Sheer nonsense indeed.

I would like to see a number, even an educated guesstimate, for the percentage of military spending that is spent on U.S. soil, where the dollars go into U.S. companies and pay U.S. wages. I suspect we'll find that Bush isn't only putting the war on the credit card for the benefit of those who think killing brown people will make their nightmares go away.

I don't care how witty JMcC is or about his past exhibitions of courage and character. When Bush's Pet and Da Crock were in town for hearings, McCain came off like an old man barely holding it together. That's not going to get better. There's no need to mention the age thing, go for the low road. That issue is going to take care of itself.

One of your best in a while, BB!

The writer is making SUCH a big deal out of this. Fathers go away. Hopefully they come back. Until recently in our history, a short business trip that didn't involve leaving land could take weeks or months, not to mention unexplained death waiting at everyone's elbow. The biggest stress on these kids is going to be their mother's anxiety, her clear signal that something bad is happening to them. Just tell the kids the simplest version of the truth, be happy and wait it out. Daddy has a job, okay?

I shouldn't have eaten before watching Hillary's disgusting panderfest, including a statement that the holy ghost is present in her life, etc. It was a performance, nothing more. Moronic questions like, "Do you believe god made the earth in six days." Unbelievable! Obama did a little better than Clinton, trying to keep things reasonably rational, not looking so wholesale-phony. But even he had to say some pretty outrageous things to get through it.

This is the stuff that makes foreigners roll on the floor with laughter, watching us make magic and fairy tales a centerpiece of our culture and, ever increasingly, a factor in the selection of our leaders.

Is "Bitter" a put-down? Is it a sign of poor character, lack of balls or intelligence to be bitter when circumstances warrant it? And is it not true that red-state voters who've been screwed out of the American Dream have successfully been targeted away from the economic issues that really matter to them and towards cultural issues that government shouldn't even be involved in so they won't notice themselves being screwed over and screwed over and screwed over by the very people they're voting for? It was a totally accurate statement. What the hell is all the fuss?

No, get the media to break up into small pieces. Profit-driven corporate giganto-media, whose CEO's play golf with politicians and the CEO's of military contractors who pay wages in those politicians' districts, LOVE a war. The headlines sell papers and the pro-war slant puts bacon on the table at Halliburton and Sikorsky. To think the media's lapses are a matter of laziness or wimpiness is naive in the extreme. Cherchez les bucks.

Reporters fawn over McCain because their employers are owned by conservative corporations (a redundant term if there ever was one) that would far rather have McCain running things than Obama or even Clinton. More Bush? They'd love it. Tax breaks, dismantling of governmental regulation and oversight? What's not to love about more Bush? It's someone else's kid getting killed in Iraq or doing without health care. Of course, they have to be careful they don't fawn TOO much, because people would start to notice. But politics is like basketball, you only have to win by one point. So they send out reporters who will fawn over McCain and who will grab up the story of Obama's elitism or Hillary's cackle, all the while excusing themselves with, "Hey, we're just reporting the news." (Except when they're not, as in not reporting Bush's complicity and approval of the torture conference that was practically held right in his office!)

The fix is in, folks. To think otherwise is to put your head in the sand.

If McLame was getting economic advice from a graduate of Econ 101A, he could have avoided making this idiotic proposal. It's not one of those concepts that requires a blackboard full of arcane symbols to explain, fer chrissakes. But once again, we'll see the press, for the most part, giving him a pass; there's nothing the Big Money Guys like better than a preznit who don't unnerstan' shee-yit.

It's not about being confrontational. It's about advancing the Right Wing Noise Machine's false talking points (in this case, Trickle-Down Economics). ABC, like every other member of the Mega-Corporate Media, wants McMoreBush in the White House. Desperately. With all their black little hearts.

My Dog, are we not getting tired of hearing this phrase? It belongs on the tombstone of the Bush Administration, which can't die and be buried soon enough!

"Media stars -- some due to sloth, some due to ideology, some due to an eagerness to please the Right..."

Sorry, Glenn -- gotta check the "none of the above" box. Toadying to the Right Wing Noise machine is about one thing only: keeping their jobs! The media is owned by corporations that are by their nature conservative; they write the paychecks, they ultimately decide who gets face time on the nightly news, etc. and they damn sure don't want a Dem in the White House come next January. Sure, they're smart enough to allow "differing points of view," but politics is like any other game: you don't have to win all the points to win.

Being a "media star" is no different from being a "soap opera star." You work off the script you're given, or you go back to waiting tables.

Mr. McCain's "How NOT To" prescription for peak oil: cut taxes at the pump so people will use more.