AJ -- you must live quite the sheltered existence.

It is only by intuition that one can understand that "socialist" and other stupid labels placed on Obama are code words. It is the fact that one cannot draw that connection using logic that encourage the user to place these labels on him -- it is no longer acceptable to call Obama the N-word.

To call him a "Muslim", when he isn't -- were is the logic in that?

Listen to it differently. Listen to Sarah Palin's RNC acceptance speech and substitute the N-word for each occurrence of "Community Organizer", and see how the speech makes more sense. Do the same thing when people use "Muslim", "Osama-Obama" or "socialists" when referring to Obama, when you substitute the N-word, it makes sense, the words they actually use, don't.

Not only do the speeches make sense, but the reactions make much more sense to those tuned in. Of course, liberals who take "Muslim" literally, are only confused, "But he's not a Muslim!"

As someone tuned in to math, one understands that all the proof needed for an expression to be made true is that when you substitute the real value for a token, the expression is true.

As for intuition, listen to the way people say, "Osama-Obama" -- and you'll understand.

...Dan

For those who don't speak French, the song "Carli" wrote for Palin is, "Lipstick on a Pig".

I agree whole heartedly -- Condi said exactly the right things, and sincerely, too. The reference to "perfect union" was eloquent and meaningful. Maybe I shouldn't have written her off.

As well, did you catch what Dubaya said about the election, and looking forward to having the Obamas (with children) to the White House? It may have been Dubaya at his best. With the overtures to N. Korea, and now demonstrating warmness to an Obama presidency, maybe he has learned something after 8 years.

Yes, Condi is a well-controlled bot, but Obama's election meant something personally to her, I think we saw the personal side of her in that clip. A smile like that isn't scripted.

RE: Dubaya, I think it's a similar thing -- besides, I said he was at "his best", and he had possibly "learned" something in 8 years. Taking N. Korea off the "States that Sponsor Terrorism" list is a different Dubaya from "Axis of Evil" Dubaya.

Most Salon readers have accepted that Dubaya is merely a puppet, the actor on stage, who says he can't play himself once in a while.

The magazines that published these likely never asked the provenance of the pictures -- in hindsight, we all know they were literally stolen from her.

The problem is that publishers should be held responsible for what they publish. If publishers were made responsible, the incentive to collect information illegally would disappear. Actions of paparazzi, as illegal and insidious as they are, should not be allowed -- I believe Angelina Jolie's right to privacy should trump an absolute freedom of the press.

While we're on the subject -- Judith Miller was fed all kinds of false information with regards WMDs. What reason would she have to protect such a "source". If you protect someone who provides false information, there is every incentive to continue providing false and misleading information.

Journalists should study economics. Some of the absolutes they dogmatically cling to lead directly to undesired results. Sources who provide false or illegally obtained information should not be protected, period. In this case, those who published should be liable to Adrienne -- or give the police the identity of the one providing the pictures, the one who stole the pictures, then blackmailed Adrienne.

How much better off are we now after the tax rebate checks were sent out this spring? Our economy is really humming now, now that we have all those Chinese made LCD TVs all over our homes! Yeah BABY!

China has already announced major increases in infrastructure spending to help pull them out of the financial crisis. FDRs New Deal, a large amount of which went into infrastructure, is widely credited with bringing the US out of the Great Depression (of course, WWII sped that up).

The problem with the bailouts is it's only throwing good money after bad -- it's propping up toxic assets. If we were to start laying down high speed train tracks, ramp up manufacturing of windmills and of solar energy systems, in the end, the US will be better off and will have put people to work -- propping up the economy and yielding a real return.

The downside of infrastructure investment is simple though, it can't be ramped up as is needed now. Engineering, designing and obtaining right of ways and litigation all come first.

I've got an idea though. Everyone's been moving to exurbia while allowing cities to die -- let's declare eminent domain, take a bulldozer to the worst, blighted neighborhoods, and make our cities new again. The displaced can move out to the empty McMansions in mortgage default.

We can make these areas energy efficient, rid them of drugs and crime, and ramp up the other infrastructure improvements while rebuilding the cities.