Americans complain endlessly that the U.S. is misunderstood by other countries, and that's why "they hate us". Of course the U.S. is misunderstood - that's the whole point. So is Israel. If not for the US and UK vetoes on the Security Council, probably the only item on the UN's agenda would be Israel.

Another common misconception among Americans about Israel is that its people are ultra-religious. In fact, Israel is secular, to the extent that most Israelis describe themselves thus (and as many as a fifth of Israeli Jews are self-described atheists).

The nasty posts are still on the Fox site and other GOP sites.

It's mean. It's downright barbarous, if you ask me.

Because the so-called sources will not verify it.

Because whatever anybody in a position to know has said about this woman's legal status has done so illegally.

Illegal - as in committed a crime.

So there's a fact - the so-called sources who allegedly disclosed this information - if they exist and have said what the AP says they said - have committed a crime.

If the Bush administration or the McCain campaign had any involvement, then they, too, have committed a crime.

They got past Sarkozy's people by saying they were Canadian PM Stephen Harper's assistants, Willy Waller and Tim Horton.

Willy Waller is a nickname for a kitchen utensil and Tim Horton was a famous Canadian hockey player. Horton died in 1974.

"I really loved the documentary they made about you - you know, Hustler's "Nailin' Palin?"

"My wife Carla, you know she's a singer and top model and she's really hot in bed. She even wrote a song about you, "Putting lipstick on a pig".

"You know, we have the equivalent of Joe The Plumber in France. We call him "Marcel, the guy with bread under his armpit".

"I just love killing those animals. Take away a life, that's so fun".

"That's what I said to my great friend the Prime Minister of Canada, Steph Carse..." (Carse is an opera singer in the vein of Andrea Bocelli).

"Also, because you are so close, I was wondering if the Prime Minister of Quebec, Monsieur Richard Z. Sirois..." (Sirois is a Quebecois radio humorist).

gwpriester said it all. If he knew she was in the country illegally, he either would have intervened on her behalf or urged her to return to Kenya.

What I would be interested to know - although IT IS NONE OF MY BUSINESS - is on what basis she is claiming asylum.

On both sides of my family, my ancestors fled religious persecution in Europe - in the early 18th and the late 18th century, respectively.

And when it comes to fleeing economic hardship - what do you think Irish, Polish and Italian immigrants did in the 19th and early 20th century? They (and my Dad's parents) didn't receive the same warm greeting as my early 18th century immigrant ancestors. In fact, the descendents of European immigrants who came before looked down their noses at them (although business owners were grateful for the influx of cheap labor and during the Civil War period, the Union Army for the influx of new recruits.

So what has changed? Two things: policy and attitudes.

There is no tape.

The writer of the L.A. Times piece (let's say) "borrowed" claims made by other writers (including Debbie Schlussel). The event wasn't tape recorded.

Now The Times is in a very awkward position, to be sure. But it isn't Obama they're protecting, it's their contributor, who wrote an article using whole paragraphs cut and pasted from three older articles.

An effort to deflect the media's attention away from even more scandal within the McCain/Palin campaign?

You betcha.

Yes, folks, this has all the tell-tale signs of having been coordinated. Ashley Todd is a victim - of the ruthless, lying, do-anything-to-win McCain/Palin camp.

The MSM owes the American public a thorough investigation of the facts - what they shouldn't be doing is offering the McCain/Palin campaign a pass. There is a pattern of lying that would put Ashley Todd's history of lying to shame.

John McCain is a victim, too, but not an innocent one. His reputation is in the toilet. He allowed this to happen; encouraged it, in fact. Anything to get elected. His personal greed and ambition trumps everything he might have done previously. The man has no honor, no scruples. Because he has been cossetted and protected by the media, it has taken us 40 years to find out.

I want to give special kudos to Michelle Malkin, a woman I disagree with on almost every subject. Unlike Sean Hannity who spent at least 30 minutes pushing this story, Ms Malkin had the courage to express what she, like so many others, was really thinking. To exercise common sense and speak plainly is important, nay - absolutely vital - in politics. Ms Malkin did that. Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin and even bloggers at HuffPo did not. Even if you don't like Malkin, if you believe that truth telling is paramount in politics, you owe her a round of applause.