I waited all day to hear this segment; a couple of notes:

It really seemed that the e-mails and calls were rigged. There was (suspiciously) one e-mail and one caller out of about four questioners in favor of (indeed parroting) NPR's policy which they claim is objectively non-partisan and strictly descriptive.

Neal Conan seemed a bit aggressive in defending the use of phases such as E.I.T. and likening it to the Kosovo era in which the distinction between the terms "Ethnic Cleansing" and "Genocide" became muddled, or took on new meanings. So now, "Torture" might not mean what it used to? BBBLDY_BWAHT?

As many a previous poster has pointed out; NPR rarely goes to the lengths Shepard describes as informative, fact based, descriptions of techniques which let the listener sort-out whether torture was involved. Both Conan and Shepard cited the need for brevity in their descriptions. The caller who referenced the Bush regime's standard of "pain akin to organ failure" (paraphrasing) sorta stumped the band when he pointed out (as Glenn has) that several detainees have freakin' succumbed to these techniques. Organ failure is the only sure way to die. Not torture; maybe "Enhanced Ageing Techniques".

I, like others will let NPR know that they are done getting money from me until they start acting like National PUBLIC Radio.

Take a look at the comments on Shepard's blog to see which way the listeners lean. Perhaps we should re-define Ombudsman while we're at it.

Larry Craig! Trolling for any kind of sex (with anyone wearing shoes) in a public restroom, then trotting out his wife for public humiliation.

Really, are you Repub. apologists trying to say that the ledger is even?

Jeff "Cut" Gannon/Guckert, slimey ho with pictures of his hard-on widely available, but none-the-less given a white house press ID? By whom exactly?

Foley's predation (For years and widely known) of Congressional Pages? Covered up by whom?

Tim haggard's claim of "total heterosexuality" again trotting out the wife as a "proof". Dick-sucking on meth, a simple lapse in an otherwise distinguished career.

You guys could not get enough of murdering Bill Clinton for a fairly tame dalliance. Now own it you weird, constapated, closeted self-haters.

I'm thinking about changing parties; you guys have all the sex... Oh that's right; never mind.

What is an "ought" statement?

"This river don't go to Aintree boy, you done took a wrong turn".

Let me hear one , just ONE, of the trolls admit it, and I'm done.

Will NEVER happen. Therein lies the problem; exactly who is the aggressor?

... with that crazy woman blathering on. Nice crowd too; what was the cast of "Deliverence" not available?

Funny stuff. Maybe she could double-dribble and head the puck over the uprights. Four points!

Something like this?

http://www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/modern_art/bird_in_space_constantin_brancusi/objectview.aspx?collID=21&OID=210006973

"A marginal topic" to be sure. It was not the letter-writers of Salon who catapulted this highly-unqualified person into the limelight. Nor were we the ones who constantly intimated that this "pit bull with lipstick" was, perhaps the future of a national party.

You make those kinda claims, you gotta take the heat. Or, if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Here’s a real deep dynamic for you to ponder. Try to keep up. The reason why fascist nutjobs get attention from people like us is that there is an alarming number of people in this country willing to listen to spokespeople like Palin, Limbaugh, Malkin, Hannity, Dobson… the list goes on and on. These people don’t care about their fellow man, they are filled with invective and hate. Whoops, forgot to mention GREED. Afraid of paying their fair share of taxes, so married to their usurous business hegemony, so scared of completely non-threatening minorities that they see boogeymen under every bed. You know; gays, Jews, Mexicans , Doctors, liberals, Kool-aid drinkers?

It’s fun to see them discredited, it’s fun to shine a spotlight on their abject ignorance and intolerance. It’s also way cool to watch the moral grandstanders shopping for sex in public toilets, abusing their wives and children, and while preaching fiscal-responsibility, running the richest nation on the planet into bankruptcy through war and reckless military spending, but hooking-up their corporate buddies on the way out the door.

I guess it's just fun to call-out bullies and watch them piss their pants.

Does anyone really argue Catholic doctrine anymore? You know them blacks are subjagatin' owu chillin' into the devil's music!

Ass-wich? Hilarious, particularly from a supposed Austrian. Borat was OK though I found myself cringing at times; the dinner party was hard to take; though I loved the line about all the women were hot (except the reverend’s) “maybe not so much”. The expose of the rodeo homophobe was priceless. SBC didn’t do it to him, he did it to himself. I haven't seen many of the Bruno appearances on AGS, but by all the same standards you could criticize the AGS which is original and stingingly apt. Reminds me of Monty Python as well as Peter Sellers.

I wonder about all the indignation though; Kasakh’s, gays? I’m a typical WASP and it doesn’t bother me when ethnic comedians bust on my type at all.

I have long heard that marijuana stays "positive" on a blood test long after (Days? weeks?) use. Does anyone know if this is true?

It would explain the gov'ts reluctance to de-criminalize, because it could not be proven whether the driver, machine operator etc. was actually "high" at the time, or had used the drug days ago.