This country is already torn apart. That's what the Bush partisans fail to understand. Eight years of scorched-earth, wedge-politics-as-policy will do that to the most resilient of countries. Prosecuting those responsible for these war crimes--regardless of who they are--will be the first step in bringing this country back together. We owe ourselves that much.

I'm not a fan of any of the people who performed yesterday either; but to answer your question, yes, Beyonce, Bono, et al., are light years above and beyond the folks at Bush's party when it comes to talent and achievement. Light years.

You mean, sorta like Ted Kennedy showing up on the "no-fly" list?

Or is it more like "blacklisted," in terms of being shipped off to a blacksite to be tortured to the edge of death's door simply because it's slightly, remotely, possible that you might sorta have knowledge that might, sorta, possibly be of value to the intelligence community? Or not. But that's what we'll find out with the torture, right?

You promised over the weekend that you wouldn't waste another syllable on WinSmith, and I for one, hoped you'd stick to it. Come on man!

It's as though there's a competition to see who can write the post(rant) regurgitating the most trite, stereotypical right-wing talking points. I think I've seen every single pro-war cliché repeated here, some many times over.

ps--To anyone wondering why their posts are being deleted: writing 2-3 posts per page will do that. FYI.

If Glenn Greenwald wants to impose a higher burden on Israel -- a large national actor in international affairs, a major world democracy with an advanced economy, and the accompanying responsibilities of citizenship in the world community of nations -- I'm good with that too. It is part and parcel of the difference between Isreal and Hamas.

If you don't hold Israel to a higher moral standard than common terrorists, aren't you equating their actions with those of the terrorists?

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"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."--Hermann Goering

Yet again!

costs US members of Congress absolutely nothing in "political capital" to use the current occupant's term. Not supporting Israel does. Whenever you're trying to parse a member of congress's position on a particular policy issue, the political effect of that position needs to be taken into account, and can't be fully understood without considering that aspect.

Politics is about attaining power. It's about getting re-elected.

Via WaPo:

In his Park Avenue corner suite at Cerberus Global Investments, Dan Quayle recalled the moment he learned how much his old job had changed. Cheney had just taken the oath of office, and Quayle paid a visit to offer advice from one vice president to another.

"I said, 'Dick, you know, you're going to be doing a lot of this international traveling, you're going to be doing all this political fundraising . . . you'll be going to the funerals,' " Quayle said in an interview earlier this year. "I mean, this is what vice presidents do. I said, 'We've all done it.' "

Cheney "got that little smile," Quayle said, and replied, "I have a different understanding with the president."

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/chapter_1/

"We don't believe convicted felons should be punished (when they're Republicans)."

Obviously. I mean look, the blogosphere derailed the Brennan nomination, right?

But not only that, they also forced Obama to remove Warren from the inauguration program, and forced Obama to backtrack on his FISA flip flop, and forced him to re-neg on his reversal on the windfall profits tax for oil companies, as well as his waffling on the issue of repealing the Bush tax cuts for the top percentage of the tax bracket. They also forced him to nominate hard left wingers for the top state department posts, as well as Marxist/socialists to key economic cabinet positions.

As if.

I should also add that screeds like this bring to mind the saying, "Their reality has lapped our satire."

It doesn't get much better than that.

I saw a dangerous dog running around my neighborhood the other morning barking and acting in a very menacing manor. He even chased a jogger around for a while. So I've decided, in the best interest of my neighborhood's well-being, to go around tazering every loose dog that I think looks dangerous. I'll keep doing this until I stop seeing loose dogs running around the neighborhood acting menacing. Is it illegal? Who cares? It's only the safety of my neighbors that interests me. If I don't do this, it's only a matter of time before someone gets hurt by one of these dogs.

Signed,

The Enforcer

about Cheney's story. First, I have no problem with the fact that key Democratic leaders were complicit in the warrantless wire-tapping program. However, I'm having a harder time swallowing his assertion that he actually asked those leaders if they wanted the program to continue, and that they agreed that it should and didn't want any further consultation or notification. I imagine it went more like "This program will continue and there's nothing you can do to stop me." That seems more his style. Plus, he claims that they were notified again, so he kind of contradicts himself there. But like Glenn says, at this point, the timeline is a little hazy.

ps--On an ironic note, my Firefox spell-check doesn't think "warrantless" is a real word!

Lieberman's approval ratings are even lower than Larry Craig's? I don't know if that says more about Connecticut voters, or Idaho voters...

1. When the president does it (or tells someone else to do it), that means it's not illegal.

2. It's not fascism when we do it.