Good article. So long as the Republicans can shift the peoples attention from the things that really matter to all that psuedo-religioso propoganda as illustrated by the last quote in your article regarding abortion; then we will continue to be saddled with con men and shysters like GWB and Drunks and shills for industry like Cheney. Simple-minded bumpersticker mentality informs all of the media nowadays and with one-issue talking heads screaming the party line on all stations and the complete head-in-the-sand behaviour of most of the voters it seems we are stuck in gear regarding any kind of political change. Now we have so-called "Bloggers" who think that by linking their rants with some other propoganda outlet that somehow legitimises their point of view. Reading these blogs you get the sense that no one is allowed to think or have an opinion; instead of carefull and reasoned political analysis they offer endless epistomelogical deconstruction of every word of every sentence complete with links and quotes from other epistemic blogs until the meaning and validity of the original thought is completely lost. And this constant re-defining of thought and dissecting of every syllable of an opinion looking to find flaws that appear to violate a set of pre-determined so-called "Facts" is what passes for political commentary and true analysis. I call it the: "Gotcha" press. When their sole purpose is to seek with determination tiny mistakes in data or reportage that; while adding nothing to the debate, appears to shake the reasoning and thereby any credibility the thesis of the article has as well as the speakers integrity. Now the mainstream media has begun to ape some of these stupid habits in order to comply with some notion of "Fairness" promoted by people with personal and unfair agendas. Until we as a nation begin to demand a return to opinion based commentary that provides a foundation of thought that can help to explain current events with logic and reason we will be stuck like hamsters in a caged wheel just endlessly repeating the same simpleminded bumpersticker rhetoric. Just like the moronic and endlessly repeated phrases of dubious meaning repeated ad nauseum during the last election.