I live in Dublin, Ireland, and just heard an American commentator on the news say that the Bush contract will actually give control of not six, but more than 20 US ports to the UAE company.

This should increase the Democrats' margin by a few points....

Fascinating story! I transitioned as a female-to-male transsexual in the Bay Area during the time in question and Jack Boulware definitely evokes the time and place. What I find most fascinating about this story is what it says about our culture, gender and age. “…Here's this middle-aged woman who's not getting anywhere as a writer. She reinvents herself as a girly boy and becomes a huge success. On whom does that reflect more poorly, her or all the rest of us?" Exactly!!! While my motivation had absolutely nothing to do with career success, I went from being perceived as a 40-year-old woman to being carded and refused alcohol because I looked like an under-21 boy. Suddenly, I’m being offered different jobs and more responsibility than ever before. Same education, job skills and dedication but now I’m a hot commodity instead of an over-the-hill reject. While on the one hand I deplore Albert’s deception, I deplore even more the insular, shallow and self-congratulatory world of mainstream publishing. It's a bit hard not to feel that some of those duped people got just what they deserved.

I'm glad Broadsheet covered this. I've been dismayed by a noticeably worsening tone in some comment sections on my favourite blogs. It bothers me when the discourse sinks to the level of misogynist and homophobic slurs, and it bothers me even more when the slurs’ slingers are supposedly on "my side". Twenty-five (or more!) years of Republican dirty tactics and language do not justify bad behaviour by liberals. We measure ourselves by higher standards than the Right.

And “no name given,” what a stretch! Comparing legislation against abortion to smoking bans instituted to protect non-smokers from the health risks of second-hand smoke is specious. One ban seeks to control an entire gender’s sexual freedom, while the other pushes a percentage of the population out onto sidewalks to indulge a habit that, if pursued long enough, will likely kill them.

I heartily agree with Solipsy. The truth is readily and even abundantly available, especially since the rise of the Internet. For numerous reasons, though, Americans do not avail themselves of it. Following celebrities, sports and reality TV seem much more a priority. Or they know the truth, but refuse to trouble themselves to prevent catastrophe.

Take the rising drumbeat to war with Iran. The Bush administration's lies mimic those that led to the invasion of Iraq almost word for word and are just as transparent and blatantly absurd, especially in light of revelations about Iraq’s nonexistent WMD's and imaginary links to al Qaeda. To believe that Iran poses any sort of threat to the United States requires a suspension of disbelief bordering on collective hypnosis. And yet over and over in articles, on video clips, in comments on liberal blogs, I see variations on the theme, "Yes, Iraq was a joke but Iran really does pose a threat."

During the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, I protested, wrote letters, threatened to withdraw support from elected representatives if they authorised Bush’s war. When I saw that hundreds of thousands of protesters in the streets of New York, DC and other American cities failed to prevent the war, I considered civil disobedience and arrest. But as a transsexual, I am afraid to go to prison. So instead, I left the US and now live abroad. I refuse to pay taxes to support such an immoral administration and illegal war.

Many of the American activists I knew who demonstrated against the Iraq war are no longer taking to the streets. In some cases, the grassroots organisations have disbanded due to lack of participation. What am I to make of this, especially at a time when the US seems to be gearing up for nuclear strike against a country with which it is not at war and which poses no threat? It is enough to make a sane person despair.

In the core of his performance, standing just feet away from the president, Colbert adopted Bush's phony or just feckless "from the gut" style of talking and thinking, then revealed it for the international embarrassment that it is....But over the course of 10 minutes or so -- for the president, it must have seemed much longer -- that's what Colbert did. He put the lie to the Bush presidency: Iraq, domestic spying, the outing of Valerie Plame and all the folksy, consistency-and-character crap that's so often used to legitimize it all.

Brilliant description of Colbert's heroic performance.

Colbert looked a murdering despot in the eye and spoke the truth, and he did it before a hostile audience full of simpering sycophants.

And let's not forget Helen Thomas' contribution to Saturday night's performance. Not to mention her years of challenging Bush when no one else in the Whitehouse press corps has had the courage to do so. She has doggedly persisted in face of Bush and his minions' open contempt and ridicule. Would that the rest of the so-called reporters had a fraction of her integrity and courage.

Thank Colbert here: http://thankyoustephencolbert.org/