Know what I love about Maddow? She really socks it to the right by using their own criteria against them.

For example, we fault Obama for bowing to the Saudis but we give both Presidents Bush a pass for becoming business partners with them, making millions personally as the Saudis paid the Bush/Saudi-owned Carlyle group exclusive contracts to train the Saudi military.

If Obama should not show respect to King Abdullah, what do we think of the Bush family for using their position as US President to make private personal business deals with these guys, and literally sit side by side with them as the twin towers were attacked by Saudi nationals?

Can we criticize Obama for something Bush didn't do too? That means don't bring up debt-spending, the deficit, bailouts, executive assassinations, torture, unethical job offers, wiretaps and taking oil money. Anything left?

How did the government push Wall Street into collapse? Please don't say the CRA - the CRA REQUIRED stringent financial background checks which the banks chose to ignore. The CRA had nothing to do with sub-prime loans, that was bank greed and corruption. The CRA had nothing to do with derivatives and credit default swaps. In fact, the banks VIOLATED the CRA by not properly documenting financials, only proving they knew the loans would go underwater. The FBI verified that the housing crisis stemmed from widespread fraud by banks writing loans they knew (or should have known) were unsustainable. And even with this, the underwater loan amounts involved were less than the bailouts - the reason the banks could not simply repo the homes was because they lost so much real value after banks oversold cheap credit for a decade in a massive pump-and-dump.

Are you complaining SS is a behemoth hand out? Should be a means test to reduce benefits for the wealthy to better help the indigent? Because this is the basic tax structure that helped the US balance it's budget and grow the middle class during the 50s and 60s.

How is the government stopping FedEx and UPS from delivering mail for cheap?

Oh, and do you know who invented the internet? Yep, the US government.

That's a losing argument even if the ethics allegations were frivolous (and that is debatable). Even if we assume the opposition was making everything up as pure fiction for sheer partisan spite, her stepping down shows that she can be driven from office!

Why would we want to elect her again if this is how she acts?

Let's be real, she was looking at million$ to work for Fox and write books and she was trapped as Governor because she was an ineffective leader after her negative campaigning during the 2008 election. Look at her approval ratings in Alaska - with women protesting her most vocally. All I can say is that she was more popular than McCain, but I honestly think Tina Fey would be a better president.

I'm sorry, Lost. It was Michelle Bachmann who said Obama should "commandeer" private boats.

But can you explain why if "government can't do anything as well as the private sector" the government had to bailout the private sector under both Democrats and Republicans? And what happens when there is little difference between the government officials and top executives in private industry? What would have happened if SS was privatized before the markets crashed? How come FedEx or UPS can't deliver a letter for under 50 cents?

Government and the private sector are both organizations run by human beings. The government has been corrupted for power and the private sector has been corrupted for profit. But either can be excellent if the human beings running them are ethical. Local governments do a great job of providing services efficiently. The federal government, however has been corrupted - by who? The private sector looking to increase profits and reduce deregulation. Hence the BP disaster where tighter safety regulations were scuttled after government changed the rules for them and proceeded to snort drugs with then while having sex with them at taxpayer expense.

Unfortunately for our unborn kids, government and private industry are one and the same and have looted the middle class.

The criticism is that a special needs baby has....special needs. The role of a VP is jetsetting around the globe non-stop, getting re-elected and perhaps being a role model. It's been charged that Palin's personal ambition trumped the special needs of the baby (not to mention the other kids' need for an involved mom). This has been discussed at length during the election where she said it's okay because grandma and the older kids can watch the baby, etc. Okay, I guess, unless the baby really misses her mother. If Todd quits his other pursuits to raise the kids like Michelle Obama, then it's all fine with everyone (except perhaps the baby).

But was Bristol 'admirable' in facing her errors in judgment? Did she say I'm human and therefore I wasn't abstinent? Or was she telling others to be abstinent in spite of her hypocrisy? Note I wasn't criticizing her for being a real person, only for preaching abstinence-only talking points despite what everybody could see plainly happened - she hung out with a pothead and got pregnant while her mom was busy as Governor of Alaska.

Instead of quitting her job to concentrate on family, Gov. Palin quit her elected office to go even further into the spotlight with book deals, Fox TV contracts, public appearances and is even promoting Bristol as a $20,000 public speaker as well.

Sarah Palin's VP candidacy was a blatant attempt to cash in on some Americans eagerness to elect a woman. My own mother told me she wanted Hillary to win because she wanted to see a female president in her lifetime (though she couldn't name one of Hillary's policies). After Hillary was knocked out and McCain trailed in polls, the GOP saw Palin as a way to garner some of Hillary's 18 million votes.

Of course, Palin has taken on an even bigger life of her own since. She always appealed to the average Fox TV viewer as an outspoken hockey mom but for many she's been a walking contradiction. She wouldn't abort a Downs fetus but intended to spend the next 8 years as VP where her baby would live a topsy turvy life? She preaches abstinence through the example of having her unwed teen daughter have a kid with a boy she hates?

And in her current role as a paid Conservative headline grabber, she lambasted Obama for NOT commandeering private ships to clean up an oil spill but believes Obama should not interfere in the health care crisis, the financial crisis and anything else that sees corporations taking advantage of Americans.

I'm on your side on that - full transparency means both sides

O'Keefe's secrecy here is blatant - why is he hiding from us what he said to the staffers? The staffers told the press his crew asked for access to the phone system, which is why the media speculated they were possibly looking to tamper or wiretap the phones. Note O'Keefe's side of the story leaves out everything that was said to staffers:

"After passing through the Hale Boggs Building security checkpoint, the Defendants proceeded to the 10th floor, where Senator Landrieu’s office is located. Senator Landrieu’s office was and is open to the public and the Defendants entered through its open door. They spoke with members of Senator Landrieu’s staff, then separately left the Senator’s office and exited the Hale Boggs Building."

That's it? Not confirming or denying they asked for access to the phone closet? Why not clarify this if he is asking for the media to retract reports?

I can see him saying they asked for access to the phone system but never intended to touch it, tamper with it, wiretap it. We just wanted to film it working properly to sarcastically show that they were fine. But he is leaving this all out.

By the way, who says Landrieu saying the phones were "jammed" meant they weren't working? Didn't she just mean they were busy with calls? Maybe those speculating O'Keefe wanted to bug her aren't that crazy - we'll only know if and when he clarifies what they told staffers and the whole story comes out. The prosecutors in this case should have questioned them separately to find out their plans and motives, but thanks to Miranda rights, the clammed up and got their stories synchronized and ended up avoiding jail sentences.