NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS over the next ten months, the tattoos shown at the bottom of the PunX for Dean page will look quite dated by ought-five.

I’m in a depressed mood today. I’m old enough to remember Watergate, the sixties assassinations, and the other horrors of X-treme politics past. With all the unreconstructed Nixonians running loose in the Bush wannabe-dictatorship (not to mention the guys whose apparent ideal of good governance is Pinochet-era Chile), we may see even dirtier tricks this time around. And they could even blame “terrorists” for the nastiest tricks.

It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.