I think it's great that Martin opposed telecom immunity, but I didn't see anywhere in that brief quote any opposition to the no-oversight surveillance provision. (I haven't read the entire interview.) Does Martin oppose that as well, or is that part of his "overall support" of the FISA legislation?

I guess half a loaf is better than none, and compared to six more years of Chambliss this is especially true, but it's still disheartening to me to see Democrats being coy about defending one of our core freedoms in the Bill of Rights. As unpopular as Bush is now, this seems the perfect time to reframe "big government" as a civil liberties issue (as opposed to taxation) that would resonate with conservative voters in Georgia.

It doesn't say much for the rest of Salon that some of the best commentary about this wretched bailout comes not from its economics columnist, Andrew Leonard, but from Glenn Greenwald.

Though Mr. Leonard was an enthusiastic promoter of the bailout, he's commented very little in recent weeks about the inevitable following acts that we're currently witnessing. Now, of course, the government is pushing a plan to keep people in their homes regardless of their ability to afford the house they "bought" (in quotes because in many cases these people put down zero equity). This will only prolong the housing correction and keep homes at artificially inflated prices while punishing people who either stayed out of the previously overheated market or purchased properties they could actually afford.

I hope someone at Salon will follow this story. There seem to be relatively few details about it at the moment, but I'm betting the banks will win big again at the taxpayers' expense.

Thank you for your thoughtful and heartfelt European perspective on our American experiment.

One of the things I have most bitterly resented about the Bush years was the knowledge that he, beholden to religious fundamentalists and warmongers of various stripes, was deliberately taking the U.S. down a path that was not only self-destructive, but definitely set us apart from the civilized nations of the earth. Torture, elective wars, arrogant unilateralism, and restrictions on civil liberties will be a black mark on this period of American history. The betrayal of core American values has been shocking in its ferocity, but one can only hope that this horrible tide is decisively ebbing.

I hope now we can get on with the real business at hand: reforging our historical alliances with European democracies like yours, and joining with you to lead the entire world toward solving human rights and environmental problems everywhere. Americans were once good at this; we can be good again.

P.S. Your Reichstag building in Berlin is a perfect metaphor for revitalized democracy.

Exactly, Glenn.

One of the segments of the presidential debates I found highly amusing/horrifying was this simpleminded, unexamined assumption (on the part of both candidates, but espoused with most vigor by McCain) that it's within the power of the U.S. to control Russia or Iran, and prevent them from doing so-and-so or such-and-such. With whose army? With whose money? With whose moral authority?

It doesn't speak well for our country, not to mention the "political class" (who are beyond hope), that the public is apparently still living in 1946, when the U.S. was the only country with nuclear weapons and the only developed economy still standing after WWII. I guess they didn't get the memo, but the world has changed, and, under Bush, we gave up our last shred of a claim to a higher authority: the rule of law.

Right on cue, the holier-than-thou types have come out to denounce "24" because it "promotes torture". Okay, you've got at least half a point: my least favorite part of the show is the way it depicts torture as generally effective, contrary to what I read about how these techniques often simply do not produce results in the real world. And of course that doesn't even address its legal or ethical status.

But... whatever compromises its paranoia makes with realism, "24" has been riveting entertainment, and the bad guys, although yes - generally foreign - have included none other than a Nixon-esque president of the U.S. a few seasons back. I admire its daring in this regard, and I enjoy visiting its cynical, dark vision of humanity, even if it's a place where I don't want to live all the time.

Here's the rub: don't we all harbor fantasies about sticking it to evil people? I'd confess to Jack Bauer or anyone else that I might actually enjoy seeing Osama bin Laden tortured, or seeing high-ranking members of the Taliban treated the way they treat women. Just a week or so ago, there was a report about schoolgirls in Afghanistan who'd had acid thrown on them because of their "crime" of attending school. There's a part of me that would relish the thought of doing the very same thing to those who committed that horrible act.

To deny that people have violent fantasies (revenge, in particular) is effectively to deny a part of our humanity, regardless of ethics. It may be politically correct to make pious denunciations of TV shows, but this moral grandstanding is woefully at odds with the broad spectrum of human nature. If one function of art is to be a catharsis for sentiments that are taboo to express directly, I think "24" succeeds admirably. This is one liberal who will definitely be watching this season.