Don't forget that the Embryonic Stem Cell Debate is part of the Abortion Issue. Don't be surprised when extreme passions and infinite nastiness surface. Abortion is the unbridgeable chasm of American life and politics. It has the power that the debate over Slavery had in the 19th century. It has Civil War potential. Rush Limbaugh sees himself as an Abortion Abolishionist.

Club Feet and Four Ears and Six Navels, just like her ex-husband???? This must be a scam letter. Somebody is trying to trick us.

Thanks for writing "fora." It kind of looks funny in the middle of a bunch of English words, though, doesn't it? Illegitimis non carborundum!

Would March first be too soon? We need to publicize it. The media probably will pick up on it, and follow it if somebody keeps talking about it. We need organizing points (churches and colleges and so on) all over the U.S. The right-wingers will howl, but we need to stay calm, and keep it spiritual.

Then maybe it will become an annual occasion. Salon readers and posters, please take this to heart. Do not be cynical or bitter. We need to apologize.

On that same day, we can apologize to our soldiers and Marines for putting them under the command of criminal incompetents.

Kerry's words came at the worst possible time. He is incompetent and obtuse, much like G.W. Bush. He has Swiftboated himself.

Every guy who did not go to college went to Vietnam. I graduated from high school in 1970, and I would have been in Vietnam by early 1971 if I had not gone straight to college. The poster who spoke of 1966 may have been talking about graduate school, but undergrad draft deferments continued.

Kerry just totally blew it based on his Vietnam Era Mindset. And he demonstrates an Elitist Mindset to boot.

Kerry has brought this onto himself. If he just could have told the story right, we would be praising him. But he could not even make a simple point. And Kerry did not even pick up on his own error. Apparently he just went on with his speech.

What would happen if Kerry were President, and he made this sort of mis-speak while talking with Kim Jong Il? Kerry's intent (to refer to W. Bush) is clear, but his "mindset" is clear too. And Rush Limberger was right on.

Kerry cluelessly did not realize his mistake when he spoke. He just continued with his speech. He really, truly demonstrated what Tush Limberger called "a Vietnam Era Mindset." From one viewpoint, Kerry should be forgiven, due to his record in Vietnam. But from a more important viewpoint, he shot himself in the ass because he cannot even make a simple, valid point.

Hillary disappointingly is doing the conventional political thing. She is trying to be sort of a Joe Lieberman kind of a gal.

Somebody, please step forward and say the obvious things, and become our next President! Please!

I sent this e-mail suugestion to President Bush a few months ago. He must be considering it very carefully, because he has not replied yet.

Mr. President:

I suggest you quit the Presidency, and join the armed forces. Please keep reading. I am serious.

Mr. Cheney would handle the rest of the Presidency, and you could go through training, and go to Iraq. This would be the best way to demonstrate your true heart. And you could just do it. You would not have to explain anything much to anyone.

You are older than a normal recruit, but you are in good shape. You could have somebody pull some strings for you. And you could take half a dozen Secret Service people with you.

Is your old National Guard unit in Iraq now? You might be too old to be a pilot again, but you could be the guy who puts the bombs onto the planes, or the guy who washes the planes, or something else useful.

Or, if your old unit will not take you back, you could get in somewhere else. And, the closer you could get to the action, the better. It would not even be necessary that you be an officer. Humble, order-following work as an enlisted man would demonstrate your heart very well. (And I am sure you would be promoted to NCO pretty quickly.)

T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) did this. After serving in World War I as a Colonel in the British Army and a Field Marshall in the Arabian Army, he went back and enlisted as an airman in the Royal Air Force. And he never explained, he just did his duty.

You could do that. You could see your family once a year or so, between deployments to Iraq. And you still would be a relatively young man when your hitch is up.

God bless America!

timbuktom

Ted seems to have done the same kinds of stuff with this prostitute guy as Bill did with Monica, except Bill did not have to pay, as far as we know. Can we figure out some way to use this against the right-wingers the way they used Clinton? Can we blow it up and bring Washington to a halt, and use it to get our guy or gal elected?

No. All we can do is pray for peace.

...after all this penetrating analysis. He will have to swallow his pride when this scandal reaches its climax.

I compared christianists to Pharisees in a Salon post a few weeks ago. The New Testament Pharisees were Jesus's opponents, but it turns out that present-day Jews have a completely different take on the Pharisees. Present-day Rabbinical Judaism sees some of them as important, respected forebears.

So, let's compare these disgraced christianist princes (Haggard, Swaggert, Baker et al.) to wealthy, corrupt, hypocritical medieval Christian bishops and Popes who partied and fornicated and torured while the common folk toiled and suffered.