Hey, wait a minute, was that a dirty joke?

Would I do something like that????? ;-}

Actually, it was an out and out slam (though probably true, more's the pity). I predict we've seen the last of our inadequate boyo for the time being, but I could be wrong about that too.

GC! - I do too like sushi. I loves me some edamame and maguro.

We can't eat blog scrolls.

Well, if their weren't so many road apples lying around it would be more nutritional.

But manage to read Glenn every day, who I have no doubt will one day be credited for helping return this country to the rule of law. A steady flow of information is the key. Idiots like popgun242 are now down in the 20% range and falling fast. Only a few extreme idiots are still hammering the Limbaugh left/right line--mostly because they stuffed a few extra thousand bucks in tax breaks into their pockets and like to pretend they're part of the rich and powerful. Mostly they're just like shooter, upper middle class golfers who've been conned into believing that doing whatever the Truly Wealthy convince him to do makes him one of them. What a rube.

The real divide is a cloistered media/political class that holds itself above all of us and then, well, all of us outside that twisted freakshow carnival. The Republican farmers around my place in Central Oregon, great neighbors that they are, who I get to chat with when I get to be home, like most Americans trying to get by in this rigged economy generally know as much about what is going on in the world as the average headline reading American. And what they complain most about are corporate fat cats they believe are using money to pay govt grifters to screw us all. Most of their opinions--and the reason they've voted Republican of late--comes from the radio in the kitchen or the truck tuned to the Only Show In Town these last 20 or so years, right wing radio. And they hear people that sound enough like themselves, angry at a screwed-up unfair world, railing at things that piss them off, so they assume they're getting the real story. They believed it enough to give Republicans the whole show back in 2000 (and yes I remember Gore actually won even that one, but that's another story.)

Like anybody hearing only one side of things, they had no idea what was true, though they thought for a while they did. The last 7 years have exposed Bush/Cheney, Limbaugh and the rest of the rightwing blowhards at FOXNews for the incompetent liars they always have been. Most started to see that the emporor was naked quite early on, and it's been sheer pride, bordering on arrogance, that has kept many from admiting the truth. But even my most pig-headed rightwing friend is finally starting to come around. I just wish I had a time machine to go back 5 years and let him suffer himself awhile. But why rub it in. At least he now sees how utterly inept and fantastically immoral this regime is and has been all along. This story will come out and the whole wretched crew, R's and D's alike will earn a special place in the history books for what happened in the first decade of the New Millenium.

The boy with the cowboy hat and plastuc six-guns 242 will probably be there to the end, screaming about how unfair it all is that Dick Cheney, the man who learned everything he knows about govt from reading spy novels, will spend the rest of his sorry-ass life in a federal prison.

I agree with what you said, greenlabormike, though I just want to emphasize that there was no electoral downside for Obama to vote no on FISA (as he originally promised). The idea that the American people didn't care about the issue cuts both ways, they wouldn't have cared if he had voted no either.

But, while the msm has endlessly applauded Obama for "moving to the center" and telling the "far left" to take a hike, video of a tortured Canadian boy is now on youtube, and his top Democratic supporters in congress have been linked to the Gitmo torture regime.

The Democrats have more to lose than the Republicans by donning the mantle of torturers and agents in the torture/FISA coverup. So much for "new politics" or a "change we can believe in." They may well not even get a Bush pardon.

No wonder Pelosi looks so scared on TV.

Kudos, Glenn, to an absolutely terrific article today. Here's my open letter to Barack Obama:

OPEN LETTER TO BARACK OBAMA:

Dear Senator Obama:

As you may know, I have been fighting the FISA “compromise” ever since it was dreamed up by Jay Rockefeller, Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Unfortunately, it appears that you have drunk the “Kool-Aid” that Rockefeller has been drinking ever since he was included in the secret briefings that the Bush Administration held shortly after 9-11. Key Democrats, including current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, former ranking House Intelligence Committee member Jane Harman, and several others were extensively briefed on both the illegal wiretapping and NSA data-mining programs, as well as the illegal torture-rendering that was going on at Guantanamo. While they did not actively formulate and create these illegal activities, since they were advised of them, they are at least complicit co-conspirators.

It appears that this crime-enabling behavior began with the Reagan Administration, and continued throughout the first Bush Administration and the Clinton Administration. Iran-Contra, which was also illegal, was covered up by the subsequent pardons of George H.W. Bush and the lack of investigation by the Clinton Administration.

We have now reached an absolutely critical juncture in American history: are we to continue down the lawless path towards unmitigated fascism, or will we return to the rule of law that is embodied in the Constitution and that has served this country well over the last 200-plus years?

The choice is yours, Senator Obama, since it appears at this juncture that you will likely be the next President. Will you be guided by the rule of law, or will you be guided by the dark forces that exist in BOTH parties?

First, since you failed us completely on the FISA vote, I expect that you will redeem yourself by actively pursuing, PRIOR TO THE ELECTION, a process of impeachment that will preclude George W. Bush from pardoning himself and others involved in the following illegal activities:

1. Illegal wiretapping, in violation of FISA;

2. Illegal torture, in violation of the Geneva Conventions;

3. Lying, or directly ignoring contrary evidence, to get the U.S. into a war with Iraq.

My understanding of constitutional law (admittedly very old, having taken Constitutional Law in 1979) is that the President cannot pardon any crime for which he is impeached. I fully expect George Bush to pardon everyone, from Dick Cheney on down, who was in any way involved in the implementation of the above three crimes. If, however, impeachment proceedings begin prior to his leaving office, I doubt that any court ruling on any pardons issued by Bush would give full effect to pardons directly related to impeachable offenses.

The future of the rule of law, and, therefore, the future of the country, is directly at stake. If there are Democrats who enabled the Bush Administration with its criminal activity, they must also suffer the consequences of their enabling behavior, including Nancy Pelosi. If we allow the Bush Administration to get away with its criminal activity, what will prevent future administrations from going further, and condoning active murders, incarcerations and torture of “suspected” terrorists? Nothing.

Senator Obama, it’s time for you to rise above the politics that you have recently become embroiled in, and demonstrate true leadership, “change that we can believe in.” If you can’t, then that phrase is meaningless, just an empty slogan.