Can I get a Peace Prize if I stop a barroom fight tonight? Or have a civil conversation about Healthcare Reform with a friend who works for Blue Cross? Because as far as I can tell, winning this thing has nothing to do with actually accomplishing anything now. Wow.

I don't know what the longer term impacts have been, but certainly from what I saw around 96 (and last time I was back to visit a couple of years ago), I think you have to say that the Olympics had a great, positive impact on Atlanta. Specifically the renewal of downtown areas that were a horrendous blight were gentrified, and I assume all those public housing residents were located to nicer places (couldn't have been worse). The idea was that spreading them out through the city would eliminate the crush of a completely disfunctional neighborhood. Maybe that hasn't happened, but you can't say that hosting was a bad thing for the city.

I don't approve of the way O is handling his agenda. And I really don't approve of Congress's mishandling. But that in no way means I'll vote for an idiot Repug. And it says nothing about whether I support the agenda. Stop feeding the media frenzy that combines these 2 ideas -- performance does not equal support of policies.

The only part of the stimulus which was "wasted" is the tax cuts (a couple of dollars every other week doesn't really cause anyone to go out and stimulate) that were put in to appease Repugs who still didn't vote for it.

I know FACTS are biased towards the left, but Obama needs to give up on appeasing anyone on the right. Liberal economics works -- thus the saying "if you want to live like a Repug, vote Democratic". Dem presidents oversee more growth than Repug over and over again.

This is squarely Obama and the congressional leadership's fault -- just make Paul Krugman czar of everything (or just do whatever he says) and the world will be a better place. I don't see any members of Congress (or their staffs or the lobbyists they listen to) with Nobels. I don't even see Obama's top econ team with anything like Krugman's track record. There is a solution to this mess, but they need to stop listening to the idiots who have put us in this mess from the right.

If I'm honest, I have to say that I do not approve of the way Obama is handling the Healthcare issue (nor the stimulus, nor the banks, etc). But it isn't because I don't support his goals. I just don't think his strategy of turning it over to the idiots in Congress is working. The WAY he is handling this is not acceptable. So depending on how a survey question is worded, and whether I want to be honest or answer based on how the media is going to spin the result, you may count me in declining Obama popularity, when what I really want is for him to do a LOT more.

When Bill wants to take 2 women home, even N Korea cannot stop him!

Why would we listen to a "Cheney" about keeping America safe? They allowed 9/11 to happen. They allowed Bid Laden to stay free. They created more terrorists by needlessly attacking Iraq. They are idiots.

The document that I have always used to prove when and where I was born is titled "Notification of Birth Registration". I used it for my driver's license the 1st time, I used it to get a passport.

My understanding (and there was some question about this when I started school in North Carolina) is that Maryland does not provide a "copy of my birth certificate". This document I have "certifies that there is on file in the Bureau of Vital Records of the Baltimore City Health Department a record of the birth of" etc etc.

So under this new standard that the Repugs are only applying to the 1st black president, I cannot produce my birth certificate. I can produce the equivalent document that the duly elected (as certified by the US House) President can. It is good enough for every other place in government to show when and where I was born, but not the idiot birthers.

why does Salon require a body for a simple query?

He can say all he wants about whether Libby leaked the name. He wasn't convicted of leaking the name. He was convicted of lying to investigators. It really makes no difference if he leaked the name or not. He's a creep because he lied. And deserves to continue to be a convicted felon for it.

Economy -- his "free market" got us into this mess, pure and simple. So sorry that Obama is having to do extraordinary things to get us out of the mess. Many of those things were started under Bush himself. What a jerk for criticizing Obama for continuing that effort and saving our asses.

Gitmo -- Bush created this situation where we have no end game for these people. We can't hold forever (so says the Supreme Court and any decent human being). So I'm glad Obama is doing something to resolve the mess Bush left us. "Therapy" isn't the solution, so only a fucking idiot would hold that out as the alternative being proposed.

Man, I hate that "man".

It must be hard to walk a line between cracking jokes about war and insulting the troops, but I thought he pulled it off very very well last night. Great job!

Look, its bad enough that EE is profiting off this mess. Why do we need to keep treating him as newsworthy? Seems to me there are 2 types of people -- those of us who poured our hearts, bodies, and pocketbooks into his campaign and are extremely hurt by what he did and wish he would go away forever; and those who don't care. Who the heck wants to keep reading this mess?