I keep coming back to the fact that former AG John Ashcroft, former FBI director Mueller, former acting AG James Comey, and other top officials of the DOJ threatened to resign over the administration's wiretapping program because it was so patently illegal, so extreme and so unconscionable, yet the Democratic Party eagerly hopped on board as soon as they were made aware of it. When the illegal operation first came to light in 2005, the New York Times listed organizations such as PETA, Greenpeace, anti-war groups, the Catholic Workers group, and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, as those being illegally spied upon. Why in hell would ANYONE, let alone the so-called opposition party, hop on board a blatantly illegal Republican operation – one that even a far-right ideologue like Ashcroft was adamantly opposed to?

It's amazing, isn't it? Every single day some rightwing clown like Steve Hatchett or Jack Ketch comes strutting along, pretending to be a bad-ass, as if there isn't a mile long stream of shit running down their leg.... It's kind of like someone putting on a flight suit and strutting around the deck of an aircraft carrier pretending to be a bad-ass when he's actually a gutless coward who dodged the draft... I wonder where they get it from?

WOW! I think I can honestly speak for everyone here when I say THANKS for opening our eyes!! Damn! We've been such FOOLS!

"You see anyone who disagrees with you as evil, stupid, conservative or some combination of the three. Every time I hear about or read a blog like yours, I am reminded of the Reichstag in 1933 and the Enabling Act."

-- Lt. Gen. Iva Biggan (Mrs.)

I'm glad this issue finally came up. This where Glenn and I part ways. First, only the most ignorant, self-righteous, person declares someone an evil doer as a means of demonizing & dehumanizing them! So, stop doing that! Second, as with the Enabling Act, you want your beliefs to supersede the law! Why? To impose your will, regardless of it's moral or societal implications! Oh, Mrs Biggan is onto you!!

"What do you think they fear?"

-- ethics_professor

Not to insult anyone's intelligence with a cartoon, but I think one of the best encapsulations of the history of irrational fear on the right is captured here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPBHtjZmSpw

Every time someone like Pat Buchannan talks in dire tones about the prospect that, when he's dead and gone, white Anglo-Saxon Protestants will be a minority, also perfectly captures the absurdity of their interminable fear.

"If you have coverage you have coverage. I wouldn't worry too much of "A" doesn't parrot whatever "B" says unless you feel that "A" has no right have an opinion at all. I thought everyone was about diversity."

-- Slate Sanchez

Except when "B" is the only point of view allowed on TV, as happened during the buildup to the Iraq war/occupation. Option "A" was censored from the discussion.

"There is a difference between supporting specific policies like torture and rendition, and having "ties" to people. Have you ever been nice to someone who has done or might in the future do something bad or percieved as bad?"

-- muntaba

If you've ever talked to anyone anywhere in the course of your everyday business dealings, then you have "fully supported their career."

The exception to this rule is in cases when that person helps finance your business ventures, the way Salem Bin Laden (Osama's brother) funded George W Bush's first business venture Arbusto Oil. Then, to tie the 2 people together is tin foil hat lunacy!

Why is that hard to understand?

I think the point Bitter Scribe was trying to make is that journalists are PROFESSIONALS who keep America on the straight and narrow, without daudling in the ridiculous!

Not that they don't excel in blogging as well! The most shining example of this is The Brian Williams NBC Journalism blog, The Daily Nightly. Here you will find, in just the past week alone, such topics as

Counting on a White Christmas: Which discusses the possibility of snow this Christmas.

Viewers Share Their Holiday Spirit: Where they gleam the best from their viewer's letters. You may have seen similar pieces in your local Penny Saver or Shopper's Guide.

It's Here: Where Brian Williams tells us that he's currently wrapping presents even while busy journalizing.

And finally

Operation Santa: A hard hitting expose on prostitution at the North Pole... I think.

http://dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com/

Read and learn!

When the first pictures and details of the war crimes committed at Abu Ghraib first became public in 2004, and the defensive cry of “how dare you claim the US ever commits torture!” changed in a matter of weeks to “we needed to torture those savages” (or in the case of stoner Rush Limbaugh who saw it all in strictly humorous terms as great fun for "our" troops), I kept thinking, wait until the same thing happens to US troops. Wait and see what the reaction will be when US troops are summarily rounded up, stripped naked, put into pyramids and have dogs attack them. Then we’ll see how “funny” and “appropriate” it all is. Yet, in all the years since the Bush administration's torture program was made public, I have yet to see or hear the same level of morally depravity - the psychotic sexual games - perpetrated by the ungodly, insane Muslim radicals on US troops as was leveled against innocent people by our kind, benevolent, serious-minded Judeo-Christian, war planners. I find it hard to believe if evidence of psycho-sexual torture was committed on Americans, it would be as well known. Is it possible that the mindset capable of such psychotic, sexual deviancy requires a level of stunted maturity not shared around the world?

Nothing on the Blagojevich/Obama Scandal rocking the nation?

What didn't Obama know & when didn't he know it?

I would have thought that would have made the top 10.