The public hasn't changed. The media has. In my younger days, in the 60s when I was delivering the big city morning paper to people's houses in the small town where I lived and Huntley and Brinkley were on NBC and Cronkite was on CBS, the people in charge of bringing us the news did their best to bring us things that were factual, important and, often, educational. Of course the right wing today would dismiss this as "paternalistic," since clearly the people in charge of the news were deciding what stories to cover based on the stories they thought we needed to hear.

Today, however, those in charge of the news are not even slightly interested in serving such a function. Instead of playing necessary and powerful role in our society, and seeking to educate and assist the public in really discovering what's going on around us for good or ill, they are only interested in padding their own pockets. Profit and the high salaries it allows are what "news" is all about these days.

It no longer matters to those who own any of the mainstream media whether the nation goes down the actual toilet, let alone the proverbial one, as long as they're getting rich in the process. That being said, as soon as the government begins to ask that they share a greater portion of the massive money they've earned for doing absolutely no work useful to society, in order to try to keep the nation and their own government afloat, they will require their minions to ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK!

Get ready, by mid year, 2009, for a blizzard of negative bullshit about the government and how it's ripping us all off supported by anecdotal stories akin to Reagan's oft-repeated lie about the welfare queen and her Cadillac. Hopefully this approach while the public watches things continue to sink, worries about losing everything and sees the government as their only salvation, will bring about the complete death of the MSM as we have most recently known it.

Who knows, perhaps a phoenix media will be reborn from the ashes which will, once again become the fourth estate and be interested in serving the public interest. The day when Rupert Murdoch and all his cronies have to sell their mansions and get actual jobs will be the sign that rebirth can finally happen.

None of these kids, Levi, Bristol, or Tripp can help who their parents are. And why hasn't anyone recognized Bristol's behavior for what it is, the clear efforts of a daughter to escape from the lives and home(s) of her parents, whom she probably finds as clueless, useless and distasteful as the rest of us, and get out on her own. This is often the case with teen pregnancy (they're not all accidental, no matter what grandma and grandpa-to-be might like to think - especially if they're conservatives).

Furthermore, not everybody who grows up in a trailer park, or the meth capital of Alaska, or in the governor's mansion, or with dysfunctional parents turns out to be dysfunctional themselves. Some of them escape and go on to lead very wise and wonderful lives. Let's all wish this new family the best and hope and pray that they turn out to be among them.

A quick exploration of wire tap recordings and whatever other materials the FBI has available should show whether Blago's appointee has any taint of this messy scandal attached to him. If nothing turns up, he should be seated no matter who appointed him.

I agree, if the Republicans are going to play B.S. obstructionist games, then I say we set up a side room in the capital where debate for a particular bill is to be held, so as not to tie up the entire body, then force them to actually keep talking until they drop over. If we do this enough, perhaps for multiple bills in multiple rooms, all presided over using closed-circuit video by a single "pro tem" chair, perhaps we can force them to pick their battles a bit more carefully. Either that or tie every Republican up in multiple filibusters running concurrently so that none of them are on the floor when the main body brings to the floor and passes the legislation needed to get this country moving and re-regulate the financial industry among others. Not a "nuclear" option... more like a cluster bomb option.

To facilitate requiring actual filibusters, I suggest that the Democrats change the senate's rules slightly (only 50% vote required) to set up auxiliary senate chambers in several rooms, then set up a closed-circuit TV system so that one Democratic senator can preside over all of them. Each auxiliary senate chamber can be the site of the continuing speechifying on each issue the Rep's are filibustering. Meanwhile, the rest of the senate can meet in the main chamber and vote on the things that really need to be done. These conservatives love their echo chamber approach to opinions and information. Why not let the functioning of the senate leave them each in their own little echo chamber where they can talk on until the end of time, all the while getting exactly as much attention as they deserve?!

C'mon Carmina and all you other increasingly desperate right wingnuts. As has been accurately testified to, PresBush and his regime were so dismissive of everything "Clinton," everything "progressive," everything "Democratic," that they threw into the proverbial dumpster everything the Clinton administration had been trying to do to guard against Al-Qaida and ignored several months of CIA warnings about Al-Qaida. They seemed to have thought that Clinton had to worry about Al-Qaida because he was such a wimp, but no terrorist group would ever DARE attack the US now that the Bushies were in charge. Perhaps it's possible that Bushco could not have prevented the 09/11/01 attacks, but WE'LL NEVER KNOW, WILL WE? BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T EVEN TRY SINCE THAT WOULD HAVE MEANT CONTINUING WHAT CLINTON HAD BEEN DOING!