..with those who say this story is flimsy and badly put together. I read the first paragraph, expecting to read an article about Sr's efforts to replace Rumsefeld and instead got a two page article on how the US military was chastised by someone from the UK for being culturally insensitive. Then a recounting of Haditha, which resulted from wrongheaded Bush policy and US Marines' cultural insensitivity. Well, yeah. We knew that already.

One source saying Bush Sr tried to replace Rumsfeld is flimsy evidence and this article itself is flimsy indeed. We know Sid's a terrific writer, but come on. Salon's editors should know better than this.

And it still smells to me because Bush Sr knows by now that Bush Jr is loather to take advice, let alone direction, from his irrelevent, impotent father. Bush Sr was Mr Big for years with his oil, weapons and bank contacts, his CIA contacts, his VP status and his presidency. But he's a nobody now as his closest contacts have aged and died off. Junior is Mr Big now and he won't let his daddy forget it. "Look at me! I started a REAL war! I stood up to the whole world! I got the media on my side - I slammed that Dan Rather into the ground, Old Man! You sat there and took Rather's crap! Not me! I'm after the New Deal and the UN! And the Supreme Court! I'm gonna make REAL CHANGES! The world's gonna remember me, but you're just some footnote who ran a video-game war for 2 seconds in the 1990s and lost to Clinton. You're a wimp! I'm the Man!

I'M THE MAN!"

(Delivered in fullthroat phony Texas accent)

Settle down now -- Ann Coulter is a just a walking internet troll. You should know that by now. She sees how trolls operate online and she follows the gameplan to the letter. Take a strawman, turn it into flamebait and sit back and watch the fireworks.

The true test of a troll is that s/he uses flamebait that has been guaranteed in the past to start heated arguments. Take the 9/11 widows - arguing about them might have been relevent back when they were appearing on television and making occasional statements, but be honest - when was the last time you heard from 9/11 widows criticizing Bush? I'll tell you when -- 2004.

The widows haven't really been around since then. That Coulter uses them as flamebait in 2006 proves that she is a troll because she is using time-tested bait. And it proves that people will fall for the same old shit over and over again. It might have been cutting edge to make these statements about the 9/11 widows 3 or 4 or 5 years ago, but it's stale now and the only reason to do it is to get attention for a new book. You are falling for Coulter's publicity stunt and falling for the media's hyping of her book.

Come on, guys. You should know better than that. The real way to answer Coulter would have been a one-line sentence. "Ann Coulter kicks off book tour with publicity stunt recycling stale Ted Rall material from 2003. Next..."

That's the theme for November's elections. The flag, gays and energy are just side issues. The GOP is running on illegal immigration and Democrats need to take a good hard look at Buby/Bilbray and stop hiding their heads in the sand.

And remember, the issue isn't "immigration" in the minds of voters. It's "illegal immigration" with the emphasis on "illegal" and voters aren't in the mood for the Democrats to pretend it's about immigration in general.

English for antisocial GoBots?

But why does the headline on the front page call this "Angry English for Chubby Japanese?" The people in the video are positively svelte compared to most Americans. Is it supposed to be an exercise video too? Because it doesn't look like much of a cardio workout to me.

I was a huge Who fan as a teenager and really thought it was about the music and about the group connecting with fans. Hell, Pete Townshend made all kinds of noises about how he was all about the music man, the music.

But he turned out to be the fastest sellout I ever saw. Other groups sold a song or two: not only did Townshend sell every song post-haste, he even sold the same Who anthems to different corporations at the same time. I understand he needed money to pay those lawyerin' bills for his kiddie porn viewing on the internet - the stuff he passed off as "research". But that case is long over, those bills are paid up. And Townshend is still peddling Who songs to the highest corporate bidder. And he refused to let Michael Moore use "Won't Get Fooled Again" because Moore didn't have the baksheesh Townshend demanded.

I was really disappointed by that. I really though Pete Townshend cared about his fans, cared about being an odd-man out in life, as so many of his songs proclaimed. But he's really no different from any other money-grubbing whore. Oh - except that he still defends pedophile Gary Glitter and claims the govt of the UK unfairly persecuted Glitter.

Yuck.

... this article seems like a "troll post."

If the author truly loved beautiful big women, why didn't he post a photo of himself and his wife on their wedding day which _didn't_ look like an outtake from "The Daily Show"?