That is a lovely story about your niece/nephew. I am glad he or she is loved and cared for. Here's what I would worry about, as a 44 year old woman (like Sarah Palin) if I found I was carrying a Down Syndrome baby. I'm already 44! This child is going to need me for its whole life, but mine is already half over. What will happen when I am gone?

I think that is the hardest thing. Older moms are more likely to have a special needs baby, and less likely to be able to care for the resulting child for its entire life span. If I found myself pregnant with a child with Down Syndrome, I would terminate for that reason, and with grief. That's why I use birth control....

Where's the outrage?

I'm awfully like to BE the nightmare in the week before my period...thank god for the pill.

You support the new Republican mantra of "drill here, drill now". If high local energy production benefits the local population, why did you need to authorize a $1200 per person payment for help with utility bills in Alaska, a large energy producer?

Why are you so anxious to blame this on Democrats? I am really tired of hearing that only the 8 years from 1992 to 2000 really matter in making things worse, not anything done or not done in the last 8 (like increasing the federal deficit at a breathtaking clip).

I do seem to remember some coverage of states trying to regulate the mortgage industry, and being thwarted by a Bushie claiming supreme authority on banking practices, so protections, regulations, and oversight could not be put in place. If these proposed regulations had been in place in only a few states (say, CA and FL) much of the current meltdown could have been averted.

I apologize I don't have time to look up the stories I read at the time-lunchtime is over and I have to get back to work.

Also, I am pretty sure the community redevelopment act did not mandate liar's loans, option arms, and all the other types of loan that are never going to be repaid, and may well bring down even more of our financial system.

She had another Yahoo email that she used too, didn't she? I think Gawker said there was a Gov.Sarah@yahoo.com, or something like that. Probably more communication about public policy on that one, too. Especially since she had specific discussions with her staff about how not to have her communications be subject to subpoena. No sunshine in Alaska!

Don't tell me about something bad that happened to you at 3am and then explain "that's when guardian angels change shifts" and then refuse to answer any questions I have about union rules for guardian angels and time-zones.

Electro Robot/Robot II/Cat Vs. Roomba/I forgot which before yesterday/and now the screaming hate thing.

Far far more than 52 or 54 letters, or whatever it is.

Confession: I KNOW I shouldn't, I know it encourages them, but once in a while I have to laugh, the line posted is actually clever. Except when he complains that everyone at salon hates Jewish people. That's just annoying.

I've seen that stupid talking point over and over the internet now (a little hint that you ain't too original)--that Bush wanted to regulate Fannie and Freddie in 2003, and the democrats wouldn't let him.

Please tell me any legislation that Bush wanted in 2003 that was stopped by the Dems? He had the majority in both houses, who voted unanimously to rubber stamp absolutely every insane thing he wanted done. The Dems couldn't have stopped baby mouse from the white house that wanted something.

I wonder if the 47 million dollar lobbying effort from Fannie and Freddie, directed by McCain's economic advisor, had any effect on these "efforts"?

To buy more rice. And more beans.

Put back all the stuff they took out to appease the repugs. Extend unemployment benefits, repeal the Bush tax cuts, reaffirm the moratorium on offshore and oil shale drilling, give specific protection to the polar bear, everything they want. As well as fix the problems with the bill, especially the $ amount and the finance czar. Authorize the cramdowns! Pass it with 100% of the democrats. Let Bush veto it! Let the repugs vote against main street! They will never, ever on this earth be reasonable. Let that hang them.

They could turn it on if she has her hair over her ears instead of her dated updo, and blow it back. Look, delicate flower Sarah has to cheat, too!

I think McCain just forgot his name.

Health care/insurance for children IS relatively inexpensive. In general, children are not sick. They do not have metabolic syndrome by and large, high blood pressure, diabetes. In our self-funded plan, we recently added a fourth tier of coverage, for employees + children, and it is much less expensive than the employee + spouse tier.

It is not philosophy, it is fact. Children use much less health care resources than older people do.

I'm not sure why you are questioning it? If we had medi-child instead of medi-care, we would be spending much, much less.

I'm not advocating that, I'm just saying, insuring kids is relatively cheap. Obama said that because it is, you know, a fact.

This is the definition I found:

An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page (though often believed to be abbreviated from opinion-editorial), is a newspaper article that expresses opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board. This is unlike editorials, which are opinion articles that are usually unsigned and are written by editorial board members. Op-eds are so named because they generally go on the page opposite the editorial page.

Not because of their viewpoint. I will say, I did think it was op-ed for opinion-editorial, but chose to find out differently. Rather than making stuff up.