Letters posted here are associated with the following Salon Premium Member:

Abagadro

Published Letters: 136
Editor's Choice: 4

Sunday, August 31, 2008 08:53 PM

Refutation

Refutation would require something semi-rational to refute. Arguing with the fantastical is rather pointless. You might as well have said "unicorns stole the world's largest diamond from my bedroom." To which the only natural response is "ooooookay" while making that little circular motion with a finger near the temple.

Sunday, August 31, 2008 08:25 PM

Don't Drink Lead Paint

See kids, this is what happens when you drink lead paint:

And to remember that Louisiana at the time and New Orleans then and now is run by democrats who did and do nothing. Luckily for the fastest acting federal response to any natural disaster of Katrina's magnitude, the mess created by Nagin and the other democrat hooligans was less than what it could have been.
Friday, August 29, 2008 04:37 PM
Original article: John McCain's female card

Hey Elephantman

Are you this Elephantman?:

http://www.slate.com/id/2198949/

If so, thanks for foisting this travesty on all of us.

Friday, August 29, 2008 12:59 PM
Original article: Brian Schweitzer interview

My new favorite metric

How many people wuold get in a bowling alley fight. Awesome.

Thursday, August 28, 2008 09:15 PM
Original article: McCain camp responds

Heh

That is some seriously weak sauce.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008 07:47 PM
Original article: How it happened

Jeb

You are a cartoon.

Monday, August 25, 2008 09:31 PM

Er..

Edmund, not Edward.

Monday, August 25, 2008 09:30 PM

False Flag

This does have all the trappings of a classic GOP false flag operation. They have been doing this since Nixon. Back then it was stealing letterhead to write letters from one Democratic candidate about the other, or writing fake letters to the editor about Edward Muskie, etc. etc. These days is fake riots in Palm Beach County and PUMAs.

Monday, August 25, 2008 08:41 PM

Deranged

These people are seriously deranged. They've somehow internalized a rather standard primary battle into being personally dissed and their entire sense of self questioned and no amount of logic, policy perspective, direction from their supposed candidate, or even common sense will penetrate that.

Saturday, August 23, 2008 11:22 AM

barryaus

It's correct. He was elected at age 29 and turned 30 on November 20, a week and change after the election, so he met the qualification upon entering the office. Makes me feel like a slacker at age 37.

Friday, August 15, 2008 11:41 AM

Depressing

What is depressing is how the media legitimizes this nonsense. I mean, the guy writes for World Nut Daily of all things and this is clearly just cobbled together internet spew that doesn't even merit a snopes.com debunking yet the guy gets interviewed like he actually has something to say about a presidential candidate. We are so screwed.

Sunday, August 3, 2008 09:07 PM
Original article: Perspire to retire!

Tax rate

Depends on the type of account. Most 401ks are tax deferred, not tax free. Only Roth-type accounts provide tax free on the gains, but of course you fund it with after tax income.

Friday, July 18, 2008 09:09 AM

Somewhat Agree But It Is More Complicated

I completely agree that this administration has taken the concept of executive power and executive privileges to such a ridiculous extreme that even Richard Neustadt is probably rolling around in his grave. However, I think your conception on the role of the AG is a bit simplistic. As a government attorney (although at the municipal level), I can tell you that identifying your client is sometimes difficult and isn't as cut-and-dried as you are making it out to be. Yes, you do represent the corporeal and somewhat amorphous entity of the polity that employs you, but in practice how do you make decisions? As a lawyer yourself Glenn, you know that you don't exercise complete initiative of your own in doing your job (whether it be deciding to sue, settling a case, or whatnot). You are at the direction of your client. But if your client is "the people" or "the country," from whom do you get your marching orders on any particular topic? You really have two options here: 1) you get your direction from elective representatives who are designated as your superiors (in the federal case, the head of the executive branch, i.e. the president; in some municipalities it is a city council or city supervisor/mayor); or 2) you set policy yourself as the representative of "the people". Each has its own potential pitfalls obviously. The first is that you become so beholden to the parochial interests of the elected official for that particular moment that you overlook your obligation to the polity. This happens when your boss asks to rubber stamp something that is clearly a violation of the law (which pretty clearly has happened over the last 7 years). The danger of going too far the other direction is that you have an unelected person setting policy, which reduces accountability (at least directly as the superior could theoretically fire them, although even that becomes somewhat constrained in many instances).

In practice, a government attorney ends up serving multiple masters: his executive branch boss, his legislative bosses (although this is a diffuse relationship and complicated), "The Law," "the people" and even to an extent his own ethics and institutional legitimacy (this particularly becomes the case with the Solicitor General's office as it must keep its legitimacy before the SCOTUS).

Sorry for the ramble and I guess I'm not really disagreeing with you that it is an incorrect and facile statement that the president "is the AG's client" but having personally experienced this type of thing, on a smaller scale, I can tell you it isn't as cut and dried as how I took your presentation.

Monday, July 14, 2008 04:28 PM
Original article: Another McCain gaffe

Give me Five Bees for a Quarter

I'm surprised he doesn't constantly talk about the time he wore an onion on his belt as it was the style at the time.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008 09:21 PM
Original article: Obama declares victory

Cross-party appeal

Seems like not being a complete and utter incompetent would have a certain measure of cross-party appeal. Guess it all depends on what appeals to you. If you want public policies that have shown themselves to be utter failures on every level, I guess you can continue to run with that. Doesn't make much sense to me, but to each his own.

Friday, April 25, 2008 04:00 PM

What ever happened to George Miller's career?

He just recently wrote/produced/directed Happy Feet which was quite successful and won him an Oscar.

Thursday, April 24, 2008 04:04 PM

Gore and Hoton

The Horton issue in '88 was first brought up by AL GORE in his attempt to win the Democratic nomination. Sleazy politics have no party affiliation

Not exactly:

http://www.slate.com/id/1003919/

Thursday, April 10, 2008 02:55 PM
Original article: The financial costs of war

Numbers appear to be adjusted

Those numbers are already clearly adjusted for inflation. The DoD budget in 1951/52 was 54/57B. If the comparison wasn't inflation-adjusted it wouldn't be a 14% diference, it would be 1000% diference.

Monday, April 7, 2008 10:45 AM

She forgot to recite the proper question

"Mr. McCain, your candidancy has the momentum of a run-away freight train, why are you so popular?"

Most Active Letters Threads

359

A key British official reminds us of the forgotten anthrax attack

A vast array of establishment and expert sources do not believe this episode was really resolved.
323

Tough-guy John Bolton, hiding under his bed

As usual, right-wing pseudo-warriors are drowning in extreme cowardice.
178

Is Obama's civil liberties record understandable?

Was it unreasonable to expect him to adhere to his commitments regarding the Constitution?
154

Phil Carter's resignation from key detainee policy post

Many of the "War on Terror" policies he spent years condemning were ones expressly embraced by Obama.
99

Palin, Prejean: Beastly treatment for beauties

The governor turned author must fight what the pageant queen learned: Politics and hotness make strange bedfellows

View all »

Letters Help

Currently in Salon