This glittering jewel of platitudinous rectitude in the face of reality is one of the reasons I am promoting the idea of military isolationism.

Finally, an explanation of why you keep bringing up this "modest proposal." God, you suck at being coy.

If Israel wants to take over the ME, I say let them. If Russia wants to forcibly annex Ukraine, no problem. If Columbia wants to bomb Venezuela, I say go ahead. Perhaps China will invade North Korea and solve their problems.

So let me get this straight: American imperialism is the only reason China doesn't invade North Korea? Israel would march on Cairo if it wasn't for the U.S.? What in God's green earth do you smoke... and where can I get some?

We broke it, we fix it.

Not really clear how much "fixing" Iraq can take. Hundreds of thousands of Baghdadis now live in walled-in, ethnically cleansed, heavily guarded enclaves that they are terrified to leave. Sunnis do not venture into Shia areas, and vice-versa.

2 million internally displaced and 2 millions of refugees (Sources : United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Iraqi Ministry of Displaced People) are still struggling to survive in dire conditions. They cannot return to their place of origin, as their safety cannot be guaranteed.

we all get a grip on our foul mouths, stop the ad hominem attacks, and address the debate in a more adult manner.

Must... not... drop... F-bomb....!

Seriously, point well taken, but nobody likes being lectured. Just lead by example, I've found that works way better than holier-than-thou.

Just my $0.02.

You did better than me.

Sigh. It's such a disability, being born an asshole.

I am, I should be clear, a LIHOPista from way back. I don't begrudge anyone their theories, though i submit that what's already out there as uncontested facts in evidence, should be enough to build any case one wants to build against Empire.

Chris Floyd has laid it out admirably clearly, originally in the Moscow Times and later in his book:

Not since Mein Kampf has a geopolitical punch been so blatantly telegraphed, years ahead of the blow.

Similarly – in method, if not entirely in substance – the Bush Regime's foreign policy is also being carried out according to a strict blueprint first written ten years ago, then renewed a few months before the Regime was installed in power by the judicial coup of December 2000.

Link at sig.

This is a canard that I would like to shoot down. Nice Polite Republicans, along with the rest of the CPB, gets a whopping twenty percent of its budget from Uncle Sam:

Total Revenue (Fiscal Year 2003): $2,333,498,000

Total Non-federal Revenue: $1,878,848,000

source: http://www.cpb.org/

If Nice Polite Republicans can be considered "liberal," it's only because the rest of the media has run so far to the right. I find it pretty mainstream and corporate, but then again, what kind of judge am I? I actually listen to news produced outside the United States, so obviously I am a dangerous radical...

Who are the "Senior News Analysts" at NPR who provide conservative balance to Daniel Schorr and Juan Williams?

How about Juan Williams himself?

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1666573,00.html

he goes on the O'Reilly Factor to defend the man, and he's not still too "liberal" for you? Maybe he can lynch himself on Glenn Beck's show next time...

if the government is going to get into the business of running a news network

E-man, are you at all interested in the actual facts behind your charges, or are you just going to keep bloviating? Oh wait. Never mind.

Anyway, for the rest of you: about 2% of NPR's funding comes from bidding on government grants and programs, chiefly the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; the remainder comes from member station dues, foundation grants, and corporate underwriting.

We're talking about the internal management of NPR and PBS. We conservatives and Republicans get a voice in that, along with everybody else.

I'm assuming this is based on the idea that, since you are a taxpayer who pays some amount of taxes to the federal government which partially funds CPB which partially funds NPR, that it should only broadcast a slant you agree with. Good luck with that.

The Joan Kroc Foundation gave NPR a quarter-billion dollars, so presumably you think everyone who buys a Big Mac should get a say...

...from McArdle's piece was:

You can lead a consumer to stories of vital national importance, but you cannot make him care. You can just make him pass over your paper in favor of the Enquirer.

Atlantic Monthly

The Washington Post

The Economist

The National Enquirer

All equal offerings in the marketplace of ideas.

The Drudgification of the media is complete.

saliM: He insinuates that there were calls like that that the US should have picked up, but he's not necessarily insinuating that a call like that actually happened.

Mukasey: "We knew that there has been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan and we knew that it came to the United States. We didn't know precisely where it went."

What hypothetical? What hole?

I'm not being argumentative for its own sake, I just don't see how you could plausibly interpret that statement the way you do.

if I'm missing something, please help me understand what.

I don't think anyone here is agreeing that Mukasey was understandably using a hypothetical.

SalilM: "That "call" Mukasey refers to seems very hypothetical to me, Glenn."