I don't think their Rovian tactics will work with Obama this year. We've seen and heard those tricks so many times they just have work anymore. Too many independents and Republicans are already too taken with the lanky, "hope" candidate. He's hijacked the charm and optimism of Reagan and combined it with a liberalism with personal responsibility.

Face it. Obama has serious game and will be extremely difficult for the right wing to take down with their typical lame smear tactics.

I think we're going to have a brother as a president.

Damn right.

Buckley's criticism of the Iraq Occupation failure seems to line him up closer to Chomsky than to Coulter, Limbaugh and Hannity. And just as the right has lurched further right with agressive militarism and outright attacks on the constitution, so the left has moved to the right. Neo Conservative public enemies #1 and #2-- Bill and Hillary Clinton are arguably more conservative than Richard Nixon. If not in philosphy then in governance. Nixon gave us OHSA and the EPA, Clinton gave us NAFTA and a dismantled Welfare.

Yes, the new right wants to attack any country that looks at us cockeyed while highlighting with black marker most of the bill of rights. And the establishment left, the democrats? The are politely, politely disagreeing.

Even Obama, as wonderful as he is, sees no reason to do anything but find common ground with these people. That's the political center of America. A Right Wing Christian themed spectator demi-democracy--Buckley's and Reagan's dream come true.

I'm with you, Opus. By god I'm with you.

far more than either candidate needs fox.

for the moment, and yet progress--the passage of time, even-- simply has it in for them. More women getting college and higher degrees. More women in positions of power.

The desires of the ultra rich, ultra violent, ultra wrong are simply harder to protect and defend, thanks in part to the internet and little cameras catching Macaca moments. America is becoming less white. And less white male dominated. In fact, I just checked and the presidental frontrunners are neither.

40 years ago Kristol's forefathers were desperately trying to prevent the Voting Rights Act to save "states' rights" in the South.

Now they are reduced to making bad jokes on a "News" Network whose main demographic will be dead in 10 years.

They've still got most of the money, news networks and guns, but time does not love this smug old white man and his friends.

An interesting side note: look at how much of Latin America has gone from under the American thumb in the 1980s to thumbing it's nose at America in the 2000s.

No, I've never heard your song for the Detroit Tigers, but I congratulate you on having done so. My friend is a musician who writes music for commercials and while she is super talented, that is one tough, competitive business. So you must be good.

They're trying to cover today's topics with a style & tone that was new almost 30 yeras ago. It's like bringing back "The Cosby Show" from the 1980s with all it's groundbreaking controversy. Or maybe "Family Ties."

That's a harsh critique. Sometimes the comics are good, funny and right on. And they are almost always cute. Breathed is definitely talented. Just a little--a lot the same. But he should be proud of even being that good after so many years.

But we expect work that's a little sharper from salon. Hence the potshots, which is also fun. There's probably an explicit assumption that the guy already made his millions and is not exactly a starving up and comer so he's a fair target. Maybe he had a gambling thing and is back to square one? (see, there I go again, Gawker style)

But maybe you're right. Maybe we should just enjoy the cute cartoons and stop being so cranky.

From the Simpsons' episode where Bart picks the unavailable gag prize, an Elephant, instead of cash after answering correctly on a Radio call in quiz. The DJ's are in hot water with a manager who threatens to replace them with the Chatmaster 3000, a recorded voice, which offers "3 distinct kinds of inane chatter."

ChatMaster 3000: So. those. clowns. in. congress. have. done. it. again. What. a. bunch. of. clowns.

DJ: How does it keep up with news like that?

I think Breathed's work is on par with that kind of radical skewering of American political and media culture. Or without sarcasm if you prefer: I think Breathed's work is on par with the sugary goup coming out of 15 year old Twistee Cone machine at the Dairy Queen on Hiawatha Ave in Minnesota.

This ain't all bad. I've (sort of) enjoyed many a Twistee cone when (I was drunk and) there was no place else open but the DQ.

In sum: ya gotta admire BB's ability to keep up with the 80's. I mean the 08's.

Then again, I'm referencing a show from the early 1990s. Touche, me.

and expose to photographers a dewy absence of thong under miniskirt you can't claim to be seeking privacy and you won't get it either.

Heath Ledger, decidedly advantaged by following mostly boring hetero male dress expectations, did not have that problem.