The new format has two significant problems (at least as it appears in my Firefox 3.5.3 browser).

1) The type is far too small to be easily read.

2) Because of the colors chosen and the small type, it's uncomfortably difficult to see who the author of each comment is. Since this comment section lacks an "ignore" function, checking the author's screen name is the only way to avoid wasting time with certain trolls (no doubt myself included for some).

Less critical but still annoying; the lack of space between comments makes the page seem crowded and causes visual stress.

I know you can do better. I know high school students who can do better. Please make repairs.

When the reality is, each of them lusts after being the "Czar" of their own little Family or Community or County or District or State... the entire nation and world if they can pull it off?!

To be the equivalent of a Czar in some way, shape or form, no matter how small your realm, is the entire purpose of Republican existence, is it not?

Does that mean the world is coming to an end?

Naaahhhh! No point in worrying about such things since it will NEVER happen!

All you need to do is look in the closets of those who call themselves (rabid) conservatives and the Republican Party, and the pulpits of conservative/evangelical/fundamentalist churches (and those who are threatening to leave the moderate denominations as they slowly open themselves to full membership (including leadership) of and by gay and lesbian people.

Of course they can also be found within the ranks of current, but especially the ranks of EX-leaders and founders of those "ministries" which seek to repair God's creation of gay people in order to magically make them straight (and slap God in the face, in the process).

A haufenmist is a heap of mist...

A cloud...

A pile of wet air...

A heap of something as useful and substantial as fog...

The residue of an episode of flatulence...

All of the above?

And only get elected because they come across to their voters as Rebs in blue clothing. The same is true for Colin Peterson in Western/Northwestern Minnesota.

Living in Colin Peterson's Congressional District and as a politically-involved progressive, I sometimes find people like these very frustrating, but then I remember that if they were not a good deal to the right of me, we'd have Rebs in their place.

I many not like these very conservative Democrats, but I can promise you, I like them a good deal better than anyone the Rebs would manage to elect in their stead if they started acting and voting like full blown progressives (think Michelle Bachman).

Passing health care reform isn't going to do us much good if two years or four years down the road, we return to Reb. control of the Congress, the Democrats, as they did for six years under Buscho simply roll over and play dead with the media stomping on their carcasses, and even the moderate reforms that have been passed get the guts ripped out of them.

We not only need to pass whatever reforms we can, but maintain a majority to protect those reforms long enough for the public to comprehend that the reforms are helping them. Lacking that, we might as well give up on the whole thing.

Whine all you want, fellow progressives, but try to get a handle on reality as well. Montana, North Dakota, and Western Minnesota (among other places) are NOT Massachusetts.

Is to duplicate the underlying feeling of panic and fear which allowed the most authoritarian government regime in US history to trash the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions and led to the American people going along, mostly unquestioningly, with the biggest set of rob the poor, give to the corporate reich government policies since the 1920's.

Good luck with that Becky!

It all came apart when the public rubbed the B.S. out of their eyes watching Hurricane Katrina destroy New Orleans, and it's unlikely that we're going back there anytime soon (Please God!)