Mr. Shapiro. This was well done and easy to follow.

Although I think scandal will be part of this story, I doubt that it will extend to prostitution, at least where Goss is concerned. He isn't the target of a criminal investigation that I have read of, but his appointee, Dusty Foggo, is.

Two former CIA analysts/agents were guests on the Jim Lehrer News Hour (PBS) this evening, and an interesting tidbit came out: Porter Goss upset the CIA regulars by importing many staff members from his Congressional office, one of whom was a former CIA employee who had already been kicked out of the CIA for pilfering bacon from a local supermarket. I don't know whether this story is true, but if it is, it shows the lack of vetting that seems to be so rampant in D.C. these days.

I was reminded of how Rudy Guliani's sidekick, Bernard Kerik, was nominated to be the head of Homeland Security before someone actually looked at his corrupt background and prompted him to use a "Nannygate" excuse to withdraw. This did not keep the television media from continuing to invite him to appear as an expert guest on their shows following Hurricane Katrina and the failure of FEMA. What's that old saying about the pot calling the kettle black?

If Foggo winds up in prison, will we still have Porter Goss appearing as a commentator on "Hardball?" I'm not aking any bets.

From the close to 40,000 thank you notes to Colbert over at thankyoustephencolbert.org/ one would have to acknowledge that the docile press corps caved in even more to the White House when they all decided, no doubt without having to be told by Karl Rove, upon a press corps unified talking point: he just wasn't funny. When 40,000 people found him hilarious, heroic, and truly patriotic enough to write and thank him, many more must also be feeling that way.

Thanks to you for this. I will keep my subscription to Salon. I have already quit the Post and the Times.

at

http://thankyoustephencolbert.org/

37,161 people had written thank-you notes to Stephen Colbert. And they just keep coming in, too. The more the video gets around, the longer the list gets.

I guess the reason we need big changes in D.C. is that those who have been around for too long, believing in their old, bipartisan rhetoric, weren't paying attention while our government was stolen from us. NO WAR ON IRAN! OUT OF IRAQ!

IMPEACH!

And thank you, Michael Scherer, for recognizing true art when you see it. Perhaps the D.C. press corps will slowly wake up?

whose letter appears in these pages, still doesn't get it. Colbert's character is a send off of all the sycophants in the media who worship their own egos and fawning over officialdom more than they value the truth. Bill O'Reilly is included there. To criticize Colbert for his egoistic run over to his seated guests on his TV show is to entirely miss his point; it's the egotistical behavior that he is satirizing, and satire must exaggerate to be funny. Don't confuse Colbert with the persona he is spoofing.

A good satirist never breaks character, and Colbert never broke character on Saturday night, either. One person asked him afterwards if he had been too tough on the president. "Not at all," he replied.

Wake up, brother bob. Your story isn't worth the paper it's rotten on. (Quip stolen from Dorothy Parker.)

There is a Thank You, Stephen Colbert site at the blog, dailykos. Anyone who wants to register support can go there and sign on. I e-mailed Comedy Central to thank them as well, and I am recommending stories about the lack of news coverage to keep them in front of reader's eyes.

I am thoroughly ashamed, as I was in the 1950s with Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, and a few other comedians being the only persons willing to criticize what our McCarthyite nation had become. I never thought I would live long enough to see it happening all over again, and even worse. Who can sensible people rely on these days? Not the corporate media. Not our elected leaders. Only our satirists like Colbert and Jon Stewart, and a few songsters and rappers. And the media will do their best to suppress any opposition.

Thousands dead and maimed, and our president makes jokes about it and smirks. The world has gone ape. I hope to live long enough to vote in November of 2006 and 2008. It's all I have to give.

For me, anyway. I would like to read that pdf doc from Fitzgerald, but I can't locate it. He usually puts his proceedings up on his web site, and I can't find it there, either. The link to the Sun story isn't working, either. Could you look into that, please?

Thanks.

Mercury poisoning in the tuna! Yummm. Just what I wanted to stave off the flu. Rats under the bed fighting with the ants and roaches for the powdered milk, oatmeal, and sugar? How appetizing. What, no duct tape to fasten the cache to the floor? Our venerable secretary is slipping. Surely, he might have thought of duct tape, since we all have so much of it left over from the orange and red alerts.

It's not surprising to see incompetence again, but it is surprising to see it presented so brazenly, only a short week after the Dubai Ports World debacle. Is the entire cabinet in a competition to see who can look the most incompetent?

Now every company or institution that has suffered layoffs will be vying for Bush to come and talk to them. Does this mean a bail-out for Ford and GM, too? I'm glad these people got their jobs back, but I'm not happy about the reason.