We'll give him an extra year, since Norm kept him out of the Senate for 6 months.

I got to see Al and his then co-host, Catherine Lanpher, at a live broadcast of his Air America show a few years back. After the show, Al stayed to shake every hand, sign every book, and smile in every photo. I could tell to look at him he was exhausted, but he had a smile for me as he signed a copy of Lies and the Lying Liars... as well as the back of a ticket for my dad.

And his day was only half over at that point; he still had a panel at South By Southwest to speak at, and a Democratic Party fundraiser that night. Franken worked damn hard to get into the Senate and I expect he'll do no less now that he's finally there.

What about the plight of Christians in the Occupied Territories, Egypt, Iraq or...well...China? I'm not saying you don't have a point that the Uighur riots might get more press if they were an oppressed Christian minority but it's pretty clear that Americans of all stripes--including Christian conservatives--are not concerned enough about oppression of their co-religionists when it does not serve their political agenda.

If it was Castro doing it, or Hugo Chavez, you can bet they'd be squealing like stuck pigs. Otherwise, nothing. I offer as proof the fact that an excellent article on the emigration of Christians from the Middle East and what it might portend for the situation there did not appear in Time or Newsweek (where it would not have seemed out of place), but in National Geographic magazine.

Of course, NG's treatment was deeper and more sober than an article in a newsweekly would have been, but that's a different subject.

I say this as a Texas resident, and someone who knows unemployed people. It kills me to say it, but Perry should be made to suffer the consequences of an action taken for purely political reasons. I hate that people will have to suffer because of it, but if they get mad enough maybe they'll kick this idiot out of office. A general election defeat would be best from my point of view, but at this point I'll take a primary defeat by Kay Bailey Hutchison. Whatever will get him the hell out of Austin.

Perry's been laying down with dogs. The Feds shouldn't be giving him flea preventative.

I realize there will be no major changes in C4C this year, but if they ever do another version, here are some things I'd like to see:

--A bonus for hybrid or flex fuel vehicles. The latter particularly might help Detroit because it seems that GM and Ford are the ones making flex fuel cars.

--Include money to convert existing gas cars to battery electric vehicles. This option will probably appeal to a niche, but I think it would be worthwhile. This can be done with off-the-shelf technology for $15,000 or less for most cars, and perhaps a way to help some closing dealerships convert cars might be a way to keep a few of them in business.

La Palin better hope so too; given the sorts of cardiopulmonary problems which many Down Syndrome people are prone to, I doubt many private insurers will be beating a path to cover him.

If only Sarah Palin could actually experience what the average person in her position--special needs child with expensive medical needs--experiences, she'd be singing a different tune. That is what's truly disgusting about her comments, not the all-too-predictable hypocrisy.

Mr. Lind, while I didn't grow up in Texas, I have lived here for 13 years. Even from a perch in progressive Austin, it's easy to see that there are many in this part of the country who see themselves as a culture and people apart--doubly so in the case of many Texans.

I don't see Kevin Drum's observations as bigoted; they are firmly rooted in fact. The Republican Party has become the party of hard-line conservative whites, the majority of whom live in the South, with some in the Mountain West. It is in the thrall of Senators and Congressmen either from these parts of the country or who, like John Boehner, buy fully into the mindset.

It's hard to buy your hand-wringing, having just witnessed a mob practically baying for the blood of my former congressman, Lloyd Doggett, just a few miles south of Austin.

And more iron fist. The only glimpse of the latter we've seen was when Rahm Emmanuel told those on the left (!) to back off criticism of the Blue Dogs.

Well, eff that. When my mother--represented in the Senate by Blue Dog Evan Bayh--has to put off having a painful cyst removed because she can't afford the deductible, Mr. Emmanuel (and President Obama too, if that directive came from him) can shove it. Especially if people like Chuck Grassley are still allowed a voice in deciding what's going to be in any reform bill that will end up on the president's desk.