Pain that can't be explained. Too ugly. Too dark. There is nothing I can do. No relief. I've robbed my children of the ability to feel safe in this world, having to hear their only parent scream like someone was torturing her.

In yesterday's New York Times, Charlie Savage reports

"A top adviser to Senator John McCain says Mr. McCain believes that President Bush’s program of wiretapping without warrants was lawful, a position that appears to bring him into closer alignment with the sweeping theories of executive authority pushed by the Bush administration legal team."

More after the jump.

From James Fallows' The Horrible "Debate", The Atlantic:

Whatever else happens the next time we choose a president, there has got to be a better way to see candidates operate under pressure than the grotesque system that has metastasized during this electoral cycle. It makes candidates into mere props for bullying anchormen-narcissists. It does no one except the anchormen any good. I mentioned earlier the oddity of Jimmy Carter and GW Bush finding common cause about China policy. Maybe the RNC and the DNC can join hands in freeing political debate from the destructive grip of the networks. And if they can't do that, maybe we should just go all the way and have the candidates compete eating pails full of maggots on Fear Factor. That's the logical extension of where we're headed.

I am a liberal. I'm so left-leaning I should fall over. And I love God. My love for God is the driving force in my life. I do not love religion, but I respect them as the paths that millions of people choose to follow.

More after the jump.