I remember a joke that went something like this:

What do you get when you squeeze two little green balls? Answer: Kermit the Frog's undivided attention.

We need to make sure that Cheney pays us his undivided attention and there are only two ways of doing that. One is to inform him that he is going to be impeached and the other is to inform him that all his Halliburton connections will be thoroughly investigated after he leaves office. Any criminality in connection with military operations that can be traced back to him will be the subject of indictments and possible jail time.

We are not irrelevant. Dick Cheney needs to be forcibly reminded of that.

Condi Rice can do one thing that saves her bacon. She can promise to refer any use of the information by any campaign or independent committee to the Justice Department for prosecution for espionage. Trading confidential information is a crime and using it to interfere with the election process is a crime. Thus anyone who has access to the data and uses it against any of the candidates can go to jail for a long, long time.

If it is true that Clinton, Obama and McCain are all compromised, she can address both Democratic and Republican campaigns about this without seeming to favor one or another. She just has to say "Fine, you have the data. If you use it, you're screwed."

A compliment is a compliment no matter how back***ed it is.

I wouldn't waste five minutes of my time with an ID or creationism advocate. I once told one who wanted to have it taught in school that "if you want to molest a child, why not just put your hands in his underpants?"

Bill Richardson's endorsement of Obama on top of Bill Clinton's gaffe in questioning Obama's patriotism may tell the superdelegates that it is safe to go with Obama. My sense is that Bill Clinton is a bigger opponent than Barack Obama. She is going to be spending a lot of time in the next two months saying he was quoted out of context. That is castrating for him and absolute poison for her campaign. I can see the superdelegates saying to themselves "is this what the campaign is going to be like?" and I could also see the country saying to itself "is that what her Presidency would be like?" as they enter the voting booth. Result: Four years of a man on the verge of senility.

I grew up in a traditionally white Jewish family in a neighborhood where blacks were supers and their kids lived in the basement. My dad was absolutely clear that we are not to discriminate. I was invited to a party and "the super's kid" who was my friend, wasn't invited so I didn't go. My parents would have accepted my going. I'm sure that even Linda, "the super's kid" would have understood but I didn't understand.

Linda's mother, Miriam, was an awesome woman and my mom was her friend. She was welcome in our home and we were welcome in hers. Indeed, when my dad, who had some emotional issues, was too much for me to take, I would escape to Linda's house down in the basement and talk to Miriam, who would help me get some perspective.

I guess I grew up in a typically (or not so typically) tolerant environment for the late '40's and early '50's. The word "n***r was never spoken in my house. Indeed, it was one of the dirtiest words in the lexicon for us and I was horrified when my uncle used it. My mom explained that he wasn't all that smart.

I am also smart. I know the stuff that's out there. In the rooming house my grandparents lived in, one of the transients was a girl named Sally from "Down South" whose mom and dad hated "n**rs and Jews." Neither group was white to her. She attended the local Baptist church and got more of the preaching about that.

I can understand race baiting on the part of the fetid armpit of America but I cannot understand people like Hillary and Bill, who should know better, making it an issue. That hurts and it makes it probable that I will vote for whomever runs against her for her next Senate term. I no longer respect or trust her. I never respected or trusted the right-wing talk meisters and never listen to them but our own team should know better.