I think there's a legitimate argument to be made that in fact Repubs and movement conservatives are more concerned about their own political fortunes than the country's health. I can think of numerous examples: Rush Limbaugh saying he hopes the president fails; when Glenn Beck and his guests talked about "needing another terrorist attack" to wake the country up (paraphrasing); John McCain picking an absolute idiot to be his vice presidential candidate; right wing trolls right here at Salon eagerly awaiting Obama's supposed bungling of the upcoming swine flu epidemic.

That's not exactly the same thing as being committed to the destruction of the country, like al Qaeda and the Taliban supposedly are (although I would point out that is not among either group's stated goals, but I digress), but it certainly raises questions about their commitment to the US. As for who they're rooting for, it should be obvious: themselves and nobody else. Remember the pirates and the hostage crisis? Did anyone else feel the frustration coming from the right wing when it was resolved successfully? Can anyone imagine the books that would have been written about why they're better and smarter and tougher than Democrats if W had handled it exactly as Obama did?

Haha, I see you got your talking points faxed early this morning:

7. No thinking person has taken the Nobel Peace Prize seriously since Reagan didn’t win one for ending the Cold War.

(link at sig)

1. The ACLU (yeah right)

2. PFLAG

3. Improvements for the hospital where he was born in Kenya! (or maybe just Doctors Without Borders)

4. The American Socialist party (not sure how that would go over with Democrats, but as any Repub will tell you, what's the difference?)

5. Americans United for Separation of Church and State

6. Planned Parenthood / NARAL

7. What the hell, AIPAC (now there's something the neocons couldn't spin). But seriously, J Street.

8. In the same spirit, The NRA.

9. Any number of worthy health reform organizations (synergy!)

And of course....

10. Hamas

I left out ACORN because so many people beat me to it.

If I remember correctly, this was one of the supposed culprits behind the supposed "autism epidemic." It has been fairly thoroughly debunked in that context. Well, Jenny McCarthy doesn't think so, but I'm not sure she's a trustworthy scientific voice.

You know, considering there's no such thing as climate change and the earth is only about 6000 years old, I'm not sure what kind of science expertise we can expect out of Beck's audience. I'm fairly impressed he brought a guy on to rebuke the crackpot "scientist."

To the poster who was angry about the Olbermann / Beck / Salon snafu of 2009: Well shoot, you should have made it clear you only come here to have your preexisting beliefs reinforced. I do agree with you on Paglia, at least. She's just disgraceful.

FWIW, I feel sorta bad about kicking these comments off by dropping the ol' c-bomb (and I've heard the arguments that it's sexist, but damn if it ain't effective). But if it leads to even a slight improvement in these comments, by which I mean I have to wade through fewer pages of crap to read the many (even majority, I would say) insightful posters who frequent these parts, then it's worth it.

And Glenn, if you need an underblogger to focus on comment section "streamlining," I'm sure there's tons of us who would love to help out. I for one am in school, but I'm not really giving it 100%

As for philandering politicians, here's all anybody ever needed to know about former senator and Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards: According to the New York Times, he once calmed his "anxious" mistress "by promising her that after his wife died he would marry her in a rooftop ceremony in New York with an appearance by the Dave Matthews Band."

Ok, that's just hilarious.

"This is the situation and what we must do"

Well I sure hope you're fucking posting from Afghanistan. Of course I heard most of the soldiers over there haven't had showers since July, let alone wifi, so I doubt it. But by all means keep sipping your fucking latte and telling us what we must do.

Hey, here's an idea: al Qaeda is not Osama Bin Laden. Even if we manage to get into those mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan, even if he's not already dead (he's been in kidney failure for how long now), even if we capture and execute him, we will still have al Qaeda. If we secure all of Afghanistan and institute a vibrant liberal democracy there, al Qaeda can still move to Somalia or any number of other failed states. There have been terrorists and freedom fighters since the beginning of history. There will be terrorist attacks until the end of time. Stop pretending that if we can just secure Afghanistan and Pakistan, and capture or kill OBL (and at least one of those things is pretty damn unlikely), everything will be ok. And stop letting Republicans frame the debate. We will be attacked again no matter what we do. When it happens, it won't be because of one party or the other. It will be because America is an empire that interferes around the globe, and a lot of people have been pissed about it for decades. The best we can do is to act like a responsible member of the international community and minimze casualties.