I'm sorry. You're too poor.

If you're reading this, there's an excellent chance that you're not rich--at least not rich enough to benefit from John McCain's possible election. You need to be in the richest 1% income bracket to really get the full bang for your buck when you help John BUY the Presidency. Because when you have that kind of money--like Don Diamond, an AZ developer--you get to use your donations to McCain as a guarantee that John will get you sweetheart deals.

Like buying closed Army bases for $250K and selling it two yars later for $20 MILLION.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/us/politics/22diamond.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

So stop reading this and get that second job to pay for that exploding mortgage. McCain won't give a crap about you until you're rich. His government isn't for losers like you.

Please, Joe. Wake up. The GOP will say and do A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G to hold onto the White House. Sooner or later their attack dogs would have whispered that Barack was...not ready. Naïve. Different. Liberal.

Not like us. And oh yes, he's black. And we can't have that in the White House, can we? A black man lording it over us all?

Hillary's speaking about a real political possibility. It's not right or fair or pleasant that there are still Americans who still won't vote for a black man--even one who's half white--as President. It's too bad that she's using that as a reason to ask voters to choose her. But my guess is that the lines are already drawn, and that people aren't going to move away from Barack because HC pointed out that Barack's skin color may be a divisive issue.

No matter what the effect Hillary's words may have, the GOP will be playing the race card over and over again. By campaign's end, you won't recognize Barack Obama for all the mud that the Republicans will have thrown at him.

I'm tired of all the foaming and whining about HC. She has a right to run as long as she wants. There have been times that's she's gone too far, but Barack's supporters have been hyperventilating an awful lot--as if any opposition is a conspiracy to destroy the Chosen One. Just wait until they watch the GOP attack machine in action.

Also Joe Conason, it's quite strange that no one does articles on the dehumanization and demonization of Hillary in the press. I wonder if that had anything to do with her impending defeat. Or whether it will make things that much harder to unify women voters behind a Democratic ticket. Crazy thought, eh?

No new Spygate revelations? What will Peter King of Sports Illustrated write about? Oh, that's right: his coffee addiction.

I get a laugh about the huffing and puffing over the Patriots and Belichick. Jimmy Jones said that he knew about taping signals at the beginning of his career and that at least 1/3 of today's teams were doing it before Goodell punished the Pats. Plenty of other teams have cheated and ARE cheating. If you think it was just the Pats, I have some land in FL for you.

Here are some REAL issues that the NFL and the press should address:

* Pacman Jones being reinstated

* Steroid and HGH use in the NFL--why so angry, Shawne Merriman?

* The possibility of Michael Vick ever playing pro football --anywhere--ever again

* The NFL and NFL Players' Association desperate attempt to ignore the medical conditions and insufficient pensions of retired players

* The league's tardy and insufficient monitoring of players' health following injury, esp. head trauma.

Hey Kobe: No means no. Try remembering that the next time you check into a hotel.

And as for basketball: you'll never be MJ's equal.

I have some quibbles about some of the names on your list--there are NBA players who've had more illegitimate children than Sean Kemp, believe it or not--but your number #1 justly wears the crown of shame. How did the Bush's go from the intelligence, achievements and occasional decency of GHW Bush to the drug-addicted wastrel ineptitude of GW Bush? Daddy's failings become all the more shocking when you also consider the lives of Dubya's siblings, Marvin and Neil Bush particularly.

You should run lists like this more often. I'm sure we can get Barbara Bush on a "worst of" countdown too--she shares a good deal of the blame for the vicious crappiness of her family, and she's always good for an uncaring comment worthy of Marie Antoinette's "Let them eat cake."

Really, the Bushes are a disgusting family. Here's hoping none of them ever hold a public office again.

So Texas hasn't grown up, I guess. Here's a state where they don't care if they convict and put to death innocent people (DNA evidence? Who cares!), where they pollute the environment to death, and where they don't bother to educate their kids. And oh yes: they sure don't like black people.

I'm sure there are decent, non-racist Texans who care about justice, the environment, and their kids' education. But those people don't run the state.

What kind of @$$h0|3 would make these buttons? What kind of racist, living-in-the-past losers would actually wear these things?

When I hear the saying "Don't mess with Texas" I shake my head and think, "Who would want to?"