I'm sorry, but the idea that we shouldn't protest because it recalls Vietnam is absurd. What we need is very acute memory of Vietnam. I'm a Vietnam vet. If the news media and the Democratic Party made it clear to the American people that the same arrogant assininity which gave us Vietnam is giving us Iraq, I wouldn't have to waken every morning to news of more young Americans being killed and maimed like many friends were in Nam. The gutlessness of the liberal establishment in the face of the greatest threat to our safety and liberties in my lifetime -- the Bush administration -- is why we're in the mess we're in. More power to John Edwards!

Keith Olbermann is absolutely right: the Democratic leadership is craven and timorous. What we need is a Democratic Congress which will defund the war and support the troops in the one way that really supports them, bringing them home.

Tactically they should be refusing to fund any further military operations or civilian aid projects until Bush releases every contract, every document pertaining to Iraq and the Republican war contractors for Congressional oversight scrutiny. Bush should be pushed to the wall for squandering billions to fill the pockets of his cronies under the guise of a war against terrorism. We should be pushing slogans like "Money for the troops but not another cent for the Republican war profiteers!" or "When the Republicans are done shoveling money to Haliburton, maybe they should look for Bin Laden." If the Democrats make this about the waste of American lives for Republican profits and the grandiose ego of the cretin in the White House who abandoned the fight against al-Qaeda to screw with Iraq, they'll win. If not, they'll concede the field to Bush.

Esfandiari and her husband, Shaul Bakhash, have been involved in anti-regime emigre politics since arriving in the U.S. Bakhash has been a darling of the neocons who advocate a U.S. invasion of Iran for years. It's patent that they thought U.S. dual citizenship would protect her as she pursued her anti-regime activities inside Iran. They were wrong. It's a non-story story. It's not about Soros or women's rights. It's about a very long-term opponent of the Islamic Republic thinking that a U.S.passport would protect her if she tried to subvert the regime on a visit to Iran. Iranian emigre politics as usual.

If she weren't an oddity in hijab in a country where the medical establishment has been cowed by the fundamentalists and by Muslim culture, no one would waste an interview with this incompetent purveyor of religiously convenient lies. Her homophobia and her subversion of sexology to reinforce a patriarchal culture, her caricature of science -- all this confirms that she is the antithesis of a genuine practitioner. Salon should be ashamed for giving this woman the publicity.

Let Bush commute Scooter Libby's sentence to six months, only on the condition that it be served in Abu Ghraib. Let's see if six months neck-and-jowl with people whose families have been butchered by the lies he told to bring about the war will wipe the smirk off the bastard's face.

Am I the only one who finds the timing of this disclosure suspicious?

Two leading voices for the progressive/populist wing of the Democratic Part -- John and Elizabeth Edwards -- get denied convention speeches because of a brief sexual indiscretion on his part. But Bill Clinton, the serial sexual harasser who was impeached for his perjury about his sexual harassments, gets a primetime national address? I guess you can screw barnyard animals on the White House lawn so long as you help corporations screw the American working class, and still be a political hero in the Democratic Party.

I'm convinced that this would be a complete non-story if it didn't help corporate America and their paid thugs in the Democratic Party silence two of their most articulate critics.

The only difference from the Republicans is that the pro-business shills who get caught with their pants down get forgiven, while a progressive's sexual indiscretion is a career-ender.

started pandering to the Christian Right, he lost any chance of getting my vote. Better losing with Nader than winning with another Democrat who runs left in the primaries only to run right in the general and govern right thereafter.