The only way out of the mess our country is in that I can think of is to withhold our taxes. Any way to do this? The IRS can't go after millions of people, can it? If the Internet can allow people like GG to be influential and hasten the end of the MSM, then the only way political and economic change will come is through the pocketbook, right? We need a third party-- it would draw from many segments of the US population at this point. Where is Move On and some of these bigger organizations? Geez, I never thought I would be feeling worse about the state of our country today then I did during 8 years of Bush-Cheney - this is truly a nightmare.

While I share your concerns about the fate of women under the Taliban, you need to do some reading on the subject of women in Afghanistan--the fact is, according to women's rights workers in the country, the warlords -the guys we are supporting, including Karzai and his ilk - are just as bad and in some cases worse in their treatment of women - so I for one am not behind using my tax dollars to support a regime or an association of loosely connected regimes who are going to continue to rape and mistreat women. You shouldn't be so quick to swallow the propaganda. Maybe one solution is to allow women who want to leave to come to the US and settle...

And Liberty and Freedom, if all this was about "freeing" other people, why didn't we go after the Saudis after 9-11? Because it's all about business opportunities and money, not democracy. The freeing of the Pan Am bomber should have clued you in to that. I just saw a documentary on some UK/Canadian citizens who were accused of a bombing (of other foreign citizens)in Riyadh (the Saudis didn't want to deal with the embarrassment of admitting that some of their citizens were killing needed foreign workers)--these guys were held for almost three years, tortured and raped - the British and Canadian governments did not intervene because they wanted to preserve important business relations with the Saudis. Until people realize that they are being played and lied to by those who benefit financially from these wars, nothing will change.

Yes Publican, I was just getting ready to post about how there has been no mention in the media of how Christian fundamentalism and proseletyzing has taken over much of the military, especially in the Air Force, with commanding officers conducting prayer services and talking about a "holy" war against Muslims. One wonders what kind of experiences Hasan had as a result of this kind of atmosphere.

I also was taken aback by the straightforward admittance that the government was reading this guy's email--why was that, I wonder? Because he was in the military? Or because they were monitoring the radical imam's email? I'm interested in how the surveillance came about--the admittance of it just seems so matter-of-fact.

Also, when reading Brooks' column this morning, I wondered to myself for the umpteenth time how a guy so lacking in critical thinking skills got a job at the Times, much less went through the University of Chicago. Surely they can do better than Brooks.

Interesting in light of the reports last week via Al Jazeera that the Pakistani Taliban were accusing Blackwater of being behind the recent bombings in the country in an attempt to discredit Taliban/Al Qaeda with local supporters. Why in God's name does this company still have contracts with the US gov?