and it CAN be dismantled with care and foresight after looking at what it did well (if anything?) and what went to hell in a hand basket compared with the individual departments which existed before the DHS.

A couple of unrelated examples that come to mind:

-Before the DHS, FEMA was considered a first rate agency and was widely praised for its performance in disaster relief. Afterward it has been a dismal failure. I think it is safe to split this one off and make it as it was before as much as possible.

-Poor communication between the FBI, CIA and other "spy" and law enforcement agencies. No one really seems to know if they work together any better now than before, but it is widely believed that poor communication between the agencies helped the attacks of 9/11 succeed. (the inaction of George Bush will mostly likely go down in history as the main reason for the attack's success.)

My point is there can and should be a third evolution of these agencies which if done carfully could result in our government being more effective at protecting our country (Homeland??? WTF! Sounds like something a GD Nazi would say.)

And last but not least... Don't most of you feel less secure now that there is an huge, powerful bureaucracy in the United States named "the Department of Homeland Security" than before it existed?

I'm not sure why I often read your articles.... but that was an excellent piece of writing.

You don't claim to have the answers to such fundamental, gut wrenching questions such as why people often find it easier to have compassion for animals than humans... and that makes your article even more powerful... and true?

I've had a similar experience in a very different circumstance. I have yet to come to grips, or perhaps conclusion(s) is a better word, about what that says about me, my society or mankind in general.

Covering such things (I'm at a loss for words to describe what you have written... "such things" is lame... but its the best I can do right now) from the unusual angle of someone who is interested in airports and the aviation industry gives a refreshing perspective that I don't think any aid worker, crusader, tourist or politician could provide.

The repugs are using exactly that tactic in Kentucky (Repug Mitch McConnell vs D Bruce Lunsford).

Its worked for them before and its working now.

And, I don't know why, but wishful thinking Democrats seem to forget that Faux news and Clear channel radio and still going strong, pitching repuglican talking points and lies as if they were independently verified facts.

Until Faux and Clear channel are dealt with the US will continue to be divided by agents of the radical right.

His endorsement means nothing.

very lame.

The history he wrote through his actions and inactions has spoken, he is a douche bag.

It is absolutely necessary to "get things done" in Washington and most modern democracies. And since the repugs, who are at the other extreme end of the party discipline spectrum, have been in power for eight years and controlled congress for decades there is a huge mess for the Democrats to clean up.

Smashing that turncoat's head into the ground is a necessity, not because the most Americans, including myself, would love to see it, but because it sends a message that if you sabotage your party, you pay.

It would send a powerful message to the "blue dog" Democrats that if they want to sell out their country for some repug bucks in the bank they will be sweeping the floors in the capital at night.

This country cannot afford Joeboy or the "blue dogs" any longer.

...man.

when I look at the photo of Joe and the moose lady cropped the way it is on the Salon's front page it sorta looks like Palin's giving Joey a happy ending???

Is that why he's backing their ticket? Make more sense than any other theory I've heard.

She's punishing little Joe!

Fox and Clear channel.

How much do you think the Democrats would have to pay a major network to run Democratic talking points as if they were fact 24/7???

$500 million? $ One billion?

Until fox and clear channel are called out and rained in the Repugs will always have huge advantage that money just can't buy.

The only, and I mean only reason it looks like Obama is going to win in a landslide is the incredible and unprecedented incompetence and greed of the repuglicans.

I very much agree with you that Obama has run an excellent campaign, clean, smart, courageous and aggressive.

So I guess I'll have to back off my original post a bit and say that repug incompetence has helped to set up a Democratic landslide.

She is not shrill,

She is well informed and intelligent,

and as you say, she had great guests.

My only complaint is that she is a little too much like Olbermann, but she will develop her own style with time.

P.S.(She is not like any of the talking flame heads on fox. She would fail if she tried. Intelligence and truth are her tools of the trade.)

P.S.2 (I love it when she calmly, politely and routinely dismantles Buchanan when they go head to head.)