I am hardly one to have a great deal of faith in the "average" American's ability to think critically. However, I do believe that the American public has HAD IT with Dick Cheney. People intuit his paranoid weirdness and his palpable anxiety! Plus, he obviously has a breathing problem, because his voice sounds like it is coming through a VED (voice enhancing device)!

In other words, I don't think it takes a "rocket scientist" to figure out that Dick Cheney is a serious nutcase. I believe, through his constant spooky TV appearances, he is making his philosophy and ideas more ridiculous by the day!

Unlike Cheney, President Obama is very tuned in to the mood and desires of the American people. When he really sees how unpopular the rules of the "imperial presidency" are becoming, I think he will roll most of them back!

I agree with you, Joan, that this is a very worrisome decision by Obama--not to release the remaining torture pictures! However, I am not yet ready to give up hope!

Remember, if you will, the insightful self-reflection and questioning in Obama's early memoir, "Dreams From My Father?" No such insight has ever been shown by Rumsfeld or GWB. And forget Cheney! This man is so paranoid and his delusions so fixed that he is incapable of insight!

I think Obama, unlike Bush, is capable of being influenced by the opinion of his constituents--US! That is why I write him regularly at www.WhiteHouse.gov and suggest that you and all of your readers do as well! This is a pragmatic man, but also a moral and searching human being who has shown that he is capable of growth and change. In my last message to him, I said: "Please don't make me get Michelle to shape you up!" She is the real "Go-To" person, I do believe!

SERIOUSLY!!! I think Rush was much more together and less "out there" when he was doped up on Oxycontin, Vicodan, Valium, Ativan, etc. etc. Look--he's got a sky-high anxiety issue, and it takes a really strong cocktail of psychotropic drugs to "bring him down." Even when he comes down, he can't shake the narcissistic, sociopathic part of his personality which is mostly what we are seeing now--without the "happy" pills!

So--I am for Rush getting some new (legal) prescriptions for some VERY high doses of his meds of choice and calming himself down! I think he will be a happier (though not less obnoxious) camper! And he'll probably take such large doses that his poisoning will be less anal. He might even start talking about Armegeddon and making his plans!

I find it both fascinating and appalling that our own little Congress does not really hesitate much in allowing billions of dollars for defense spending and making war--while niggling and piggling about funding Universal Health Care! I guess they find it more appealing and profitable (for them and their lobbying interests) to send our young people to War, and to fund the latest destructive weapon, than to help people who are sick and suffering and without recourse to health insurance!

Are we a sick society or what??????

Hello Mr. Keillor-

Loved your column about the insurance lobbyists! I hope President Obama (or somebody at the Big House) reads it and gets the message! I am sending it to him forthwith! I'll let you know what I hear--uh huh!

Kate Madison

Depoe Bay, Oregon

Thank you for this--the simplest, shortest explanation of the differences between Single-Payer and private insurance! If, after reading this, anybody still supports the insurance industry, I will refer them to Paul Krugman's new op-ed, "Boiling Frogs!" Because that is what we will all be if the insurance industry prevails!!!!

August is upon us, and Congress has done nothing about healthcare reform--except to tell us they will do nothing before the August recess!

Many of us have spent hours writing and calling our senators and representatives--and other congresspeople as well. This is like spitting in the ocean--the ocean being the disgustingly wealthy and powerful insurance industry. Everyday they spend $1.5 million in media ads trashing healthcare reform--using that tried and true tactic, FEAR!!!

I am sad and discouraged not only about the wealthy insurance lobby, but about the ignorant and incurious American voters--who are more inclined to believe the drivel they see on TV ads than to read the actual facts about healthcare reform plans!

If they did bother to read and think about what they are reading, my guess is that about 99% of voters would insist on a Single-Payer plan!!!!!

There has been so much (too much) already written about this, but I have to add my 2 cents worth! I am appalled and beyond annoyed!!!! At GE, Richard Wolffe and at Keith, too. He is every bit as culpable as the others!!! And all of this for what? Why, what else--MONEY AND GREED!!!!!!!!! Ick, ick, ick!

This is what we have come to? A comparison of the sociopathic selfishness of two not-so-intellectual, but very ambitious politicans who are both completely out of touch with the world as it is? GIVE ME A BREAK--PLEASE!!!!!

And--a pox on both their houses!

If all else fails, you can get your own Kenyan birth certificate and show it to your "birther" friends!!!

http://kenyanbirthcertificategenerator.com/

I know you took this website from my comment, Alex! And there was NO ATTRIBUTION! I am contacting my lawyer tomorrow to discuss this insult! Isn't is a GAS???

This revelation is heartbreaking to me! Not because I thought Obama was above bargaining with corporations to get legislation he wanted, but because I see that he has caved in so thorougly--that his healthcare reform legislation will not only have no teeth, it will likely have very little impact!

I think we, the voting public, are culpable. We should have been (should be NOW) in the streets--demonstrating and demanding decent healthcare for us all! What is wrong with US?