Where did the NeoConservative movement under Cheney end their anti-Soviet, anti-Communist ideological bend, and institute a policy of appeasement toward the government in Bejing? The current China trip must be difficult for the idealogues, because it features far less bluster than anticipated, and it's business as usual for the pro-business wing of the NeoConservative cabal, as they continue to trump foreign policy on substantive issues. Under Bush the U.S. removed troops from the DMZ in Korea, waffled badly on the Taiwan independence movement, and granted WTO status to Bejing after losing a spy plane early in his first term. Where were the hard liners then?

On energy policy issues there is Darfur. The NeoCons led by Cheney should be furious at the Chinese prescence in Sudan, where pro-Muslim factions are waging war against the tribal population. Have the NecCons under Cheney signed off on China, allowing them to peg to the dollar, and spend those dollars on land in the Canadian oil fields, and buy a controlling share in the worlds dwindling oil reserves. Didn't these people formulate our Energy policy, behind closed doors? Is Steve Forbes really more powerful than Dick Cheney?

They might still prove that Dick Cheney did some dubious work on pre-war intelligence leading up to the Iraq war, a possibly criminal act, overshadowed by a climate of neglect, deceit and incompetence, which took hold of the White House. Under the watch of George Bush, America suffered a serious decline in her power and influence, at a time when our foreign policy goals, our domestic agenda, and our economy, were tied to a policy of engagement with the world's most powerful totalitarian regime.

Now, which Dick Cheney are we talking about?

Are you seriously comparing the relative "political power" of a career journalist who served as a "special assistant" to Bill Clinton to that of Dick Cheney--who has been Deputy Assistant to the President, Assistant to the President, White House Chief of Staff, five-term Congressman, Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, House Minority Whip, Secretary of Defense, CEO of one of the nation's largest defense contrators, and, oh yeah, Vice President?

You may object to Clinton's centrism, but holding Sidney Blumenthal accountable for not stopping Dick Cheney's march to darkness is not even remotely reasonable.

Frankly, I think Blumenthal is EXACTLY the right person to set the record straight on Cheney. And i think he did a great job.

I think Tim Boyle's letter is totally correct. Watch the video. It was obviously a demolition. No metal building ever failed before in history. Then 3 fail in one day perfectly into their footprints. Building 7 was barely on fire. Why did it fall? There wasn't time to wire it for demolition. So it had to be prewired for demolition. Why did Rumsfeld abandon his post for 2 hours that morning to help evacuate people from the Pentagon? The country was supposedly under attack. Yet he's wandering around the lawn at the Pentagon. Didn't he have decisions to make to protect the country? How did he know the entire scope of the attack? Why was there a meeting with the WTC president in Omaha that day? What was she doing there at Buffet's unpublicized fundraiser? You could replay that time period in a million simulations and no one would ever sit there reading to children while the country is under attack.

I'm not even going to address the absurd conspiracy theories being bandied about here.

I do have to say that comparing Halliburton to Salon is remarkably disingenuous. Salon is not a government contractor; Salon is not funded directly by the federal government. Blumenthal did not sign contracts enriching Salon while a federal employee.

What prominent family controls Mississippi River shipping? Who runs Diebold? Whose barge was parked next to the NOLA levee break?

The 47 story WTC 7 building falling down on 9/11 for no reason because there is nothing they could possibly say that would explain what happened.

Keep pretending WTC 7 wasn't pre-wired for demolition. Don't "EVEN" discuss it. That'll make the world a better place.

For one thing: No, I don't believe the WTC or any of the buildings around it were pre-wired to blow up or fall down or whatever. The whole thing sounds ridiculous. The sad truth is that there are no great conspiracies. It's all just ordinary people doing ordinary things. There's a certain point where portraying Dick Cheney as this dark otherworldly figure in whose grips we are all suffering becomes alittle bit tiresome.

For another thing: Dick Cheney is a politician who despite everything has managed to hand Ariana Huffington, Joe Conason, Sidney Blumenthal, John Kerry and a hundred other supposedly brilliant left-leaning political activists in this country their asses for the last 30 years. So, of course, the left has a stake in portraying him as some kind of evil genius: the more of an evil genuis Dick Cheney is the less you have to account for your own paltry failures in standing up for leftist causes. If our Leftist and Democratic leadership (both in government and in the media) are so brilliant, why have we lost ground on every single important issue in the last few decades?

And finally: Salon, like Halliburton, is a business. Most of the material published on Salon is totally bourgeois stuff of interest mainly to yuppies that has no progressive political content whatsoever. It's the kind of stuff that could be written by an Italian fascist with a sense of humor who likes shopping and clubbing in New York City. In fact, most of the stuff on Salon that's fun to read is totally bourgeois stuff of interest mainly to yuppies. Salon is a clique that makes money JUST LIKE HALLIBURTON does: by selling things. And even though Salon does not currently live off the public dole like Halliburton does, I have no doubt that once a Democrat is back in office, half the people associated with Salon will be getting government paychecks as staff advisors or speech writers or whatever... including Sidney Blumenthal. I think Arianna Huffington will make an excellent replacement for Donald Rumsfeld.