"as always, I really have no idea just what in the hell you are talking about...Now, honestly I mostly just ignore what you write." but, others, as you see, don't feel like you do. and honestly, i think it's IQ.

Is it better to achieve more consistent and coherent personal political expression, or to craft a majority that will enclose contradictions to personal political beliefs? Of course there's a rubicon of tolerance in there somewhere, and each individual will know when and where they encounter it in their own political geography.

Many of the so-called leaders of the Democratic Party are with me on a number of important domestic issues.

WT, if we look at the sum total of legislation passed out during the current Democratic Congress, can you estimate the percentage that you agreed with? Even if it's just a ballpark, impressionistic number?

[warning: rambling follows] all in one day! (makes me feel SECURE (nice to feel secure)) seriously, i would have LOVED the army - the comradeship and trust of it. i am envious of you to this day. But i would have been one of those who would have gotten PTSD and would have been a drunk (already, without, i have inclinations that way) - not ever being able to tolerate REMEMBERING. i couldn't have handled it, mentally, even had i come back intact physically. it is necessary to have people who are willing to go through Hell. but i can only accept it if it is Survival. not money. or pride. i'll say something NO ONE will agree with. i am PROUD of israel. they easily could go crazy and kill everyone. but they don't. amazing self restraint. people who never knew war are deciding on it. this is wrong. it REALLY is something you can only know if you were there (but with a good intention to learn, locutus, you can attempt). madelaine albright said, "why do we have such a big army and not use it?" this is typical of those who never went. "use" it. think about it. "use it". since i'm in one of my rare reflective moods, i want to apologize to Retired Military Patriot. i blamed the people who, even now, volunteer. i think they are part of the problem. but they are STUCK there. it's a REALLY difficult problem, garry. we need soldiers. we need soldiers to protect us. but we don't want this war. it isn't NECESSARY. it was just pride and money. it confuses all of us. and it must be so FRUSTRATING to you and RMP and Kitt and bop. generally i just take care of my wife and children. i can do that. but sometimes i think of something larger. i'm at sea then. after all, it's fine that i convinced my boys not to enlist - the army isn't going to fall apart for lack of two. but what if everyone did that? no, it's not Imagine, others, our enemies, WON'T. they will convince their boys to join instead. and they will find the same comradeship and adrenalin and thrill - and suffer later, but what about US? we need to be protected against them. well, it's not just me. the entire world has had this problem and the same bad solution for the past forever. but WE don't NEED Iraq.

It hasn't seemed clear to some that FOX was criticizing the military for *not being hawkish enough* and not *not being neocon enough*, in the spirit of Vietnam-era "we didn't really try to win" conservative apologists. It is just the right wing setting up a paper trail for blaming someone besides themselves for the awful and unconscionable disaster in Iraq (and Afghanistan).

What I remain confused about is Greenwald's attitude about the attack - does he support FOX in making it the way he might have the MoveOn attack? Surely the most appropriate time for discussion, both rational (and, as allowed by the constitution) and irrational, on the role of the military and how it is functioning is during a war? In a functional democracy you'd have countless idiots (as at FOX) weighing in on what's going wrong, and maybe some sane voices, too.

And the real issue is what congress is willing to *do* about all this, rather than what type of political speech they are willing to condemn. This is the old shell game where we (the people) believe there is real discussion, when in fact there isn't, about what should and can be done about all this. Fortunately free market economics has taken the place of any diversity of ideology, so you can bet it will "sort itself out" just like the Katrina disaster did...

KB4Hire, the reason people with contrary opinions are slurred is that GG is just short for Great God. same for "concern troll" (thanks for the def). it's merely a paranoid exclusionary principle, made to ensure that everyone thinks alike.

I've been reading various posts of yours on other threads on Salon.com for quite a while now and as always, I really have no idea just what in the hell you are talking about.

At first, I thought it was your lack of capitalization, then I thought maybe you enjoyed a little liquid refreshment or a puff or two while reading Salon.

Now, honestly I mostly just ignore what you write.

I was in the First of 1/12 Cav. (airmobile) D- company. A platoon soldier who was my favorite black-brother was from Watts.

We called him Frag Man. He was not a so called pro-war killer. He's seen Watts burn.

He's talk and do the dap. When in the rear, and that was rare: Most of the time we'd get logged each 3-4 days with 60- pounds of water, ammo, and leer-packs of dry food. We'd cook with hunks of C- 4.

Frag Man and I were in a all nigh firefight one night. He's do frag air Burst.

Frag Man would go a one, a two, a three, a four! BANG with a air burst foe max metal spreads. FRAG MAN would grieve when someone was hurt, and lost it, and to witness a broken man bundle into a fetal ball. Cry!

O, to promote war and play a rag-fiddle is confusion, galore, and I say slop in the blood, or shut up. O, play a banjo, love jazz, blow a clarinet, kiss Hillary, no-inhale with wild old Billy. Well, rather!

Delve into dippy land and say with Gary Owen, Frag Man and sugarman report to two Toad Warts, GWB and General Petrayus. Yes neonuts sir!

I never knew what ever happened to Frag Man, dead or alive, 60% of my company were wiped-out in the firefights along the Cambodian border.

Frag Man did get put in for a Silver Star that one scary night. No time to star gaze in a fight for your Life when the grind gets like that.