You know, I really truly appreciate all the things Nader has done for people in this country. Seatbelts! Air quality! I mean, he has done some incredible, amazing things as a consumer advocate.

But the crusade to be a third party candidate? I've got a lot of friends who voted for Nader in 2000 who dearly wish they hadn't, who would have voted for Gore and now feel like they made a bad decision. Nader's rhetoric about the parties being no different from each other has some truth to it - I mean, look at the spurious connections between the Clintons and Monsanto - but he's also very, very wrong in other respects. Would we be in Iraq right now had Gore won the presidency? No. Would Gore have won if Nader hadn't run? Probably. It was a weak campaign he ran, but the man now holds a Nobel Prize. How many of us wish he'd been our president?

There's a great film about Nader that covers all of this in great detail. He has been a powerful consumer advocate, and he does that incredibly well... but that's what he should stick to. He's not and never will be a solid or viable Presidential candidate, and he knows it.

... that at the very end, it shows equal care for gay kids, too.

It's ugly. And they're talking about a leap forward in technology, when there's plenty of electric cars that get over 150 miles per charge (the new Tesla sportscar gets over 220 miles per charge). So what is this 40 miles per charge nonsense?

If this is the best GM can come up with, then they really do deserve to tank. But I'd hate to see all their hard-working employees out of work, so maybe what they need is some new leadership that doesn't deny global warming, and actually values forward-thinking in science, technology and design.

McCain looks incredibly uncomfortable when Obama looks directly at him and challenges him. It's just odd. It's like McCain is saying "I AM NOT LOOKING AT YOU! HA HA! I AM NOT LOOKING AT YOU!" Similarly, when they shook hands, Obama said, "how are you doing John?" and McCain said nothing. It's just... weird.

McCain is making a lot of strange points all over the place. Obama sometimes wanders or makes his arguments not-quite-strong-enough, but he's generally very on point and salient.

I'm mesmerized by CNN's audience reaction meter, myself. According to that, Obama overall seems to be absolutely killing McCain in this debate.

Totally missed opportunity. I think McCain and Obama are both getting in a lot of good jabs, overall Obama's seem to be sticking more, and more salient.

And I cannot. Stop. Watching. CNN. Audience. Meter. OMG.

OH, SNAP. I love how the audience had a REALLY hard time not making any noise at that... lots of stifled snickering.

I'm glad whenever there are more efforts to bring awareness and research to the issue of breast cancer. And to be sure, those who are diagnosed with BRCA have difficult decisions ahead of them, and I support their right to make whatever choice is best for their bodies and their health.

But this article didn't mention that the BRCA gene is only responsible for 10% of all cases of breast cancer. That means that 90% of breast cancer cases are caused by other things. About 40% of that is from known causes... exposure to things like radiation. But over half of all breast cancer cases are caused by... well, nobody knows. But it's likely that there's an environmental link, since carcinogens have crept their way in to what we eat, what we put on our skin, the water we drink, the containers we drink from... the chemical industry wants us to believe that all these new chemicals (100,000 in the last 50 years, which is coincidentally the same time period that breast cancer cases have shot up exponentially) are completely harmless. The US government has finally caught on that Bisphenol-A (a synthetic estrogen used in plastics, and leeched into beverages and food) might not be a great thing to use in baby bottles, since it has been shown even in tiny amounts to cause irrevocable hormonal damage in infants and children that can significantly increase the likelihood of cancer later in life.

As much air time as the BRCA gene gets, it's not proportional to the percentage of breast cancer cases it causes. I'd like to see more press coverage of what's become the cutting edge of breast cancer research and advocacy... which is the environmental causes of breast cancer. Well, and other cancers, too. For those who are interested in this, the Breast Cancer Fund (www.breastcancerfund.org) is doing tremendous work in this area.

If gas is at $86/barrel and falling (which, as you say, is a small favor), then we'd better see some sharp declines in prices at the pump. My gut tells me those prices are going to stay high, though, because oil companies have been gouging consumers for quite a while now.

I actually think it's probably about time the economic bubble burst... you can't have unrestrained growth without serious eventual falls. And the sharp drop in housing prices? Well, I feel bad for my friends who bought when the market was hot and are now sitting on overblown mortgages, but for me it's a glimmer of hope to be able to actually afford a house at some point.

I think one thing the Republicans have forgotten is:

"Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Thy Neighbor."

Maybe they figure that since they don't live next door to Obama and these "congressional liberals" that they can squeak by.

If there is a heaven, what are the chances that those responsible for these ads will get into it? Not bloody likely.