I am really uncomfortable about bringing in a third party to do something (commenting) that we already do well and that people are used to us doing. I am *particularly* not okay with Disqus, which has usability and accessibility nightmares and doesn't degrade gracefully.

And I see that you comment elsewhere saying this, but there is less than zero chance of getting LJ to accept this. Why remove accessibility/functionality from DW for something that won't even have the desired end result?