You want to make Jews wear stars of David on their lapels? You fascist Nazi anti-semite!"

Ah, but not all the neocons are Jews. (Though, as we've learned, any criticism of them is labeled anti-semitism, so I guess that counts).

Right. When it's pointed out that neo-cons are predominantly Jewish, the standard neo-con response is to point to the exceptions, and then call the questioner an anti-semite.

But in this case, I have no doubt that they'd be happy to embrace their Jewish identity in order to, again, smear the questioner as an anti-semite.

p.s. I heard Obama refused to answer the boxers vs. briefs question because he was afraid to admit to wearing boxers instead of Israeli-made designer briefs. That's prima facie evidence of anti-semitism right there.

I thought you were going to say something about how charging per bag actually reflects the real cost to the airline of the fuel necessary to carry those bags. And that pricing in those costs will change customer behavior in an environmentally friendly direction.

Back in college I carried 2 suitcases full of 70lbs. of books on a plane, because it was cheaper than trying to ship them.

Hopefully with per-bag charges, people like the younger me will make the rational decision to ship their non-necessities by ground instead of carrying them along for "airmail" delivery.

Because it's entirely theoretical.

We've been hearing reports about massive databases and massive internet wiretapping since 2001. Why has there been so little reputably sourced information leaking out, given how many people must be involved?

I believe whistleblowers haven't come forward for four reasons.

1. The intelligence establishment is full of right wing authoritarians who believe security trumps everything, especially privacy.

2. Just as in the Justice and Defense Departments, Cheney made sure the important jobs were stocked with Republican cultists who "took oaths to the President," not the Constitution.

3. Continuity of government is "necessary to the survival of the nation itself" so secrecy seems justifiable to otherwise sensible and prudent government employees.

4. Continuity of government plans "will only be used in event of emergency," which sooths the consciences of potential whistleblowers, since they're just collecting information to be used in "purely hypothetical" situations. Of course, when someone decides to use the database, it's no longer hypothetical, but it's also already too late.

This last one is most important because it's unique to the present situation. Something similar to reasons 1-3 all applied to previous spying programs, like J. Edgar Hoover's FBI files. But post-Watergate and post-Church commission, I think the intelligence sector is a little too sophisticated for such crude rationalizations.

The "hypothetical" nature of Main Core was critical to getting everyone to go along with an unprecedented spying program.

supports economic policies like the tax cut when they're Republican proposals, and opposes them when they're Democratic.

He's consistently a partisan hack, hence the sinecure in the WSJ opinion pages.

And he's only interested in this new data because he thinks it will deter Obama from taxing oil companies.

When smear chain letters cite their approval in order to stop people from actually going to Snopes and finding out the truth.

It reminds me of the fake "Virus Warning" emails that went around a few years ago -- after a while they all started to include bogus references to McAfee or Microsoft or some other antivirus company.

Fortunately, on the Internet, Snopes is only a click away. Unfortunately, these emails seem to be circulating among people who are only slightly more skillful than John McCain with the Google.

What kind of black man is Barack Obama? I'll tell you.

Remember that guy on that comedy that was the most popular show in America about 20 years back?

Before your time? OK, you know that Jello Pudding Pops guy?

Everyone knows an educated middle class black guy who speaks standard American dialect (at least as well as they do).

His name's Bill g**d*** Cosby.

For JohnD2008 (and Whispers),

How about traveling some heavily black places and doing a report on blacks who won't vote for McCain just because he's white.

This is stupid. Blacks don't need a racial reason not to vote for Republicans like McCain. Forty years of being screwed and called welfare queens by Republicans like Reagan, Gingrich, and Bush is enough.

For your analogy to make any sense, you'd need to find black people to whom McCain actually had something to offer -- rich lawyers making over $250,000, homophobes or anti-abortion fanatics -- and then see whether they're voting for Obama based solely on skin color.

There aren't too many of those.

Of course, that wouldn't be PC to do such a study, now would it?

The term "PC" lost all meaning about 10 years ago. These days, "I'm not PC" is just a way of blustering, "I'm an a**hole but you can't call me on it."

Chicago has a financial sector, light & some heavy industry, a major conference center, other tourist attractions, and one of the world's largest airports.

Detroit has...the dying auto industry.

During snowstorms, Chicago sends out fleets of snowplows and clears it up by morning. Detroit doesn't have the budget to plow, and will maybe come dig you out in three days, or the snow might melt first.

The two cities aren't in any way comparable. Their mayors Richard M Daley & Kwame Kilpatrick aren't all that different -- Kilpatrick, although lacking wisdom, is probably smarter and is definitely more articulate than Daley.

The difference is that Chicago has been in a growth spiral, while Detroit is still in a death spiral.

It's a shame about the cardboard that's going to be wasted...

But at least we're going to save a few lives from being lost in traffic accidents caused by rattletrap 80s pickups with temporary wooden walls around the bed and about 2 tons of cardboard piled up being driven by guys who don't have driver's licenses or any actual legal ID for that matter.