As Mr. Cheney concluded his remarks, his pants burst into flames.

Honestly, at what point do the caverns of hell open beneath his feet and swallow him up?

but I never imagined we could solve the debacle in Iraq by just renaming the opposition! Why, oh, why didn't we think of this long ago?

That should just about do it for General Pace. He should be making an employment change anytime now...

by W stickers and yellow ribbons on the backs of giant SUV's, I can have the drivers punished?

Because I am, you know. Offended. We all should be. But certainly not by 4-letter words on T-shirts.

Sheesh. Where's all the righteous indignation over the really offensive stuff, like, oh, I don't know, Iraq and poverty and incompetent, corrupt, (and quite possibly evil) leaders?

Do we really need Paglia? She's neither funny nor insightful, and she can't write worth a damn.

And who buys her books anyway? After doing a grad school research project on Paglia's particular brand of "feminism" and reading a great deal of her work, I can't stay far enough away from her. I thought I'd give her another try with this article, but it's more of the same unreadable crap.

I'm disappointed to see the return of Paglia's unbridled venom, (unwarranted) intellectual arrogance, and self-referentiality to these pages. I won't bother to read any more of it.

Oh, that's right. We don't want to talk about any of the important stuff like war or poverty or torture. Smokescreen time!

but George W. Bush has done just fine undermining his credibility all on his own. It's the credibility of the American people, shot all to hell by Dubya and his cronies, that we should be worrying about.

Bush has no credibility with me, ever, especially after 9/11. He's not the decisive and take-charge leader his speechwriters would have us believe he is, but the dithering and indecisive "My Pet Goat" guy we all saw after the attacks. It's a shame we were all so wounded and shocked at the time that we didn't see him for what he truly is.

And he does NOT have to be our president for another 3 years, if our elected representatives would put the best interests of the country first for a change. Yes, impeachment is a drastic measure, but desperate times call for such. And we are indeed living in desperate times, even if some of us haven't realized it just yet.

It should be clear by now to everyone who's been paying attention that the Bush presidency is a miserable failure; it will be a stain on the reputation of all Americans for generations to come.

Bush has no credibility left, but we might just manage to salvage what little may remain for America if we make him answer for his actions.

Finally, something good may come of the right's despicable interference in the Schiavo matter.

I am thoroughly sick of the religious right trying to dictate matters of conscience to the rest of the country. My own conscience works just fine, thank you, and I suspect most Americans can say the same.

Culture of life, my left elbow. The casualties of the right's war of choice in Iraq give the lie to that.

And he's still convinced, more or less, that Dick Cheney was right when he insisted that U.S. troops would be welcomed as "liberators" in Iraq. "I think we are welcomed," Bush said, "but it was not a peaceful welcome."

I just don't know what to say.

One would think that an administration with aspirations to create a “culture of life” would pay a bit of attention to the living.

The continuing tragedy in the Gulf is the result of both incompetence and lack of compassion on the part of the Bush administration.

Every story I see from the hurricane-stricken area reminds me of the gross incompetence that permeates the Bush government. The "changes" to FEMA haven't exactly been a rousing success; obviously, fundamental changes are required and those take time. However, it seems as though there still isn't anyone who knows what to do on the ground. Are competent problem-solvers that hard to find?

If Bush truly possessed an ounce of that “conservative compassion” he’s so proud of, he’d make sure that FEMA and other government entities would finally do their jobs properly. My heart breaks every time I think of how the storm victims are still being victimized on a daily basis by the very people who are supposed to protect and aid them! How could any caring human being not be moved by the unnecessary suffering of these people?

We should all be mortally ashamed of our government and its lack of concern for our fellow Americans. We should be equally ashamed of its incompetence. And we must never forget that any of us could be the next victims of our own government's inability and unwillingness to protect its people.

We must demand of our elected representatives a regular accounting of what they are doing to ease the suffering of the people in the Gulf region. We must do so again and again, lest the plight of our brothers and sisters slip below the radar and stay there. This state of affairs is unacceptable. It will take all of us to make a change.

Who wants to listen to the help anyway, unless they're telling you what you want to hear?

This is so characteristic of the ruling party's mentality. Witness what's about to happen in Ohio regarding recounts and other election-related issues. Just make rules that say no one can challenge, disagree with, or otherwise participate in the decision making process and there you go! License to do whatever you please.

I think there's a word for this. Hold on, it'll come to me. Oh, yeah. Fascism. That's it.