Paine was an atheist, so you know, why should we pay attention to what he thought? Jesus wants us to torture people.

You might have noted that while president Cheney may have invented the "terrorism" exception to the 4th Amendment, the "drugs" exception is of longer standing. There is also, we have now learned, a "pissing off a cop" exception.

Come on Greenwald, admit it - it's no reflection on your sagacity but we all know you're sitting in your parents' basement right now, dusting your tighty whiteys with orange cheesy corn treats, and washing it down with lukewarm pepsi. And when you do wear pants, they're too short.

Get it out in the open, and you won't have to worry about it any more.

Other than that, great post.

"But I would cheer the appointment of RFK Jr. (or perhaps any K)to a higher office. He's a real lefty who isn't afraid to speak the truth about things The Powers wish to keep under their control."

BS. He's a con artist and a liar. His self-aggrandizing lies have done immeasurable harm to children all over the world. See my earlier comment.

You could also have mentioned Sen. Christopher Dodd, son of Thomas. He could be worse of course. But the idea of RFK Jr. being appointed to the Senate is completely unacceptable.

As you may know, he is largely responsible for popularizing the utterly fraudulent claim that the preservative thimerosal, used in vaccines, is the cause of an epidemic of autism. There is no autism epidemic, nor is there any evidence whatever linking thimerosal to any harm to children or anyone else.

A lawyer, who is famous for being the son of a murdered politician, has gained a very prominent public platform -- including a lengthy article in a high-circulation magazine (Rolling Stone), op-eds in the nation's leading newspapers, and appearances on many of the big-time TV yackfests -- to claim that "they" -- the secretive, corrupt, unaccountable cabal of public health scientists -- are all conspiring to conceal from the world the horrifying truth that the entire medical institution -- drug companies, the FDA, the CDC, physicians the world over, medical journal editors, academic researchers -- have collectively inflicted a devastating disease on millions of children the world over; and what is more, they are continuing to do it in poor countries where thimerosal is still used. What is most remarkable about this conspiracy is the absolute unity and the inviolability of the oath of silence taken by all those hundreds, or probably thousands, of co-conspirators.

Maybe you've been home sick some time, or channel surfing between innings of the big game, and seen those infomercials with the guy selling a book about the miracle cures "they" don't want you to know about. It turns out there's a simple, natural cure for cancer; heart disease; arthritis; you name it. The reason people have these diseases is because they are caused by prescription drugs. Statins are the cause of heart disease. But just send this guy money, and he'll tell you the cures "they" are keeping secret.

What Kennedy is doing is utterly reprehensible. Apart from the exploitation and abuse of families coping with the heartbreak of having an autistic child, he is attempting to cause severe damage to the culture. (Fortunately, despite the podium he has been given by irresponsible corporate media, he hasn't gotten much traction.) As I have said a thousand times, the democratization of science is critical to the future of democracy, indeed the future of humanity. That means we need to expose corruption and self-dealing in scientific enterprise, to be sure. But it also means that we must have respect for the cause of science, the quest for truth using human senses and reason, and the norms of honesty, openness, and intellectual integrity which the large majority of scientists and physicians try to honor.

Science is conducted by flawed human beings, working in flawed institutions. But it is not a conspiracy against the public. Kennedy deserves no respect, and no hearing, from anyone, ever again. If his name wasn't RFK Jr., he'd be an insurance salesman.

So far he's offered nothing but a snarky, lame jokey acknowledgment that was a non-apology and in fact, a weird defense. Other than that, he pretends he was always against the war, and he rants all the time about how people who were wrong about it don't have to pay any price.

Hypocritical and inexcusable.

Barack Obama is a United States Senator. He has a vote in the Democratic Caucus. Also, he certainly has a right to express his opinion about how the Senate should deal with Holy Joe, as he is the leader of the Democratic Party and this concerns HJ's status within the party.

That said, the other Democratic Senators are of course free to vote however they choose. But for Obama to express his opinion is not to usurp the powers of the legislative branch. That's really over the top.

. . . who can write stuff in the Washington Post. That would seem to suggest one possible strategy to get the truth out, regardless of whether Barack Obama says anything about it.

I'm 100% sure he will insist that MoDo and Quinn are liberals.

As you may recall, the NYT op-ed page adopted a publicly acknowledged policy, during the last year or so of William Safire's reign there, that Safire was not required to be factually accurate and that they would not correct or acknowledge errors of fact in his columns.

Since Safire's departure, they have often corrected errors in op-ed columns, but it would be fully consistent to grant Kristol the same privilege of fact free bloviating they gave to Safire, since Kristol is essentially occupying the Safire position on the page. The only question is whether they will declare this publicly, as they did in Safire's case.