slothrop

I woke up today to some Republican asshole on NPR going on about how the "condescending" liberals pissed off voters with their elitist attitude. I can't believe that they can get away with such bullshit... it's yet another of the fallacies that gets repeated so many times in the media that it becomes the new truth. Concrete examples of local Republican condescension, from Dino Rossi: - Let's put unwed mothers into group homes, because they and their families can't take care of themselves. - "...does it make sense that every insurance plan is required to cover acupuncture? I think most reasonable people would say no." My girlfriend flies into a rage whenever she hears Rossi talk about either of those things.

Start with local candidates for sure. The top-two primary will not help, it'll just consolidate two-party power because no one's gonna vote for a third-party candidate when there is a big rival party threatening to take the second spot on the ballot. Instant runoff could give third-party candidates more votes, but would probably help Libertarians (who would draw Dems and Repubs) more than Greens (who would only get Dems). If state legislatures or local councils (say, King County) converted to a parliamentary-style system, third parties would get much more visibility, which they could eventually carry into the national arena. This would all take a lot of work and lots of time, but it'd be effective and lasting instead of annoying and fleeting like Nader and Perot. All the Democrats have to do, though, is genetically engineer a candidate from Bill Clinton's, John McCain's, and Howard Dean's DNA. I'm sure Bill would readily consent to giving a "sample". Then you raise the clone in a medium-sized Southern city, have him go to church and travel the world, all the while feeding him a steady diet of liberal thought. We'll have a winner in 2050!

Yeah, more money in Austin and San Antonio, but only Travis County went for Kerry. Basically, it looks like only Austin, El Paso, border counties, and Beaumont went for Kerry.

That southern blue area in Texas is nowhere near San Antonio or Austin. San Antonio is pretty conservative, as indicated by the red splotch in Bexar County. My only guess about the blue areas in Texas (other than liberal Austin--Travis County) is that they contain a lot of Hispanics.

I betcha Gary can write a program that will take those images and spit out the correlation.

klenke, you're taking this debate to a new low.

It's too bad that neither j_b or JayB is willing to end this bitter War of the Homonyms by getting a new avatar. It's a hogwash arms race!

Dude, I said "not just" and then went on to say that the USSR suppressed Christianity, Judaism, etc.

I'd support harsher penalties for deadbeat dads, but it's not really a man's choice in the end, is it? Women need to have the choice to get an abortion if all the social pressures and contraceptives have failed to keep her from getting pregnant when she didn't want to. You have to approach the problem of unwanted pregnancies from all directions without removing personal freedoms. The murder example was just to point out that "abortion = murder" is not a concept that everyone agrees on, so there is room for compromise.

I don't think progress will ever stop, since the world is always changing. There will always be issues that need to be addressed along the way, and progressives are the force for change. Conservatives are, by definition, the force of the status quo. There is too much work to be done every day, far more than can successfully be completed. Corruption, misuse of power, oppression, and hate have always been here and always will, since they're the dark side of human nature. Progressives fight against those things, so they must always be there, too.

Scott, conservatives have to come together with liberals on the abortion issue. Everyone agrees that beating your wife to death is murder. No one will say otherwise. But there are a lot of people who say that abortion is not murder, but a way to avoid unwanted children who would otherwise be destined to live under the shadow of resentment, poverty, incest, or rape. Both "sides" of the issue are taking moral positions, but the difference with the progressive side is that progressives support individual freedom. Atheism is not the same as not supporting one religion over another. And the USSR did not just embody atheism in government, it actively suppressed religion. I don't know too many people who want to deny someone else's right to worship. For you to suggest that liberals want to do so is ridiculous. This country was founded on religious freedom and it will stay that way. I have heard people say they see God acting through Bush and they wanted such a "vessel of God" in power. That sounds like theocracy to me.

No, the last thing we need is someone who stoops to the level of hardcore hatemongers. There is a middle ground to be found, but it does not involve pandering with hateful slogans. People are afraid, of terrorism, endless war, economic problems, etc. They turn to religion, but for some reason, they find their personal relationship with God to be lacking the power to assuage their fears, so they try to put God in government. This is absolutely the wrong way for the country to go. Someone with a progressive outlook has to turn this fear and weakness into a positive force.

How can progressives get conservatives to realize that the government should not legislate morality? Why aren't conservatives satisfied with their churches and communities as sources of moral leadership? The government is there to support and defend the people, regardless of their religious convictions. Government need not, and should not, respect one religion at the expense of another. It's in the Constitution: separation of church and state. Just because state governments fund abortion services for poor people does not imply that government is forcing anyone to have an abortion. Removing the Ten Commandments from public buildings is a better way to respect all religions than, say, forcing religious artifacts from every denomination into public view. I don't understand why anyone would want God in the White House. Many people really do want this. Why is it not enough that God be in their hearts? Is religion really so weak in this country?

Thirty years ago there were a lot of other pressing issues, Scott. Equal rights for women was rather controversial in its time. Making progress takes time, so progressives have to be patient and be willing to compromise.

specialed's right. It's pretty clear that there are a lot of Americans out there who voted for Bush because of his conservative moral agenda. Regardless of whether those people are right, they're still Americans and there are a lot of them. We need a President who will appeal to the religious right and who can turn their moral conviction into a force for good rather than one of oppression, hate, and conformity (as it is now). Bush is not that President, but Clinton was more like it.

This Griswold?

Health care costs will just keep rising, that's for sure. There's no end in sight there.

Lugar, Hagel, or Biden for SecState. Frist will run for Prez in 2008. That guy never sleeps.

What does "raise the debt ceiling" mean? Allow more deficit spending? I'm worried, but I guess I'll just have to have faith that Jesus will turn the debt into stock options.

iain, make a saving throw against Denial or be sent to GenCon 2005.

Guys who get girls ask them out without knowing much about them. A nice ass is often enough to attract attention from the ladies' man. This indicates superficiality, which girls then bitch about. It may also indicate that a guy doesn't know what he wants, since he didn't bother to think much about it. Girls also complain about that. This problem will never be solved. The only way to find a girlfriend is to try, in whatever manner suits you best.

Dru is the Dungeon Master who can draw grid-paper maps of the catacombs from memory.

Colin Powell will be replaced as Sec'y of State by John McCain, who wins the presidential election in 2008 vs. Hillary Clinton.

Enlisted soldiers are the grunts who do the dirty work, but going to OCS to read radio intercepts in Arabic all day in an air-conditioned trailer is not the same as "enlisting". Make sure you actually tell people what you're doing, Scott. Otherwise, you'll end up as one of those guys who shows off his Iraq Service Medal to people and tells second-hand stories of being "in the shit". Good luck, wherever you end up.

Three new Supreme Court Justices and more gerrymandering of House districts to consolidate conservative power. I think that Bush's next four years will follow the same political recipe: weak or underfunded legislative efforts that appeal somewhat to all Americans (No Child Left Behind), secrecy and press manipulation, and widespread administrative efforts to advance conservative goals without needing to pass laws (esp. environmental and telecom regulations). Larger GOP control of the House could give Bush the ability to move forward his conservative agenda more transparently, though.