It's the VENONA papers, not the VERONA papers. I was present at CIA headquarters when George Tenent announced the declassification of this project by the National Security Agency (NSA). If you care at all about historical truth I urge you to Google "VENONA" and do some serious reading.

Kevin, Ms. P congratulates you. She stopped her subscriptions to Time and Newsweek about thirty years ago, when their bias was becomming quite evident. At one point in her misguided youth, she was a card-carrying member of NOW, the Sierra Club, and even Greenpeace. It didn't take very long, however, meeting and dealing with these people, for the scales to fall from her eyes. They were all elitist hypocrites with HUGE blind spots and macular degeneration. They all basically hated America, its Constitution, and looked down upon "regular" Americans. Ms. P ran into their clones when she spent a year as a research afilliate (bureaucratically assigned to a Kennedy School faculty appointment, but with no teaching requirements) at...

Ms. P thinks that even worse than regular programming, is the advertising. In virtually every advertisement the moron/idiot/klutz is some regular hetero white guy. The "smart" and adult person is almost always a black of either sex, or a white woman. White men are constantly beat up in TV advertising.

Amirvish, Retired Navy Commander here. You are absolutely correct. Military "experts" such as Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, Barney Frank, Maxine Waters, Chuckie Schumer, et al. and ad nauseam, are destroying our military. One day the American people will pay a huge and unacceptable price for this folly. It will not be pretty.

Emmett, Generally I love you and your articles. In this case, however, I have a bone to pick. You titled it Public "Nuisances." Nuisances? Whisky Tango Foxtrot? As a retired Navy Commander, who was no hero by any means, but who served honorably and chased bad guys all ove the Med and Black Seas as an Arabic linguist and cryptologist, I believe there is an especially hot place in Hell awaiting those, like the CT ALFA HOTEL Blumenthal, who steal others' valor and fluff up their own limp-dick military backgrounds and pathetic current lives. This is a MUCH MORE SERIOUS PROBLEM than you stated or implied. I'd better not personally run into any of them. -Do

Republican ad response: Obama wheeling an old, ailing Uncle Sam out to the same cliff in a wheelchair, and dumping him off the cliff. Says it all. - Do

Cookie, Ms. P appreciates the thrust of your comment, and even agrees with it. She would only request that you, and others, be careful about the all-purpose charge "McCarthyism." As you may know, Senator Joseph McCarthy never spent a day as a Representative in the House of Representatives, which is where the HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) investigated Communist infiltration into Hollywood (among other places), and caused the Hollywood "blacklist." What Senator McCarthy DID do was investigate and pursue alleged Communists in senior positions within the Federal Government. Ms. P happens to have been at CIA headquarters in 1995 (or was it 1996?) when Director George Tenet announced the declassification of most of the...

Tbill - I'm very happy to learn that I'm not the only one who remembers the Riady coal scam. Riady made billions the moment Clinton signed that obscure Executive Order. I was a senior executive in a three-letter intelligence agency at the time, and living in downtown Washongton, D.C. By 1995 or so I had developed keen situational senses about the way officialdom breaks news. Clinton and Gore jointly announced the Utah coal deal - on a Saturday morning, IN ARIZONA! My antennae immediately went up and sensed a crooked deal, especially since it was hyped by them as "protecting the environment."

Madame DeFarge.

Angie, Nice thoughts, but I don't think very likely. I love Palin but she's been too damaged/savaged, and has a non-presidential "squeaky" voice. Unfortunately that sort of thing counts with this electorate. More likely a Christie/Cain ticket, or a Christie or Newt/Bachman ticket. But it's clearly way too early to bet on the horses. Ms. P's opinion: EVERY ONE of the potential Republican candidates would be an INFINITE improvement over our Saul Alinsky anti-American Marxist now in the White House. My little Cavalier King Charles Spainiel, "Feather," would also be an improvement, but she's only eight years old, and doesn't meet the Constitution's requirement of 35. Unless the SCOTUS can figure eligibility in "dog years." But wait...