Hey. Thanks returned! And good luck on reaching your next milestone!

Congratulations! You deserve it. You're always stop number one or two for me, and it's always worth it. Keep up the good work.

your welcome sweetie

Your work deserves it.

thank you for creating a great site that is worth visiting every day.

Thank you for reminding us conservatives that there is a difference between a liberal and a Leftist. And that we all have a common enemy that needs to be priority number one.

Congrats... your blog is excellent. I always appreciate your wide perspective and your willingness to debate. Cheers, Sean.

Congrats, you do deserve it. Your (still not-linked here but old site) Why Liberal's should support Bush's War is the single best essay on this issue I've read.
I like your list of important essays.
I like you having just a few things, or even just one, to say -- but saying it well.
I like your pictures (w/ & w/o your sweet Shelly).

(I think Salaam Pax will have a blog book coming.)
Please keep up the good work; yours is most often the first blog I read.

Thanks Michael.

I have to say, You and Roger Simon both give me great hope for the Future of this country.

When I hear people certain people on the left talk, I cringe. When I hear intelligent smart individuals like you and Roger talk from the left I smile.

Thank you for proving to me that American Politics are not rife with extremists.

I wish I could edit these posts. Sorry for the "people certain people" line. Ouch, should just be "certain people".

Awww...Seriously though, I first found you through Hitch, and I haven't looked back since. I always log on to your site first, then take it from there because you give great links, you're generous towards those who oppose you, and even when you're cranky you're funny. And I admire a person who can deliver a killer blow without malice. So...great work, and thanks. Again!

Micheal, congrats on your success. You're always a great read and a fresh perspective. Keep up the good work!

Thanks to you, Michael...Even though you and I probably wouldn't see eye to eye on a lot of domestic issues, I am grateful every time I read your site and remember that there are some people on the Left that are on the side of civilization in the war against the 7th century Islamists....

Next Stop....1,000,000 visitors!

Keep it up!

Good job, this paelocon keeps on visiting for a reason. (I second the comparison to Roger Simon, I visit both each day, and I've given up on regular CalBlog visits due to Moonbatitis.)

Well, thank you Michael.

If the Blogsphere isn't purely merit-based, what is?

Congratulations! - and thanks for providing this sanctuary of sanity. We really need it these days.

What everybody else is saying. Good stuff. Always worth the read.

Opinionated Michael? But your opinions are always based upon reasoned analysis which you explain, and never in a discourteous way unlike some of your blowhard critics.

You and Roger get some of the most intesting debates. Thats why this lifetime Republican keeps coming back.

I knew I was reloading the page a lot, waiting for new stuff... I just didn't realize how much. Sorry about that.

Naw just kidding. Real Good Stuff gets Real Good Visitors!

Stephen writes "Well, thank you Michael. If the Blogsphere isn't purely merit-based, what is?"

And tallan: "Opinionated Michael? But your opinions are always based upon reasoned analysis which you explain, and never in a discourteous way unlike some of your blowhard critics."

I thought hagiography could only start after someone had died.

I'm probably well on my way to being slammed as one of Michael Totten's "blowhard critics", and I certainly appear to be the only one farting in this particular elevator of blog rep, but ... I've just posted something about Michael's handling of the supposedly-lethal ethnic cleansing of the Citadel district in Kirkuk. Go look at my post, then ask yourselves, people: did Michael Totten offer "reasoned analysis" in this case? Was this what Barry calls a "fresh perspective"? Or was it just a stale rehash of old data (somewhat abused even at the time) in the service of yet more amateur history-rewrites? I haven't read back very far in the archives, being quite new to this blog, but if Michael Totten was so great, is impossible that he's mostly just resting on his laurels now, and has lost his touch? Why not? Why would he need to work any harder, now that some critical mass of admirers has been reached?

Mr. Turner,

You are welcome to disagree and argue with me in the comments section. It goes on every day around here. But personal insults and attacks are not acceptable.

You need to understand something. This blog is like my house. And my readers get compliments for the civility of the discussion here. So I will kick your ass out of here if you cannot learn to behave yourself.

Congrats Michael! You give me hope that someday there will once again be a sane left in this country.

Michael Totten, in response to my last: "... personal insults and attacks are not acceptable."

In my last, I accused you of "amateur history-rewrites." Unjustly? Did you read my comment on the Kirkuk Citadel photographs? Your off-the-cuff assertions about how Saddam's forces massacred some Kurds by destroying the houses they were in at the time doesn't make a lot of sense in view of the more likely injustice: that some Turkmen got a raw deal in an eminent-domain move. I'm sorry, but you did an amateur history-rewrite here. You may as well own up to it. If you feel insulted, you feel insulted by the truth. You got lazy -- you accepted data offered at face value. Nobody is so omniscient that they can divine the precise character of such an event from a satellite photograph. What made you think that you could? The approval you enjoy here has nothing to do with that?

Michael Totten continues: "You need to understand something. This blog is like my house. And my readers get compliments for the civility of the discussion here. So I will kick your ass out of here if you cannot learn to behave yourself."

Your house still contains a guest who called me a "treasonous fucking bastard". In fact, the immediately previous post is from this person and you left this person's endorsement of your scolding of me intact. So it's clear you're running a double standard: anybody can be vitriolically abusive to anybody else but you here, and that's only a wrist-slap. If they actually catch you out on errors, and then point out how unquestioning others have become in their adulation of you, that's grounds for getting one's "ass" kicked out. And HA will, presumably, still be posting here, with a license to be as uncivil as ever, despite not having a single solid fact to offer.

Gee, over a quarter of a million visitors - an appropriate occasion for a little time out and some deserved kudos.

And, such nice cards too...

oops...a dead cat.

Gee. Only one A-hole in this discussion.

BTW Michael, what is you take on Mr. Turner's interpretation of the Kirkuk photos?

Great milestone Totten. Keep up the good work.

I wish I had your balance and your talent.