In the race for the highest office in the land, we showed the collective maturity of 3-year-olds. Mr. Gore was taken to task for his taste in clothing and for such grievous offenses as sighing or, allegedly, rolling his eyes. We've paid a heavy price.

Every so often a quote comes out of the Bush administration that leaves you asking: Am I crazy or are they? Yes, those silly Democrats. They'll raise taxes for anything, even -- get this -- to pay for a war!

The Blackwater case fits perfectly into the broader pattern of the administration's almost total failure to enforce the law against corporations. More than in most criminal law areas, prosecution of corporate criminals has an element of deterrence.

"In a high-profile incident in December 2006, a drunken Blackwater contractor killed the guard of Iraqi Vice President Adil Abdul Mahdi. Within 36 hours the State Department had allowed Blackwater to transport the Blackwater contractor out of Iraq."

Enough is enough. Last week the Republicans showed once again just how anti-black their party really is. The G.O.P. has spent the last 40 years insulting, disenfranchising and otherwise stomping on the interests of black Americans.

Iraqi investigators have a videotape that shows Blackwater USA guards opened fire against civilians without provocation in an incident last week in which 11 people died, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday.

With their automatic weapons gripped for battle, and only a slim strap securing them to the craft, the men looked as if they were self-consciously re-creating the movies of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Right now it's just a petition drive on its way to becoming a ballot initiative in California. But you should think of it as a tropical depression that could develop into a major storm that blows away the Democrats' chances of winning the White House...

Republican operatives hired an Idaho telemarketing firm to jam the lines to prevent people who needed help in voting from getting through. The scheme was a direct attack on American democracy. The ploy may have been coordinated out of the White House...

The Bush administration quashed all attempts to investigate the events of 911. He said it would interfere with the war on terrorism. But --had 911 been properly investigated the disastrous and counter-productive "war on terrorism" might have been avoided.