Does anyone else notice how most of these geeks came of age during the rise of the video game? The kind of upper-middle class kids who most likely sat glued in front of video screens 25 years ago, with cheetohs crumbs on their shirts, taunted at school for being pussys and weaklings, finally able to scream “Got em!” and “Bring ‘em on!” at the video screen. And with a pathetic fist in the air to simulate bravado!

It’s no wonder they view the lives lost in Iraq as insignificant. "Iraqis die. Americans die. That’s the price you pay in war!" And as every rich, white suburban kid knows there are ALWAYS more quarters in their pockets to keep on playing.

The detached reality of these fake “Warriors” is no different than children getting lost in a game world of make believe “battles” and “victories”. And as with video games, there’s no actual sacrifice and bravery involved. It’s all just a game.

That question should be asked EVERY SINGLE TIME these "liberal" protectors of Bush administration criminality pretend this program is about "fighting terrorism"!

Not only should the issue of why did Justice Department officials threatened to resign be CONSTANTLY brought to the forefront of this debate, but so should the fact that it’s the dregs of the Nixon administration that are at the core of this lawless administration. To me, the issue has ALWAYS been about these bastards spying on political opponents (just like they did under Nixon) and in gathering dirt for blackmailing purposes! Terrorism is just the all-purpose excuse for eviscerating the restraints on presidential authority. Could it be any more f**** obvious what's going on here?!

THAT was beautiful, Glenn! Simply, poetically, unexpectedly beautiful!

http://letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/10/12/edwards/permalink/0a870fe5d19c836423ca444fbe554f54.html

You can almost see squiggles imploding right in front of this PC.

... if little Stevie Boylan is typical of the children running military ops. While it's to be expected that lifelong Republicans are utterly clueless about war (since their knowledge is primarily gained from John Wayne movies and other circle-jerk infotainment), you'd like to think that the actually military leadership wouldn't be as ridiculously stupid as George Bush, Dick Cheny, and Rush Limbaugh. Little Stevie proves otherwise. A complete rightwing tool no different than Litle Billy Kristol or Glenn Beck.

If there was ever a case for adult leadership to immediately return to salvage the wreckage left of the United States under the Republican party, this asshole Boylan sums up the problem beautifully.

"The more close the association, the greater the taint."

- JackHughes

As a songwriter and lover of double-entendres, I have to say that's a great line!

If this horrible time in US history were a movie, and knowing how widespread and growing the anger of the American people is towards rightwing ideology, how much imagination does it take to see what could very well happen in the years to come as this story plays out? While it’s unlikely the next president will be as ethically bankrupt, and will not feel any adherence to the laws of the United States is necessary as the Bush/Cheney regime has done, the next administration, whoever they are, WILL inherit unprecedented authoritarian powers to do whatever the hell they want thanks to the dittoheads and FOX watchers who have been screaming to basically accept unilateral executive power with the mantra of "everything changed on 9/11".

It will be interesting to see how the 24%-ers who today delight in having “nothing to hide” from their government will feel when a President Hillary Clinton will have the right to unilaterally lock up any rightwingers who she deems are enemy combatants. The wiretapping of Republican organizations (the details of which can not be divulged due to national security). The rendering and waterboarding of those whose loyalty to the US is highly questionable from an ANTI-rightwing point of view. Government infiltration of rightwing protests and gatherings. The arresting of anyone wearing anti-Hillary t-shirts.

All the grotesque authoritarian abuses of power the rightwing have fought so diligently to instill in the president are naturally going to be inherent in the next president. And if that president has the same disdain and hatred for rightwingers that Bush and Cheney have had for anyone not on the extreme far right, that president (unlike Bush and Cheney) will actually have, at least initially, majority support in their contempt for rightwingers.

Why does 2009 not seem inevitable to those still fighting to give this lame duck radical extremist more and more power?

I could definitely do without the sappy and cliched Simon & Garfunkel..

- Glenn Greenwald

Uh-oh. While I agree with a previous poster that you may unleash The RonPaulians who will take you to task, you may also find a few blood-thirsty Simon & Garfunkel fanatics. I once made the mistake of telling someone that I didn't particularly like James Taylor's music and was lucky to leave without being decapitated.