] At one level this election was about nothing. None of the
] real problems facing the nation were really discussed.
] But at another level, without warning, it actually became
] about everything.
]
] We don't just disagree on what America should be doing;
] we disagree on what America is.
]
] If the Democrats make a comeback, it
] must not be by default, because the country has lapsed
] into a total mess, but because they have nominated a
] candidate who can win with a positive message that
] connects with America's heartland.

Hearing this sentiment a lot and it seems very hollow and dishonest. How can you say that Middle America is opposed to everything you believe in and then talk about how you want to create a positive message that connects with them? You don't want to connect with them! You want to play them! You want to connect with their votes!

The Dems are going to be out for a long time if they can't be honest with themselves.

Two Nations Under God

Rattle wrote:
] Will he pander to the fundamentalist right, now that they have
] nothing more to offer him? I can see that one go either way.
] I hold hopes that Bush/Rove drop their interest in issues such
] as prayer in schools and amendments on the court house walls.
] They no longer need it to inspire the catholic right to
] transform their group fanaticism into a demographic with a
] strong supporting vote. Join me in my blind optimism for a
] minute, it will help slow your heart rate and bring on some of
] that hope for the future many are lacking this November 3rd.

There are some things I disagree with in this post, but you are right about this. My prediction about rapid Constitutional amendments is wrong. If they did that they'd be unloading all their future ammo in one shot. Its not going to go down like that.

The Fundamentalists have handed them two major electoral victories, one in 1994 and one in 2004. The first was based on a series of promises. What they actually delivered for those promises had a particular shape. What they offered in this election had the exact same shape. Its a pattern:

1. Find a small liberal group with little political power. (Geeks with the CDA, Gays with the marriage amendment.)
2. Kick them in the teeth as hard as you can.

There is absolutely no political risk because the victims have no real power, and the fundamentalists eat it up! They love kicking people in the teeth. It makes them feel morally superior.

Now the CDA didn't work out the way they'd hoped for two reasons: 1. It didn't actually work. 2. It was quite a let down from the grandious promises made in 1994. The Republicans learned from this experience and adapted their strategy. They hauled out the teeth kicking before the election and asked their constituants to come out to specifically vote on it.

The people who fall for this are tremedously stupid on every imaginable level. They are certainly more motivated by the opportunity to actually vote on a singular instance of teeth kicking then they are by a complex "Contract with America."

Now, the grandious promises are still there, but they are in the background where only the people who care about them see them, and they are unlikely to see the full light of day, simply because the Republicans have what they want and have no motivation to do anything else unless pressured.

Some stuff will be voted on. You might see a federal Gay marriage amendment. They will only give enough that they won't totally piss off the fundamentalists by openly screwing them over. But come election time in 2008 you can rest assured that another teeth kicking will occur. Could be any number of things. But the process toward a fundamentalist state will be only fast enough to keep the fundamentalists from abandoning the Republicans and not a drop faster.

This is the new Republican party strategy and it is this what the Democrats need to respond to. The most obvious response is to attack it directly, by presenting the dead obvious truth that kicking people in the teeth is not Christian, and there ought to be more important things that people of faith focus on, like poverty and war.

We shall see...

RE: And the gloves come off..

] A widely published investigative journalist was tackled,
] punched and arrested Sunday afternoon by a Palm Beach
] County sheriff's deputy who tried to confiscate his
] camera outside the elections supervisor's headquarters.

...

] A sheriff's spokesman and a county attorney later said
] the deputy was enforcing a newly enacted rule from
] Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore prohibiting reporters
] from interviewing or photographing voters lined up
] outside the polls.

If I had to guess, this new rule was likely a response to requests that people film voter intimidation.

Deputy tackles, arrests journalist for photographing voters

"It's like being asked out on a date by someone who secretly thinks you're stupid and ugly."

Cleveland's Political Circus

] Unfortunately, our leaders do not understand the Fourth
] Generation, so it appears we are about to throw this
] opportunity away. We continue to bomb and shell Fallujah,
] which pushes our enemies toward each other. We seem to be
] readying an all-out assault on the city, which will have
] the usual result when Goliath defeats David: a moral
] defeat for Goliath. Many Iraqis will die, the city will
] be wrecked (as always, we will promise to rebuild it but
] not do so), and any losses the insurgents suffer will be
] made up many times over by a flood of new recruits. Never
] was it more truly said that, "We have met the enemy,
] and he is us."

The man who wrote the Marines combat manuals drops the knowledge bomb. Linked from Gibson's blog...

William S. Lind On War Archive

] US President George W Bush has said he would accept an
] Islamic government in Iraq as the result of free
] elections.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Bush: I would accept Islamic Iraq

] One trench contains only women and children while another
] contains only men.
]
] The body of one woman was found still clutching a baby.
] The infant had been shot in the back of the head and the
] woman in the face.

Saddam's Kurdish nightmare.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Babies found in Iraqi mass grave

] Equipment and materials that could be used to make
] nuclear weapons are disappearing from Iraq (news - web
] sites) but neither Baghdad nor Washington appears to have
] noticed, the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency reported on
] Monday.

So we invaded to keep nuclear materials out of the hands of possible terrorists, but paid so little attention to what was going on that we may have handed over exactly that? Something about "sowing the wind" is jumping into my head and I really don't like it.

Yahoo! News - UN: Iraqi Nuclear-Related Materials Have Vanished

] Qanuni and Mohaqiq have shown willingness to drop
] the boycott demand after meetings with Khalilzad,"
] said one candidate, referring to Hazara chieftain
] Mohammad Mohaqiq.
]
] "Khalilzad urged them to do so in return for
] accommodating them somehow in the future government."

I memed this earlier so I thought I'd follow up. Its great news. Afghanistan is now a democracy.

Afghan election crisis resolved.

] On October 8th at 9PM, two third party candidates were
] arrested for attempting to enter the Washington
] University complex holding the second presidential
] debate. The candidates, Michael Badnarik of the
] Libertarian Party and David Cobb of the Green Party,
] chose civil disobedience to fight the bipartisan
] Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). Over half of
] Americans believe third party candidates should be
] included, yet politicians continue to funnel public funds
] into the bi-partisan Commission.

Should public money be used to fund bipartisan debates?

Libertarian and Green party candidates arrested at debate.