It's so refreshing to encounter Helen Thomas's words. She's the only reporter in Washington with any balls, at least where it counts. Ironic, isn't it?

Please, Ms. Thomas, do rock on.

(Oh, and by the way, Glenn:

How serious of a possibility do you think it is that there will be some sort of military conformation with Iran before the President leaves office?

I think you meant to write "confrontation" there, yes?)

Well, I guess now we'll find out if Congress and the Justic Department have the balls for that confrontation you mentioned as necessary. Cheney has lost it completely. Now we'll see what these people really intended all along.

Reading some of the later responses here, I'm struck by something interesting. In America, we're so gung-ho over the rights of the individual - to freedom of speech, religion, what have you. People constantly invoke this idea. The individual must be free! The government cannot impose its will over people's personal, private affairs! The community must subsume its needs to that of the individual! Help, help, we might be oppressed!

Except when it comes to this issue. Then I hear people who would normally be horrified over government intervention start to go on about the families, and the community, and oh how selfish it would be for people to take their own lives! Think about the community!!

I guess irony can be pretty ironic. - Captain Buck Murdoch

I grew up in L.A., and had three, and later four public libraries I had access to. The best one, in neighboring Glendale, was a beautiful, airy place that I always loved. There was an entire floor for the children's section, can you believe that? It was far enough away that I and my siblings had to be drive there by mom, but since she has always been an avid reader, the weekly (sometimes twice a week) trips were never skipped. The libraries closer to home were smaller, not quite as well-stocked, but still havens of happiness for a bookworm like me.

Those libraries are still there, still open. The hours are not as long, and the libraries have been sadly depleted of books (to be replaced by computers, argh), but each of them is still the same haven of quiet concentration that I remember. (I have heard that the Central Library downtown is not as pleasant a place as it used to be, but I wouldn't know, since I never frequented it.) I find more than slightly ironic that L.A., considered by so many to be a wasteland as far as culture goes, has so many still functional, relatively good libraries still in business.

So the whole equation of "big city library = smelly scary hellhole" is one I can't agree with. Sure, many may be ugly these days (I'm not going to argue with others' experience), but that's a function of the area's government, not the fault of libraries, and certainly not a foregone conclusion. It's perfectly possible to have quiet, nurturing environments in libraries still - it just takes the will on the part of the people and the administrations to buck up and do it. Even in a big city.

Transcripts are a what now?

A perjury trap. Really. Well, maybe that wouldn't be a problem if the administration weren't given to LYING every other minute, would it?

How utterly comical that an administration that insists the people should be happy about wiretapping because "if you're not doing anything wrong, you shouldn't be scared of us listening" would invoke this particular "defense".

I've always found that a good rule of thumb when picking an excuse is "Would my sixth-grade teacher have accepted it?" If Miss Crabtree would have seen right through it, chances are it's a crappy excuse. Maybe the boys in the Bush Club should have this drummed into their heads. It's time for a visit to the woodshed, methinks.

Shame on them for being so utterly, inexcusably, lame.

I knew you were an elitist, Farhad, but it seems you're incurably rude as well. So people who wait in line for things are obssessed with materialism? Has it occured to you that one of the main reasons people do that is for the company?

This is the second time today that it's cut off part of one of my posts. Here's all of what I posted:

I knew you were an elitist, Farhad, but it seems you're incurably rude as well. So people who wait in line for things are obssessed with materialism? Has it occured to you that one of the main reasons people do that is for the company? That people might actually want to spend time with others - talking, laughing, playing games, you know, socializing?

No, I expect you don't. A so-sophisticated city dweller like you just wouldn't have time for something so childish. That is, when you're not holed up in your office playing with your geeky toys.

Gods, what a jerk.

Seems to me it's time for a constitutional amendment stating unequivocally just what the role of the Vice-President is, what jurisdiction his office falls under, and what his powers of action are. Clarity is obviously needed here, if it's so easy for a megalomaniac like Cheney to just haul off and do as he pleases.

Joan:

Is there a video posted anywhere of your appearance on Scarborough? I'd like to see that.

This is the kind of thing that should be going up at Video Dog. Back when it was a good page (last year, abouts), it hosted clips like that. Why has Video Dog dropped the ball on hosting good content, not to mention more content? It's almost a dead page these days.