Apparently, it's not OK for Iran to supply arms (if they are) to Shiites in Iraq who have largely been battling Sunnis. But it was OK for the US to supply Saddam Hussein with arms in his futile attack on Iran. A war which, he, Saddam Hussein started and in which hundreds of thousands of Iranians died.

Hello? Who the hell do we think we are?

Remember the words of the humorist Will Rodgers: If you teach a person or an animal a lesson in meaness, don't be surprised if they learn it.

I'm not. The "religious" right isn't. They skipped right over the commandment that says "Thou shalt not kill" as well as any number of other precepts of both Christian and other (like Muslim) religions hold in common. It has become so commonplace for fringe groups run by power brokers like Jerry Falwell or Pat - Let's take out Chavez - Robertson to violate Christian precepts that that shouldn't even be news. What is news is that mainstream Christianity hasn't called their hand.

So at what point does someone break down and admit that these people are fascists?

His name is Todd Akin, Tim, not Arkin. He's my representative and there must be something about going to Washington that causes stupidity to sink in. He's not naturally stupid even if I disagree with him most of the time but your little excerpt is a clear image of not being able to think in a straight line.

When are we going to stop calling them new conservatives and just call them fascists?

I read a quotation that ran along these lines:

The really great thing about totalitarianism is that in order to defeat you, your enemies have to become like you.

The name of the author will not surprise you but will be left as an excercise to the reader.

Historians will someday ask why the United States entered a century of enormous challenges under the stewardship of a man who was so manifestly unsuited to high office -- and why he prevailed over a man whose judgment, experience and courage were so clearly superior.

Others have already answered the question in your article. The process of being elected to office in this country is no longer about your principles, or your ideas about the role of the government in our society, or your ability to manage the levers of government, or really about anything else that might be a measure of your qualifications for the office. It is all about having a "handler" who can make you look like a superstar. It's all about what your answers are to what is your position on the issue du jour. It's all about whomever the press likes.

For example, the question asked is "Do you support Roe v Wade?" It is not "Does the government have the authority to interfere in your private life?" The quality of our governance hinges on the answer to the second question, not on the answer to the first. The public appears more interested in the answer to the first question than the second. As long as the political process apes "American Idol", we will continue to have people like The Current Occupant being elected.

Sorry to hear of your experience but I have to say you half deserved it. The wrong thing you're pointing at is politics. It has nothing to do with it. To put it in perspective for you, I'm an "anti-war zealot" and I have been since Shrub attacked Afghanistan. Decades ago (over 4) I voted Democratic. I soon realized they were a bunch of socialists. I can't stand that so I voted Republican for a couple of decades. Then I figured out that they were essentially a bunch of fascists. I can't stand that either. That's when I started voting libertarian .. a bunch of people who believe in less government (really less, not like the two major parties) and less intrusion in your private life.

And it's your private life that provides the rub. I personally believe your problem began with an incident in the 1960s involving then House Ways & Means chairman Wilbur Mills, a woman known as the blonde bombshell, a fountain in Washington DC, and, apparently, copious quantities of alcohol. Prior to that incident, one didn't hear that much about the private lives of politicians. Or, at least, they weren't purveying mud. After that, the mud ball has grown and grown to the point where even a bit player like yourself gets sucked into it. Neither our society nor our political institutions will survive the current climate. It is vitally important that the line separating public and private life be pushed back toward the public to provide the shelter of private life, free of public scrutiny, to allow people to grow and develop and, yes, make mistakes without the fear of random future reprisal,

The reason you half deserve it is because you allowed your (I presume) principled support of this fruitcake foray into pure imperialism to become tied to the likes of Ann "John Edwards is a faggot" Coulter. A woman who consistently debases the public discourse and substitutes jingoism for logic and thoughtful analysis. Had you had a principled opposition to this fruitcake foray into pure imperialism, she would have savaged you as Matt Sanchez is a faggot. In which case, it would have been the right wing nut-jobs who would have been dredging in your past instead of the left wing nut-jobs.

And here I thought that the whole point behind the civil rights movement of the '60s was to learn to deal with people as people, not as black or white, democrat or republican, men or women or any other bipolar disorder that we chose to separate people into. I guess not.