Until a Republican-- any Republican-- objects.

Reid then boldly retracts his demand and boldly issues yet another boldly craven apology.

Oh, how I wait with bated breath, for a Democratic leader with a spinal column!

That if a fundamental civil right was stripped from Paglia-- like, say, her right to scribe self-absorbed, aimless, pointless, seemingly endless diatribes-- that she'd be more than confrontational with the authors (no pun intended) of that act.

But maybe I'm giving credit where none is actually due. Maybe a maundering blowhard remains just a maundering blowhard, regardless of the circumstances.

At the continued baseless hubris and unmitigated gall of Republicans. Their economic theories are in tatters, the country is in the most major of recessions and stands at the brink of a second Great Depression. Yet their best idea is to drive the nation over that brink, sending literally millions to the unemployment lines and the auto industry into bankruptcy in order to score some political points?

Shortsighted and woodenheaded are adjectives that don't even begin to describe the feckless stupidity and utter pettyness of this move.

Un-fucking-believable.

They didn't burn him at the stake. That's the usual fate of blasphemers and heretics, isn't it?

We'd sure be in hawg heaven.

Working side by side with my 12 year old, 80 hours a week on the factory floor for 17 cents an hour in the dust, dirt and chemical fumes. The low wages are okay though because we'd only get paid in scrip that can be only be spent at the company store. And really only a few unlucky or clumsy folks would lose a limb or get crushed by the machinery, so it'd be their own fault.

Instead, we have to suffer the rigors of a 40 hour week and get paid a living wage. Thanks to those rat bastard unions...

If some foreign power chose to invade my country; kill, wound and maim thousands of my neighbors while the world stood idly by; and then have the audacity to act as though they were doing me a favor, what I would choose to throw wouldn't be shoes!

The shoe thrower should be rewarded for his remarkable restraint.

And Mr. Schaller, as a previous writer opined, it is much easier to sit in judgement from the safety and comfort of one's armchair, thousands of miles from any real danger and lecture others on what they should or should not do. It's what the rightwing supporters of this neverending nightmare have specialized in, up to now. I urge you to refrain from joining them in this tactic.

Dear Santa,

I wish I had been at that party with enough shoes to throw at all those useless loads.

Sincerely,

Another Wage Slave Sinking In Today's Economy

It's clear to me that the Civil War solved nothing. The same old tit for tat, my region's better/happier/more moral than yours reciprocal insults could probably be found in any pre-Civil War newspaper.

The plain fact is that a few Southern Republicans (the Plantation Caucus, as Rachel Maddow likes to call them) placed their own economic interests and that of their states above the rest of the nation and unionized American workers generally.

Hate them for their actions. Hate them for their greed. Hate them for the peonage they would prefer to place all American labor in. But the fact that they all happen to hail from the same general area of the nation really is immaterial, beyond opening up old regional wounds and once again dividing us to the benefit of their cause and not our own.

If hopes for Obama's stimulus package hinge upon a showdown in Congress then, based on the lackluster performance and outright incompetence shown heretofore by Congressional Democratic leaders, I'm afraid we're looking at little to no stimulus at all. Or worse, a package laden with Republican sponsored poison pills for the American worker to swallow.

I have no faith that Harry "I Surrender" Reid and Nancy "By Losing We Win" Pelosi will be able to pass much of anything acceptable in the face of what will undoubtedly be determined, if inchoate, opposition.

Why go out of the way to include someone so dedicated to the exclusion and marginalization of others?

Say goodbye to Franken if seating him requires the Dems to show any actual spine at all. The current feckless leadership has thus far shown itself incapable of that sort of political acumen, organizational ability or testicular fortitude.

How can we insure that he's chosen?

I'd like to see the GOP become even more marginalized and remain so for the rest of my life.

So, let me get this straight. Obama is delivering on a campaign promise to cut taxes for the middle and working classes and that's somehow a bad, bad thing.

Forgive me if I don't begin wailing, rending my garments and gnashing my teeth in despair just yet.

Well, I was born in 1956 and it seems to me that for most of my lifetime the government, Democratic or Republican, has been busy spending money it doesn't have. Nevertheless, you can't expect a balanced budget with the world teetering on the brink of a New Depression.

I'm inclined to give Obama the benefit of the doubt at this point. At least let the man get into office before we all start with the backseat driving.

Feinstein is an embarrassment right up there with former Dem, Joe Lieberman.

As for so-called professionals running the CIA, it seems to me that the Pros were in charge of everything from the run-up to the Iraqi quagmire, to torture, to extreme rendition to God knows what other anti-American, anti-democratic nightmares during the past eight years. So, of course, it follows that Dianne-- the next best thing to being a Republican without actually being one-- would want what's best for the GOP.

Hey, Dianne! In case you missed November 4th. Your country called. We want it back.

Explain how Harry Reid managed for 69 years to live without a spine?

Dr. Phil wasn't available?