From readers:

Jonah;
He looked like he’d been squished down in his chair. No neck. He also
didn’t run his response past Charlie Rangel because he said his and
his son’s service was stimulated by patriotism and desire to serve.
Rangel would have straightened him out and told him that only losers
who have no other choices would enlist. I thought Bush was better
than expected.

And:

Hi Jonah, The average corporate CEO is earning 400 times the average worker? If the average worker is earning $30,000 then the average CEO must be earning $12,000,000. The only way you can get a number like that is to count perhaps the top 100 or 500 corporations, ignoring 1000′s of smaller corporations. Further, you would have to count CEO’s who have substantial ownership interest, say Bill Gates for instance. A few individuals can have a big impact on the numbers. The former Exxon and Home Depot CEO’s retirement packages alone could skew numbers. In 1994 Michael Eisner’s exercise of stock options created a blip between 1993 and 1995. One guy. These big packages represent multi-year compensation paid in a single year. At any rate, this seems to be a matter between shareholders and employees, not a government matter. When Bill Clinton eliminated tax deductibility for executive compensation above $1,000,000 annually the stock option (deferred compensation not counted) craze began. Where have all the capitalists gone? Keep up the fine work.

And:

Disagree with you about Webb. I am no fan–ignoramus behavior at the White House. However, he had a certain style in his speech that was eloquent and confident. However, I think he committed a major mistake in his presentation that is very off-putting– “My dad served, I served, my brother served and my son is serving” and thus you must trust my judgment on the sagacity of deploying our military in a major conflict and my judgment as to who is doing a good job running the show and who is not. Bunk. The military is an arm of the government, as are the police. Does that mean that we must accept, without debate, the beat cop’s view on how to defeat a sophisticated criminal enterprise or what kind of job the commissioner is doing? Kerry had a similar off-putting way. The war is a vital concern to all and I feel as free as Webb, or anyone else, to deploy my logic in advocating my view and only appreciate a logic, not status, based argument from anyone who cares to debate.=