what a lot of people were privately thinking

* via digby:

"LAUER: And you brought up Michael J. Fox. Let me just ask you: You know, Rush Limbaugh started a lot of controversy when he said perhaps Michael J. Fox was exaggerating or faking these effects of Parkinson's disease in that ad promoting stem cell research. Didn't Rush Limbaugh just say what a lot of people were privately thinking?"

* juancole:

"Wednesday's dramatic events in Iraq began with a US military raid into Sadr City, the vast Shiite slum full of followers of nationalist young cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The soldiers said that they were looking for a suspected death squad leader. The Americans were attacked by Mahdi Army militiamen, and they called in air support. US planes dropped bombs on this area full of civilians. Iraqi police and hospital officials reported that the fighting and bombing left 4 Iraqis dead and 18 wounded. Aljazeera is showing footage of a combination funeral/ anti-American demonstration in Sadr City.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki roundly condemned the US raid, of which he said he had had no foreknowledge, and he complained bitterly about the lack of coordination between the US and his office. Al-Maliki also, however, warned that armed militiamen in the streets would not be tolerated."

* bob parry on demnow.

* pcr:

"When government officials are held accountable, they are merely voted out of office and not generally prosecuted. They do not suffer the same severe punishments as their counterparts in the private sector. Enron destroyed jobs, not people's lives, and the financial cost was inconsequential compared to Iraq. The disparities in accountability and punishment for misdeeds in government and private sectors are striking.

So far in history, no private-sector interest has been able to achieve power over a population comparable to the power wielded by Stalin or Hitler, and no private-sector power has been able to set aside civil liberties as Bush has done. The liberal-left notion that government is our protector from the private sector is as naive as the libertarian-right view that all wrong resides in the government. The common denominator of wrong is the fallibility of man."

* slacktivist;

"You know who I don't like? Whoever it was who conducted the polling that found that a big chunk of white voters A) are adamantly opposed to "amnesty" for illegal immigrants, and B) don't know what "amnesty" means.

This has led to the ugly spectacle of candidates accusing one another of supporting "amnesty," and then, by way of denying it, engaging in a game of who-hates-those-dirty-Mexicans-more?

It is, at least theoretically, in the abstract, possible to advocate stricter enforcement of immigration laws without being ugly and stupid. In practice, however, the ugly and stupid demographic is precisely the target of all those campaign ads condemning "amnesty.""