and we had better be prepared to do something:

2000 - Florida shenanigans and a Supreme Court pass

2002 - serious poll discrepancies in Georgia for Max Cleland, governor - a trail run

2004 - wide-spread poll/tally discrepancies, every one ultimately favoring a Rep

2006 -

"The United States is deeply disturbed by extensive and credible indications of fraud committed in the Ukrainian presidential election. We strongly support efforts to review the conduct of the election and urge Ukrainian authorities not to certify results until investigations of organized fraud are resolved. We call on the Government of Ukraine to respect the will of the Ukrainian people, and we urge all Ukrainians to resolve the situation through peaceful means. The Government bears a special responsibility not to use or incite violence, and to allow free media to report accurately on the situation without intimidation or coercion. The United States stands with the Ukrainian people in this difficult time." The White House, November 23, 2004

"Once, happenstance; twice, coincidence; three time, enemy action." Ian Fleming

"...Under Dobson's watch, Haggard's "problem" is one the religious right can surely solve with "restoration and rehabilitation..."

"...an investigation of the former pastor’s "mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical life" as well as his computer and hard drive to plumb the homosexual depths of his mind...."

Sound like he's being re-chromed - or crafted into Robo-Christian-Soldier from the dead or damaged parts of his faith. Regardless of the crowing ironies of Haggard's fall, he has a real chance to make something enormously positive, and universally beneficial, out of the ordeal. He can get away as fast as he can from the spiritual Mengeles around him, and simply come to terms with his own character, and its potential for loving acceptance of the beauty and mysteries of life, warts and all. He can quit the charisma and get closer to his God, and he might blossom rather than strut. He would provide an example to those who have a hard time holding complexities in their mind, and don't mind learning how to, and having opened himself up, might have all the more love to give.

Thank you Mr. Grieve for so many, many wonderful posts, and this most wonderful one of all. And thanks to Salon for the incredible job tonight - awe-inspiring. It's not over, but...oh...my...

Thank you Colleen McMahon for the Pagliatron6000! It is she.

Wonderful article, very chewy. Mr. Blumenthal is right - Bushgame is theater, and unfortunately we are just his captive audience. Consequence flurries around him and Bush merely continues, 'staring before him, and even all about him, hour after hour, day after day, and never seeing a thing'.

He can't go on, he will go on. Butt.

that was awful.

and the other reasons, too. Oil first and foremost, along with destabilizing the region (more oil, plus a boon for Israel); a show of revenge-force for political consolidation; a distant distraction for right-wing think-tank agendas, ala 1984; and lastly and weirdly, W's Oedipal one-upsmanship. A perfect storm of win win win, the cost of which matters not one iota to Bush and co. If it breaks the bank it also "drowns the baby", while oil profits go through the roof. Mission accomplished.

Saddam was a loose cannon, and played havoc with oil prices. It's more about controlling than acquiring. And the proof is that we will never need to spread democracy to North Korea, nor build a permanent base there. Nothing to gain, nothing to manage.

They're definitely not grown-ups or rationalists, but they sure are oil men.

can we hear it if our ears are closed? Our senses are instruments that open onto a mass of phenomena, but certainly not all. Ultraviolet light was measured by man in the 1800's; honey bees have seen it for eons. The mechanisms of sensibility -sound, sight, intuition - vary widely across inumerable species, and arguably just as much across our own.

Mind may be another window that connects to other, as yet unmeasured strata, wavelengths - quantities and qualities that, scientifically, we have no names for, but will. In the same way that substrate consciousness dovetails neatly with the notion of Christian soul, rendering both the more "quantifiable", the intersection of centuries-old, profound Buddhist wisdom with current science is beautiful, and positive, beyond belief.

Mr. Wallace certainly has the chops to talk the talk. Thanks Salon for putting this subject front and center.

I appreciate your response, and that you caught my small point so well. Our knowledge and naming of the world changes constantly, and we are babies, albeit capable of immense sophistication and curiosity. The windows onto phenomena, both exterior and interior, sometimes open in small ways, by direct experience, long before major discoveries; the Greeks knew of static electricity, but electicity as a distinct, harnessable entity is a few hundred years old. What an amazing district to unfold before Franklin and his followers, and how unfathomable its implications. We know so little; we know so much.

Mr. Wallace is anything but arrogant in his suggestions. The convergence of science and religion is a very healthy development right now, and open-minded scientists might find this area ripe for the picking.

I was going to go to Mardi Gras this year as "Our tactics are flexible and dynamic", and now I'm going to have to figure out how to be "And it's going to be an important meeting, and I'm looking foward to it". Anybody got any "And it's going to be an important meeting, and I'm looking forward to it" suggestions? Cause otherwise it's Spanish Moss all over again.

Power tie, Spanish moss, multi-colored Afro. Audio feed.

Good times, good times.

Now if we could just get Wolfowitz to join Bolton at Filene's, someone could wear their pelts home.

Bolton is bad news for moustaches.