" is unfamiliar with the Constitution's "Commerce Clause" and the cases which have interpreted it to give Congress the right to regulate just about anything it darn well pleases.

Uh, let me get this straight: the FOX news director is in the tank for Obama?

Between lilybean and Drudge, I don't know which is more ridiculous.

As noted, ALL the Chicago major media has been touting this, which has really galled the watchdogs who rightly note that the Olympic bid (like Olympic bids everywhere -- this is not exclusive to Chicago) has not been fully covered with due attention to the negatives (also present in any Olympic bid).

But the bottom line is that -- while this may wind up costing the residents of Chicago and Cook Co dearly -- it would be a boon to the upper midwest region in general and to the US. It should also be noted that the major US media (especially, but not exclusively, the network covering the Games) LOVES Olympics staged in the US for two important reasons: first, it's cheaper to cover when you don't have to leave the country; second (and this would not be an issue if Rio got the Games), ratings are much higher when you don't have time-zone issues, allowing you to present the events live.