I'm sure you'll sleep well, at least until the Ghosts of Civil Wars Past, Present, and Future begin showing up. I'd suggest staying away from the Lincoln Bedroom for a while.

Didn't Nader start his candidacy as a running joke on the Smothers Brothers' Comedy Hour?

Oops, that was Pat Paulsen; just as handsome, just as relevant, and just as much of a chance of getting votes this year.

Ralph, "Just a common, ordinary, simple savior of America's destiny" was Paulsen's campaign slogan, so you can't steal that one. Try "I've upped my standards. Now up yours".

...seeing "Fox News" and "The truth" in the same paragraph, without breaking into maniacal convulsive laughter.

Sounds like telecomm immunity all over again!

We're a better nation, collectively a better nation, that when we help people, when we save lives -- but it's also a strategy that advances our security interests as well.

From experience, we understand that the terrorists and

extremists can only find fertile recruiting grounds where they find hopelessness . Their ideology is so backwards, so distorted, so hateful, nobody really wants to follow it unless you're so hopeless that it becomes appealing.

And so the best way to defeat their ideology of hate is with acts of compassion and love. The best way to defeat an ideology of darkness is to

spread the light of hope.

And that's exactly what we're doing. So, to my fellow citizens,

I not only say it's in our moral interest to help, it's in our strategic interests to help defeat these ideologues who murder the innocent to achieve their political objectives.

Let's see now:

* people who have lost hope are clinging to their religion and weapons

* spread the light of hope

* it's in our strategic interests to help defeat these ideologues who murder the innocent to achieve their political objectives (like a half million dead Iraquis, killed to promote the PNAC and the War President).

Sounds a lot like an Obama stump speech to me!

"We can't have acquittals. We've been holding these guys for years. How can we explain acquittals? We have to have convictions."

Explain it the way that the Red Queen did: "Sentence first-verdict afterwards."

McSame is just keeping all of his campaigning options open.

Bush, grandson of a Nazi sympathizer, makes a speech to the Knesset, and quotes yet another Republican Nazi sympathizer.

Is anyone paying attention here?

Heck of a job, Bushie!

They'll just change the shape of the ball, and ban the use of hands.

I wonder what kind of special financing rates Laura will get on the house in Dallas?

Then again, if George is talking about hangovers again, maybe she's trying to buy it on her own credit?

Just wondering how he tap-danced around that.

All of this hockey mom, sports stars (who are Washington insiders), the disparaging of the opposition, and more, just demonstrates what the Republicans have been doing for years; turning this into an "us or them" sports contest, where you aren't looking for who might be able to address the serious issues that our country and the world are facing, but rather looking at "how do I beat the other team, who are inhuman scum because they ARE the other team? GO RED TEAM!!!"

I'd like to see Obama stand up and say that he's in this to support and defend the Constitution, as the oath of office requires; an area that he is an expert in as a Constitutional scholar, and then point to the ways that the current administration (and possible McCain administration) has eroded this.

As for the allegation that Obama would like to have the terrorists to have their rights read to them, he should stand up and say "Yes, I would. These rights are enshrined in the Constitution, they are the law of the land, and I intend to follow them, rather than cutting corners due to expediency and fearmongering. As an example to the rest of the world, we can do no less, or we become them."