You can inform Mr. Noonan at Blogs for Victory that there is already a well-publicized case of an innocent man being detained at Guantanamo for several years. He's a German of Turkish descent named Murat Kurnaz. Read a transcript of the "60 Minutes" segment here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/28/60minutes/main3976928.shtml

I'd love to see how Mr. Noonan contorts himself to explain this away.

While I agree with Glenn's point that the major media hasn't done any kind of comprehensive analysis on itself regarding its failures with respect to the Iraq War, there have been other documents in recent American history that have hit near the mark - in documenting the Pentagon's various attempts at domestic propaganda.

One is the landmark CBS documentary "The Selling of the Pentagon" (1971).

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/S/htmlS/sellingofth/sellingofth.htm

Another is the recent documentary exploring America's culture of militarism, "Why We Fight".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_We_Fight_(2005_film)

The first example is particularly relevant because it serves to show just how far we've fallen since the Vietnam era in terms of the quality of major media reporting.

By siding with McCain against Obama on this idiotic proposal, she embodies the worst characteristics of the DINO. Yes, by all means, let's dumb down the public discourse to an even lower level, and get suckers to vote for us. This country left rational economics behind a long time ago. Why stop now?

Then, when it becomes obvious that the pandering was just a convenient lie, people will be even more embittered and more fatalistic about the prospects for change. Nice work, Senator Clinton. With "Democrats" like you, who needs Republicans?

Speaking of the rudeness of U.S. Customs Officers, on a recent return trip from Canada, one of them asked me the above question.

The deal is: my passport is getting close to expiration and never seems to work on the automatic scanning equipment that was installed after 9/11. It's that way every single time. I even tell them in advance that it won't work in an effort to prevent them from trying it 15 times (futilely) and staring with furrowed brow at the computer monitor.

Though tempted to answer "yes" sarcastically, I refrained and gave him a straight "no". But it gets better. Noticing my state of birth (in the South), he then told me, "You don't sound like someone from _____." I explained that I'd left at a rather young age and had lived in the North for all my adult life.

If I could've stayed and worked in Canada legally, I probably would've just turned around at that point and left the airport.

For the record, I'm a generic-looking white guy. I can only imagine the treatment I would've received if I'd truly looked foreign. Yes, Virginia, we are increasingly living in a police state. This is what Americans have voted for; I hope they're happy.

Glenn is correct about media complicity in GOP smears, but when are Democrats going to learn to play the game?

They should be going out of their way, from national strategists down to every county official, to talk about how McCain will simply be a Bush retread in his warmongering. They should waste no opportunity to talk about McCain's elitism and the way he left his first wife when she became disfigured and disabled. They should start their own whispering campaigns and recruit whomever they can find to further the message.

Instead, we have Hillary Clinton siding with McCain on the most idiotic of issues: the gas tax holiday. Ponder for a moment if Republicans would ever be so stupid.

The reason Democrats have no fight, I believe, is because, with a few exceptions, they really don't care all that much about the issues they purport to believe in (e.g., the waffling on warrantless wiretapping, their refusal to shut off the money spigot for the Iraq War). They cavort with big-money interests just like Republicans do, and whatever liberal impulses they may have get crushed when the going gets rough. For the most part, they're rich people who like to "play" being a liberal. In that sense, I'm afraid the Republicans are correct. Too many Democrats *are* effete in that they simply will not engage in the rough and tumble; when the dirt starts to fly, they get the vapors and collapse onto their fainting couches.

I'm not saying we shouldn't try to elect more Democrats, nor am I making a fatalistic argument that there's nothing that can be done. The key is *better* Democrats. The ActBlue initiative is a great start, and I'm happy to say I contributed myself. But let's not kid ourselves that the Democratic Party has a whole is actually committed to progressive issues. Just as in FDR's day, the true progressives will have to drag the Democratic Party kicking and screaming every inch of the way.

As if the last eight years haven't seemed like a lifetime, along comes Hillary to out-Bush George W. by proclaiming the laws of economics null and void. That's right, Sen. Clinton, just shake your tiny fist and rail against the MAN. That's so very effective, and you're so believable in that role.

When do you begin your crusade against the evil conspiracy called gravity?