Follow-ups on the news: Beginning a new series, we wait to hear from A.G. Al "The Torture Guy" Gonzales if it's OK to suggest that people be shot

Follow-ups tend to come pretty automatically here at DWT, since we tend to have a near-obsessive connection to so many of the items we post. Nevertheless, items do fall in the cracks. I know I've got a number of stories crying out for updating.

And let's plunge right in with one that has roused some concern of a life-or-death nature. Recently, we found it necessary to respond to what seemed an especially stupid piece of reporting--in a large newspaper we're reluctant to name again (let's just say it's somewhere east of the Mississippi River and north of the Smoky Mountains)--on the Democratic race for House majority leader. It led us to wonder about the possibility of having everyone involved with that story taken out and shot. Perhaps understandably, some question arose as to whether this was such a good idea.

We did try to clarify the issue, pointing out that it wasn't so much the folks at the newspaper (you know, the one somewhere east of the Mississippi River and north of the Smoky Mountains) we had in mind as the Democratic blabbermouths whining to the aforementioned newspaper. That seemed more constructive than pointing out that we weren't really advocating shooting people, just exploring the possibility.

The question remained open, though, and we decided to take it to the appropriate authority, which would obviously be Attorney General Al "The Torture Guy" Gonzales's Torture Hotline, 1-900-FRY-THEM.

Since this is a 900 number rather than a toll-free one, we may have skimped a bit on the detail in leaving our message, but basically we asked if it's OK to advocate shooting bad people, and if not, what the most emphatic acceptable alternatives would be. We can't rule out the possibility that our message included a query as to the current acceptability of waterboarding, but if it did, we should make clear that we weren't necessarily pushing for it. After all, the way we understand it, waterboarding requires special equipment, and while most anyone who needs a gun knows or can find out where to get one, it's not as if you can go to Sears or Home Depot for a home waterboarding kit. Or can you?

Anyway, uh, we'll keep you posted--you know, like with another of these updates--as soon as we hear back from the A.G.