Hi:
Not prison: Gallows.
I have read your stuff for about a year, and you may be the smartest, best all round, woman writer I have encountered on the net. I only say "woman" because I have found, both in literature and on this internet thing, that the better writers are men (exceptions Rand, Dickenson, Oriana F.)
Of course, that's easy for me to say because I do not live with Mrs. Cracker. Nonetheless,please do not consrue that as a compliment because I do not do compliments.
Keep it up, please.
Rufus

Thanks, you are right -- it was treason.
Thanks for the thing that kind of sounded like a compliment too.

Does anyone believe she wrote one word of those answers?

She wrote as much of that as Ben Affleck wrote of "Good Will Hunting".

Are you questioning her patriotism? Because that would be, you know, poor form.

I'd just like to say that I think you are the best woman writer with an alligator on the top of your web site. Also, the best writer - woman or man - with a three-legged dog.

Wait, wait, correction. There was a columnist for the Chattanooga City Paper named Scoots McGee whose beagle Elvira lost her hindquarters when Scoots ran over her with the lawnmower. (accidentally - though you never can know for sure with Southern domestic disputes)

Anyhoo, Scoots wrote a humdinger of a column about varmint trapping. So I'd probably have to revise you as the second-best writer with a three-legged dog. Unless you want to get technical and put Elvira in the 2-and-a-half legged category, seeing as she had the one clean off plus the one little half stump.

Bill- If I put on a t-shirt with an alligator on it, then ran you over with a lawnmower, it would open up a whole new category.

The symbol for the new party could be a withered uterus.

Hey, I resent that! *glances at dog-children*

Actually, I don't think she has hers anymore.

See if I ever try to compliment YOU again.

I had absolutely no idea of what happened to these individuals who signed the Declaration of Independence. It really brings home the point in a dramatic fashion what they sacrificed and how much we should cherish the the blessings of this wonderful nation! These stories should be taught along side with the history of the American Revolution, so that there's some context. Otherwise, the uneducated (Cindy Moonbat, etc.) will think it was just a bunch of white elitists who just signed to satisfy their egos.

Don't-Know-Jacks is already taken. As I recall the acronym for that one is GOP.

I wouldn't know. I'm Democrat.

"These stories should be taught along side with the history of the American Revolution,"

Along side??? Along side, you say??? God, I'd give my left nut...oh wait, I'm a girl...if we'd actually teach the history of the American Revolution in American public schools!

"Not in Corporation's Pockets"

If they want to contrast themselves to the crappy partys we have currently.

Maybe a new party is what we need. Unfortunately, sooner or later, Republicans or Democrats, we let our allies down. Bush is the latest of the bunch.

I'm ashamed but we have to call Rumsfeld and now Bush a "traitor" along with Murtha and the Generals who advocate getting us out of Iraq, Never thought he'd say we have to turn it all over to the Iraqis themselves before they were ready. I guess he finally threw in the towel. Old "cut and run" Rumsfeld. No “stay the course” for our President; never been; he says it with a straight face or a smirk? What a pity!

If only Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld would "stay the course" and let our troops "stand down as the Iraquis stand up", everything would be OK. But, no, they've turned into the kind of "traitors" the dissenting generals were, and Murtha, and even Jim Baker and Kerry and Hillary seem to be. Our government is now being run by "traitors" who want to change what we're doing and cave into the defeat of our troops. Of course, to keep doing what we've been doing requires even more troops, and that requires a ... dare I say it? ... "draft"; but anything to defeat these Iraqui terrorists in this "war on terror," right?

First James Baker, then a couple of Senators like Warner and Hagel, then the leak that old Father Bush hands are in dismay over the direction of the war in Iraq. Theyre pumping up a campaign to change course and do exactly what Murtha has been calling for, only none of them is being called a traitor or a member of the cut and run group, as Murtha and others were. But thats exactly what theyre proposing. Now, in effect, Will joins them.

Just watch as Bush himself starts to back-pedal, saying maybe if something isn't working, we ought to change it. He says, "We'll change tactics not strategy." A play on a words is what that is. With that, "cut and run" suddenly goes down the drain. Bush just said, on ABC, "We've never been 'stay the course'." He actually said it. Here's the website

http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/story?id=2594541&page=2

He said it aloud. No "traitors" here anymore, even Bush when he says he'll consider what Baker and his committee want to propose. I call them all "traitors" because I grieve for the good men and women already killed, and the others who still will be killed, while this timetable and withdrawal change occurs.

I'm sick of the double talking Republicans; the Democrats, being fresher, will at least start differently. In the long run, they'll turn out to be as bad, but at least we'll be free of this deception and lies.

Face it, the Republicans now in power aren't anything like what the Libertarians think they are. They're more like Liberals in terms of "spend and spend", and "create more bigger government". Both happened on Bush's watch. If that isn't contrary to what Libertarians stand for, I don't know what is. These Republicans obliterate personal liberties right and left, from the torturing to the mandating of certain types of testing in education. They also are greedy spenders, spending on everything with an abandonment that makes the old political machines look like pikers. They've driven up the deficit so high, gotten us in debt so deep, it boggles the mind. Libertarians stand for honesty, for financially responsible government, for fairness in letting contracts, for freedom to act. For all these reasons, this Republican group has to be stopped, and the only way they can be, for the short run, is to put in a Democratic majority. Once that's in, we can work to get Libertarians back in a powerful place with the real Conservatives who believe much of the same. You deceive yourself if you think the Republicans will do anything more than exactly what they've been doing.

Joseph Stiglitz, nobel-winning economist at Columbia, updated his study and concludes the total cost of the war will likely exceed $2 TRILLION. Even the American Enterprise Institute comes up with $1 trillion. Just the cost in interest for borrowing this money is estimated at around $250-$300 billion. Each add'l year of US involvement in Iraq will add some $200 billion.

If a "nutcase" like Sheehan can ask the right questions a year or two ago, why can't the press ask them now? Seems like she might have deserved a little more respect for her skepticism.

Sorry, no respect for Miss Rock Star here.

A lot of people were right about how the war has turned out, yet you almost NEVER see them on TV, or hear them on the radio. Somehow it's more of a badge of honor to have been crazy-wrong than to have gotten most of right.

And somehow the thing to do, in conventional circles, is to continue to smear and scream at the people who asked the right questions when it could have made a difference.

Why is that?

And whenever anyone gives me that old "No one could have anticipated invading Iraq might not go well...", I point out that the largest international demonstrations in the history of the world took place to protest the impending invasion.

Heck, even The Onion got it pretty right with its Point-Counterpoint:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/34144

I'm sorry you're feeling unappreciated.

"And somehow the thing to do, in conventional circles, is to continue to smear and scream at the people who asked the right questions when it could have made a difference."

If you're referring to Cindy, she started showing her ass as soon as she saw herself in a television monitor. Don't be so surprised people don't accept her as the Messiah. That's like a musician blaming the public for not buying his record.
She's for the true believers and even some of them got a good look at her and turned away in disgust:
http://www.florida-cracker.org/archives/002366.html

I'm just amazed how much hatred people can come up with, in the case of a single mother with a dead son. What can she do to you? If you don't like her, ignore her. If she is asking questions that make you uncomfortable, don't take it out on her, just deal with it.

But I was referring mostly to people like Molly Ivins and Juan Cole, who were outspoken AND prescient about what would take place in Iraq, post-invasion.

C'mom. Disliking someone isn't hating them.

"If you don't like her, ignore her."
So your suggestion is I refrain from expressing a negative opinion on remarks made by a public figure. I'll assume you also want me to cease in my criticisms of Ann Coulter.
Is that a chill wind I feel?