the gigantic fusion furnace that is Sol. The sun will convert to a red giant and expand to the present orbit of Mars. Earth will be incinerated. All life as we know it will cease.

As Stephen Hawking has pointed out, if man does not leave Earth, then we are all doomed. So why does Kauffman need to make life sacred? Can't it just be an interesting, if irrelevant, digression from the overall progression of the Universe into entropy?

then it's time for the Democrats to actually follow thru on the nuclear option (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_option_(filibuster)) the Republicans were always threatening when THEY held the majority in the Senate.

I mean, poaching a little pot, while shameless, isn't really harmful. Besides, potheads are supposed to be like all Peace and Love, ya dig?

Coke, on the other hand, you start lifting someone's coke and it can turn into Scarface real quick!!

than someone chained to the worthless foreign policy that has failed the US since 1947 and the passage of the National Security Act. Someone who kow-tows to Israel, voted to authorize the use of military force in Iraq, sabre-rattles Iran, and whose husband instituted the abomination of extraordinary rendition.

Get over it indeed, Conason. You should go on Wheel of Fortune and buy a clue.

Sure, in the past other presidents (can you spell R-i-c-h-a-r-d- N-i-x-o-n) have sneaked around Article 1, Section 6 by paying the nominee the old salary. Trouble is, the Constitution doesn't say the Senator or Congressperson cannot accept the higher salary . . . the Constitution says if the pay for the position was raised during the appointee's term . . . THEY MAY NOT SERVE. Period.

Screwing about with the Constitution is not the best way to begin a new Administration.

At the very first Cabinet meeting of the new George W. Bush Administration, according to then Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill, all Bush wanted to talk about was finding some pretext for invading Iraq.

The same story is essentially confirmed by NS Advisor Richard Clarke.

So guess what, Christ, you friggin' moron, NOT everything Bush did was in response to 9/11. 9/11 was just the pretext for invading Iraq, authorizing torture and general criminal conduct.

Need another example, Wallace, you twit? Warrantless wiretapping was inaugurated BEFORE 9/11.

Is there any factual matter on which Wallace is other than an idiot??

As CEO of Halliburton, Dick Cheney failed utterly to do due diligence when purchasing asbestos related companies. In 2001, Halliburton was on the brink of bankruptcy thanks to his incompetence. 9/11 rolls around, and Dick sees to it that Rummy provides Halliburtion with 27 billion dollars (that's $27,000,000,000.00) in no-bid contracts.

Cheney's Halliburton options, which were worth $250k in 2001, are suddenly worth $8,000,000.00, for a cool profit of approximately $2,000 for every GI killed in Iraq.

As for Bush, well, Bush's assets are held in a blind trust, administered by a guy named Farish, whose father was the VP of Standard Oil of New Jersey (Esso - then Exxon - now Exxon Mobil) when the US government seized Esso's assets for "collaborating with the Nazis" i.e., they provided the Luftwaffe with tetra-ethyl lead during WWII.

Farish was represented in the asset seizure by John Foster Dulles, who also represnted the Bush family, as their assets had also been seized upon the order of Franklin Roosevelt. For the saem reason: collaborating with the Nazis. Google "bush farish" and see what you come up with.

If you don't think these weasels have made sure that Bush made a fortune out of the Iraq War, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

Watergate WORSE than what's been going on?? You're crazy. Watergate was a 5th rate burglary, with a coverup, and cash payoffs. Period. The problem was the lying about it.

Bush is directly responsible for the deaths of 4,000+ US soldiers, and 30,000 wounded. There are 1,000,000 dead Iraqis because of his goddam invasion. By the time its over, we will have pouredd $3,000,000,000,000.00 down a rathole in the desert.

CIA agents have been outed. Grand juries have been lied to. Congress has been lied to. Detainees have been tortured. To death. At the order of the president. We have violated the Geneva Convention. We have warrantlessly wiretapped US citizens in violation of TItle 50 USC, Chapter 36, Subchapter 1. We have extraordinarily rendered detainees around the globe, where they have been tortured in Syrian prisons and black CIA facilities.

At least 14 US troops have died by electorcution in showerooms installed by Halliburton.

And a fucking burglary is worse?? You simply don't know what you're talking about.

I merely point out that his assets, held as they are in a "blind" trust, and administered by the son of Mazi collaborators, have no doubt swelled mightily in the past 8 years, despite your protestations to the contrary.

Regarding the trustee of his assets, let me quote wikipedia:

William Stamps Farish III, is the grandson of William Stamps Farish II, who was President of Standard Oil from 1937 to 1942 until pleading "no contest" to conspiring with the Nazis and profiting from concentration camp labor. Farish had been a principal in a partnership between a Standard Oil/General Motors owned company, Ethyl Gasoline Corporation, and the German company I.G. Farben. This jointly owned venture, Ethyl GmbH, was involved with the creation of the Auschwitz labor camp on June 14, 1940, to produce artificial rubber from coal and they also built then operated Tetraethyl lead plants in Germany.[6]

On March 25, 1942, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Thurman Arnold announced that Farish, along with other officers of Standard Oil and related companies, pled "no contest" in the criminal courts of Newark, New Jersey to criminally conspiring with the Nazi government in Germany. He was described by Harry S Truman in public as approaching 'treason' for profiting from the Nazi war machine and withholding patents from the US government.