"Are the Salonistas suddenly getting sensitive about name-calling?"

Nope, not all of them. Just Shooter.

Maybe you two could share a bridge in Hoboken.

All I said was that's how you sound, I have no idea who you are or what you've experienced. And neither do the majority of people who would read your comments.

would be to get yourself a videocamera and digital recorder and start documenting the news yourself. If you go in with friends, you can get a good laptop and do your own news production. Set up a youtube channel and away you go.

Can't make it to the national conventions? Go videotape your local politicians at the city, county and state level - there's no shortage of shady government corruption, environmental news (not all bad) - go find a homeless Iraq war veteran, interview her, or him, buy them a meal - etc.

That's a much better use of your money than giving it to the ACLU, or to the Ford Foundation either.

I'm with macgupta. That characterization of Ahmad Rashid is just weird.

Seems likely to me that much of the coordination among agencies, including FBI et al., is being done at your local "fusion center" in minneapolis. I listed address in previous comment. If things slow down (unlikely as that is), might it be worth you or one of the FDL bloggers trying to get in to do a story on these?

Idrees Ahmad tells us about Pakistan's tribal regions:

"Tactics have included Israeli-style collective punishment; wholesale demolition of recalcitrant villages; disappearing of opponents (mostly of the tribal homines sacri, not wealthy media figures of Rashid's stripe); bombing raids; extrajudicial killings. "

-- This has been the policy of dealing with that region since British times. India's to-be first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru suggested a change in policy, but the British pooh-poohed it and the Pakistani government inherited and continued that policy.

@CargoCult (September 2, 2008 09:59 AM):

"@AI - well, yes they have [claimed that the Dems & Repubs have 'identical policies'].

"Oh, come on - plenty of left-wing web-based news outlets have said precisely that: 'There is one party in the United States, and it is the corporate party.' "

Well, I note that you didn't source the quotation above, but assuming some "leftist loons" (props to Billo) did assert that, are you saying that in your mind there is no difference between saying, "There is only one party in the United States and it is the corporate party" and "Democratic and Republican policies are identical"? If so, you should attend much more closely to language and logic. Your credibility depends on it.

As to your implication that it's only "the Nader crowd" who asserts that the Democrats and Republicans have more in common than they have essential differences, did you overlook this earlier post (as only one of many posts by others here at UT) by fromCT (Monday, September 1, 2008 11:21 PM)?

Nothing Has Changed in Amerika in 90 years

Upton Sinclair - Wikiquote

The Brass Check (1919)

* Journalism is one of the devices whereby industrial autocracy keeps its control over political democracy; it is the day-by-day, between-elections propaganda, whereby the minds of the people are kept in a state of acquiescence, so that when the crisis of an election comes, they go to the polls and cast their ballots for either one of the two candidates of their exploiters.

Gore Vidal - (1972) Wikipedia

"[t]here is only one party in the United States, the Property Party...and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt—until recently... and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties.

Manufacturing Consent

A Propaganda Model (1998)

The mass media serve as a system for communicating messages and symbols to the general populace. It is their function to amuse, entertain, and inform, and to inculcate individuals with the values, beliefs, and codes of behavior that will integrate them into the institutional structures of the larger society. In a world of concentrated wealth and major conflicts of class interest, to fulfill this role requires systematic propaganda.....

CC, are you one of that army of social workers ministering to the needs of that sickly love child of American Exceptionalism, Democratic Party Exceptionalism?

Even for journalists and legal observers, if the police ask you to 'step back', you ... step back. Even if you are Amy Goodman. Even if the cops have done something outrageous. That said, perhaps the arrest of her crew put her over the edge, emotionally. I could see how that could happen. Sometimes I like to yell at cops too.

Nevertheless, the 2 crew members are still in the clink for 'riot'. The Republicans and the Tac Squad and the Democratic 'mayor' haven't reversed that yet. I do not know about the AP photographer, but I think he's still in there too.

It is a convoluted, tangled thread, but there is a thread going from colonial policy to 9/11, the London bombings, etc.. There were many opportunities to have snapped that thread, but those were never taken. We like to think ourselves independent of history, but we are not. Anyway, enough said.

i'm always there - flying back and forth twice a year and the last two times have been some of my most 'sucessful' trips because i turned my grandmother into an Obama fan - and the funny

thing might be - that i never liked the States better than right now because this 'dude' i dont want to name right now - because it gets tiresome - is finally history - and all of us - my family and a lot of my friends feel a lot like celebrating - because you know why ---

IF, and i'm saying if, you put any stock in the mish mash of daily polls which is realclearpolitics.com, Obama's lead has only increased since the convention and the Palin choice. Rassmussen has him going from . I don't tend to put much stock in these, but I am desperate for something to believe in at the moment.

Rassmussen has him going from a one point deficit to McCain at the beginning of the month, to plus six in a poll conducted over the weekend, after Palin's announcement.