I agree about the infestation. I haven't posted for a while, and it's weird to see red_gti2000 and tj bending over backwards to stir up trouble - aggressively repetitive posting, picking fights right and left, using every non sequitur in the book. In fact it looks like red turned into tj at one point when surrounded halfway back this thread - same syntax and professional pugnaciousness.

There are a lot of good posts on Salon, on any day, and I hope the infestation doesn't diminish them in the next few months. We need to be focused and direct, more so if Rove and minions smell a hint of victory, and up the trolls and the ante.

I think I read that you were in Covington for Gustav. I've got family there myself - they hadn't lost power today when I called, but friends in N.O. had. Presuming you haven't either, unless you're posting from an iPhone. Hang on to those muses.....

Opposing opinions are fine, if they're opinions, not just snarling. Here we are - Free Speech Alley. Roll one. The topic at hand is the two faces of John McCain. Is it wise for McCain to hire the man who viciously slimed him in 2000 to perform the same service for his current opponents? What does that show about McCain's character, his judgement, his morality? (McCain is not spelled Obama.)

After Rove vetoed McCain's VP pick, what does it say about his resolve and love for his country to pick a trophy VP who is seriously less qualified than several other Republican women candidates, and whose fundamentalist, creationist, neophyte viewpoint pretty much rules out her "reaching across the aisle"?

Get thee

to Variety

and make some dough

you've got a career

in tickling ears

for all you know

.......go man go

George Bush is the anti-christ, end of story. It's been in the news for 8 years, it's a known fact, done deal, etc. No use trotting out new contenders. Nail on the head.

Evangelicals just have to start getting used to it: End Times are Over.

Thank you Mr. Romm for gathering these facts for all to savor. McCain's voting record speaks for itself. If he's for the technology but against subsidies, there are thousands of ways he can create bills, with real guts, to further his green instincts. But he hasn't. He could also claim that he was against it before he was for it - but I'm not hearing that either.

McCain is a liar wrapped in a geezer wrapped in an enigma. He surrounds himself with the worst and the dimmest - Rove, Gramm, Palin. That's alarming. Tackling clean technology is smart, it's prudent, and it's advantageous - it could significantly help revitalize our innate capacity for invention, production and prosperity. Sounds like a potential win win win, not a punt, punt, punt.

"I am not one of those who believe that simply because Bernanke and Paulson are Bush appointees they are automatically lying and the real goal here is to transfer a huge amount of wealth to Wall Street and cripple the next administration."

I look to Andrew Leonard for guidance and pith in this whole issue, and appreciate his instincts fully. But the above sentence jumped out at me.

Bush's entire MO since day one has been to transfer huge amounts of wealth to the top 1% or so. If B & P are Bush appointees and Bush was anywhere this plan, there's got to be at least something wrong with it. You can take that to the bank.

Also, if the economy is too complicated for one easy reading, then it's supple enough to warrant more than one solution. "No one could know" how or when this might have happened, but Mr. No One knows this is the only plan that will work? And no time for a second opinion?

The fundamentals of the largest transfer of wealth we've seen were indeed sound.

Next week they'll be positively on steroids. For 8 years, everything Bush has proposed has been a cover for the opposite intention. Clean air, no child left behind, a just and necessary war, tax cuts to benefit all, "saving" social security. Disinformation, lies, agendas - all at the expense of governance and stewardship. He's not a leader, nor is he a principled, conservative Republican - he's a bandit.

Last chance for a no-strings play. Talk about a Hail Mary pass.

How many planes did McCain ditch? This is a man who thinks it's presidential to be Chicken Little?

Obama can talk and chew gum.......in French.

Can the other guy do that?

1. Frivolous (Bomb bomb bomb. bomb bomb Iran)

2. Clueless (Gramm)

3. Cynical (Palin)

A litany of about-faces, and conduct unbecoming to a wise and steady leader. Anger issues. Was he better than he is now? That's what alarms me.

What Uncle Fester said.

A less cynical choice for VP would be someone who had stature and credentials, like Hutchinson, and who could put together sentences. Someone who makes you wonder why we haven't been voting for intelligent, accomplished women all along. Probably not hot.

So if Pelosi had not said anything to offend their sensibilities, or the 12 Republicans had stuck to their guns, the bill would have passed 217-216.

Wow. One vote. That's some mixed message.

I'm just thankful for Andrew Leonard's continuously cogent commentary herein. It's the clear spot on a series of murky days.