First, one of the most unchanging rules of the entertainment world, since before the theatrical performances in ancient Greece, is: Always leave them wanting more. Chase, with his stopping instead of "ending", has done just that.

And for those who relish the end of the series, because you hated the show, the characters, and everything about anyone who ever had even the most tangential connection to any of it, will you please pull your turds back out of the punchbowl and go away? You're not demonstrating anything approaching your self-delusional "superiority" here, you're being jerks. It's a TV show, some of uys enjoyed watching it, as and people who like it, we want to discuss it. Would you like it if we came to your checkers game and kicked over the board? Some people...

I have a phone that works. Why do I want to spend $500 on one that does things I wouldn't want it to do in the first place?

I don't text-message, I don't want my email chasing me around the streets, and I'm sure not interested in watching TV on a palm-sized screen. When I take out my phone, it's to make or take a call.

Is that so bloody difficult for every mobile phone maker to understand?

Damn straight I'm voting third party.

(bluecanary)

Lose the gains you made? The democrats have a majority. They have the wishes of the people behind them. If that is not enough to do the work they were voted into office to do, then there is no reason to vote them back into office. None. Nada.

(FredRated)

OK, so they send the same thing up, and it gets vetoed again (personally, I'm for that one.) and then what? We're still where we are right now.

It takes 60 votes to end debate in the Senate. Reid's smart enough to know he doesn't have that, let alone the 67 it takes to override. You apparently are not.

The unfortunate truth is, it won't be a third party that benefits from your tantrum - it will be the Republicans, who if nothing else can be counted on to maintain party discipline. We split, they benefit. Where is American then?

Sadly, there is no such thing as immediate gratification in the political world. It's a world of making incremental gains, consolidating, and moving forward from those. Your approach will cost us everything we'd gained last time - it's far, far easier, as you may (or may not!) have noticed, to achieve your goals when you're in power. So for now, take the disappointment and work towards something strong enough to make what we want to happen, happen. Something like a veto-proof majority, perhaps.

Third parties do not, and will not help. The result will be far, far worse.

Spoiled children, both of you.

"Anonymous", I tend to agree with you, send the same thing over again, or nothing, keep peeling off a few R's, gradually make some gains. Those will be gains that last.

There is much yet to be done besides ending this misbegotten war. The war itself, I think, is a useful distraction giving Bush cover while he's systematically gutting the Constitution and destroying the country we still live in, and will still have to live in after he's gone.

Nothing will change unless and until a veto-proof majority happens. Until then, same old same old.

And thanks, by the way, all you "third-party" voters. I've never heard of a better way to make sure we lose the gains we've already made. Even though they fall short of where we'd like to be, we're closer than we've been in years and have the chance to get over the hump next cycle, and you're going to toss it all on a tantrum or two? When you learn how to count votes, call me...

Sadly, with Cheney having to be first (what sane human would wish for his ascendance?) and there being until November of next year, January '09 at the outside, there simply isn't time to hold hearings, vote a bill of impeachment, and conduct the trial.

What should happen is that in January 2009, once Bush is no longer president, he would be seized by federal marshals (on his leaving the inauguration would be a nice touch) and bound over to The Hague for trial on war crimes charges. And Cheney needs to be sent there as well.

I hear Milosevic's cell is available.

I have been thinking about that whole asbestos subplot, and its introduction this late in the game. My instincts tell me it's a pointer to something - is this how the feds will finally send Tony up? Or is it yet another of the show's red herrings?

Somehow, I'm pretty sure Tony gets busted, convicted, and sent to prison. I've felt that way since before they expanded the "mini-season" we're wrapping up now.

They made an offer, and quite a generous one at that. It was rejected. The answer now is to send the original bill back again. If it's vetoed again, the proper response is to send nothing further.

I'll just say this: You offer nothing. Repeating the same tired grouching about Al Gore that has been going on in some "lefty" quarters accomplishes nothing. And if you want to cede the "center" as something someone else defines, I hope you like life on the margins, because that's all you're going to have remaining at that point.

No doubt the Republican'ts will fight dirty. No doubt we need someone who knows how to fight back. By your comments, you reveal yourself as unable to accept the possibility of anyone learning from experience. If Al Gore is the same naively optimistic Al Gore as he was in late 2000, I'd be greatly surprised. As, I suspect, would he.

And my first name is Alan, just in case you're being careless instead of rude.