Holy crap! I find it hard to believe that anyone in the military or the administration has actually READ any history. I am continually overwhelmed by an eery sense of deja vu-- light at the end of the tunnel (victory is just around the corner), escalation (surge), propping up a corrupt and ineffectual regime for our own ends when they can't/won't do it themselves (we'll stand down when they stand up), and now alliances with local tribes/warlords in a vain attempt to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat (anyone recall the ill-fate of the luckless Montagnard peoples?). What's next for the love of Christ? Strategic hamlets? Phoenix programs?

Somebody better send copies of Bernard Fall's seminal work on the French debacle in Indochina, Street Without Joy, to these military geniuses (yes, even to the Wartime Decider Guy, although he probably won't read it) or the next step-- with drums beating and banners flying-- is quite liable to be straight to "Hell In A Very Small Place"...

One: stop posting Republican talking point claptrap as though it's gospel. This nonsense is a joke to be derided, not some forgotten truth to be studied and admired.

Two: pick a position and stick to it.

Three, grow some spines to better implement item #2.

Good luck with that...

That the most cogent and relevant writings on Salon can be found in a comic strip. If only TMW was a daily!

Betray your electorate, watch your numbers fall. What a stunner! Is it an additional requirement now that Democratic leaders in the 21st Century display no actual political acumen whatsoever?

I mean, besides the requirement that they apparently have to have their backbones surgically removed....

This LW makes me realize why Paris Hilton is considered a celebrity... and exactly the kind of people who might consider her one.

Stanford, intellectuals (albeit, self-described ones), gorgeous, yada, yada, yada.

You left self-absorbed off the list, though.

Do me one favor, LW. After you graduate and your gunning down the road in your BMW yammering to your girlfriend on your Razr about whether to wear the Gucci or the Armani, please try to avoid running any of us plain folks off the road. In our own tiny way, our little lives are just as important to us... even if we didn't get to go to Stanford.

You borrowed money a long time ago that basically allowed you to attain the wonderful life you have today. And you have the funds to repay the people who trusted you enough to loan it to you in the first place. Yet you still refuse to pay it back? To the point where it's gone to collection and you're losing sleep over it.

Gee, how about you pay it back and let someone else utilize the same benefit that got you where you are today! End of problem one.

Now deal with problem two and go get some help to explore why you want to fuck up your otherwise perfect life with an act of utter selfishness.

First of all--- Goneril?! Are these people Elvish?

Still, just in case it's not an elaborately long winded joke, most big cities and counties have police/sheriff's departments with Elder Abuse units. And the situation as described appears to be nascent elder abuse. Consult with the proper authorities and stop trying the self-help route.

Must we be subjected to yet another in the seemingly endless stories of a rich, unhappy-- and in this case, dead-- bint, and the erstwhile travails she faced in life?

More to the point, must we be subjected to this seemingly endless maundering on the pages of Salon?

News flash-- Iraq's still a quagmire, the administration is still a cesspool of corruption, global warming is getting worse and a Democratic controlled Congress can't seem to do squat about any of it. Pick a topic. Any one of them is of greater import than this claptrap.

Another news flash-- She's STILL dead!

Is the drop in numbers of those approving of the job Congress is doing-- or not doing, rather. The real question we should be asking, it seems to me, is not whether this lame-duck dauphin's numbers will somehow effect the 2008 elections, but whether the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate can or will show the necessary gumption to finally stand up to this erstwhile "wartime" president and do what they were elected to do-- lead this country out of the Iraqi morass. For the lack of determination to do so will cripple this party and relegate it to second-class status in the body politic to the end of our days.

To remain true to the spirit of what passes for leadership in the current incarnation of the Democratic Party, I'm waiting with bated breath for the Reid apology that is sure to ensue when the roar from the rightwing sound machine crescendoes.

God forbid that we should ever make a truthful statement and stick to it without backing down...

And the dauphin were at the front daily to see the grisly consequences of his own hubris.

A letter from somebody that poses a real question (as opposed to the usual dubious ones from folks named Falstaff or Aschenbach or Kurtz whose sister's husband slept with the plumber's girlfriend, yada, yada, yada) and that draws a sensible response.

before ol' Harry is apologizing for calling a spade a spade. Yep, blazing another fine trail of Democratic leadership in the twenty-first century...

Why, oh why, must my party be plagued with spineless, mealy-mouthed, ineffective incompetents (yeah, that's right, I said it) passing for leaders?

Our New Way Forward, now with MORE Joe-mentum! Victory in Iraq is just around the corner!

"Waist deep in the Big Muddy,

and the Big Fool says 'Push on!'"

More like bad Chinese = lazy, feckless Chinese/American chefs. Or must one be born in China to know hoi sin from fermented bean curd?