Someone's got to get that Baghdad corner - the one Cheney keeps talking about - and plop it on the Washington Mall. The one with the tangle of steel and flesh.

Bronze it. There - that's our Shock'n'Awe Memorial. Right next to Cheney's Lil Water Shed, which offers No Concessions, and a statue of the Black Knight himself.

"Novus Ordo Seclorum", Bigus Dickus.

Look at that photo: the Queen and Prince Philip look great for their ages, and the rest just look good for their IQ's. Barbara looks like she just spiked the fondue.

Laura, sweetie - black tie and dirndl?

I appreciate Salon providing the text of this speech, and I greatly appreciate the letters forum, and the gift of a voice it affords each of us, to the very least. But I can't read this shit anymore.

This man is the biggest robber baron of them all - the most cynical and dishonest user in our public discourse. With his not-so-backroom-machinations, he is personally responsible for more sorrow and hatred - both abroad and in this country - than even his empty little Puppet-in-Chief. Every single one of his words hides a multitude of outright lies and distortions, and serves to line his pockets with the public's money, which it hurls in fear at the enemies he has very substantially created. He gouges our Constitution. He shames us every time he speaks.

"...Cheney warned graduates that they face an enemy who abhors America..."

You got that right.

There are powerful populist calls for change right now, all over these letter pages, all around the gas pumps and shot through every single opinion poll. There just aren't powerful populist calls for change on the Chris Matthews show, or any of the other faux-forums that pass for rational discourse, and do daily disservice to our populace. We are indeed way ahead of Congress, as well as CNN, on both the potential and absolutely current results of global warming - call it whatever you like.

People in Phoenix are talking about the climate problems that are destroying their "Sky Islands" - the surrounding cloud-piercing mountains. Farmers and gardeners all over notice spring coming earlier, and don't have any problem understanding the implications of flora and fuana being out of wack with each other. The New Orleans/Gulf Coast diaspora knows first-hand about vastly wider - not just stronger and more frequent - hurricanes. Both Los Angeles and Australia are waking up to the distinct possibility of being in a continuous drought. Australia is seeing an epidemic of farmer suicides because of this; resource wars such as (arguably) Darfur and even Iraq are already taking their tolls; island populations are looking for higher ground. People are waking up, dying, moving - everything except looking to Bush or pundits for leadership. That would be nuts.

If Bush wants to look pro-active on the environment by doing another "no coastline left behind", then Pelosi has my vote to visit any place on earth if it gets Congress off the dime and puts one more brick into the wall of shame surrounding the current occupant.

A cabin cruiser to Greenland beats a handbasket to hell. Go Nancy.

The Wall Street Journal has just published a poll saying that Americans want the Democrats to win the presidency by a 52% to 31% margin - a 20 point spread.

Time Magazine is out with an interactive map of the world, derived from the most recent IPCC report, illustrating the effect of global warming on every continent - ranging from "significant negative effects" to "extreme negative effects" across the board, as of 2020. That's 13 years away - 3 presidential terms.

The same issue describes the substantial populations that will suffer from scarcity of fresh water, because of melting glaciers, especially in Asia and Africa, by 2050. The number mentioned is "a billion".

Same issue: tropical forests in Central and South America turning into savannahs, and biodiversity lost in epic numbers.

Ms. Paglia can be as agnostic as she wants, but when she consciously participates in a compaign to disavow dispassionate facts about global warming, she is an agent of malice. Her glib denials are grabbed by Drudge and many others to disinform and confuse. She is 100% part of the problem, and I am astonished that she prefers being contrarian to compassionate.

And when she mangles the numbers on Gore's acceptability as a candidate, or his real accomplishments, especially since leaving office, she is fragging of our own. The Time cover is for the grace of Gore alone.

In both cases she puts Salon right in the middle of the disinformation. Salon has a banner full of creative and tuthtelling writers, and I ask that one of them please be tapped for a clear rebuttal of Paglia's obfuscations. It's high time.

that is so well said.

And adlibris too.

Not a problem - all she's gotta do to show cred is get some Celine remixes going by Burnt Friedman and Timbaland, with a Peter Gabriel intro. She could still pull it off.

Personally I voted for Joy Division's "New Dawn Fades (Moby Remix)", but you don't see me crying.

by the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals are beautiful to read. Gave me a chill - the good kind - and reminded me that liberal and conservative are merely two true faces of America, while wreckless and rogue, as in this president's regime, are not.

Thank you Mr. Blumenthal, once again, for proof.