Fitz!

Did I Fitz it?

Ya got me, McGee!

OT: I might have missed this, but I just watched the video and wonder: did Feinstein’s aide refuse the copy of Crashing the Gates after saying she didn’t accept gifts? If so, was she the only one who turned it down?

I’m kinda sorry about that “Puddles” nickname- one of the family dogs growing was named Puddles- a really really smart little grey poodle. Ahhh.. I guess I can suck it up for the cause.

Sorry for the momentary glitch.

Club For Growth ran a similar attack on Olympia Snowe a year or so ago. The campaign was a miserable failure and actually strengthened her hand in Maine. But these Grover guys do not calculate advantage — they simply tear away at anyone who does not tow the line. They would rather have a Democratic Senate target than an off-the-reservation Republican. I must admit that in some ways I agree with their tactic — it is, after all, what we are doing with Lamont in Conn.

Jane- when I click on May in the calendar I get an error message. I tried this because I have seen two comments reporting this problem. WP upgrade problem?

=====Message
Access forbidden!

You don’t have permission to access the requested directory. There is either no index document or the directory is read-protected.

If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster.
Error 403

Fri Jun 2 19:06:15 2006
Apache/2.0.58 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.0.58 OpenSSL/0.9.7i DAV/2 PHP/4.4.2

Mercy, those goopers really have got themselves in a vipers’ tangle these days, no? How many different venues do we know of where this is going on (both Houses)?

Thanks, VG.

I kinda liked “up his ass” myself.

VG: as Scalia would say, va fanculo!

it’s a long thankless road to the middle. Hey, hang a left :’)

The sad part is, back when it mattered, “Puddles” Chaffee said he would switch parties if control of the Senate hung in the balance.

Too bad — Puddles would have made a decent Democrat; might have even grown a spine on crucial votes. Now, he’s being hammered from both sides.

The moral of the story? There is no place for Moderates in the Bush Republican Party. Hell, there is no place for the sane, or even rational Conservatives — in the Bush Republican Party.

Any American who has slightest feeling that something has gone wrong — BAIL OUT NOW!!!

The Democratic Party isn’t perfect, but we are sane, and many of us try to do the right thing — most of the time.

Rational Americans, come on down — to the bright side of the road. Leave the GOP madness behind, and do yourselves, your country, and your planet, a favor — vote Democratic.

Your survival may depend on it . . .

RBG- There was a WP upgrade recently that produced some weird problems. I don’t know how long it takes for the WP people to deal with these, but at least Jane can alert them to the problem.

This just got EPU’d, so if you don’t mind, Anne, I’m hauling it upstairs where we can enjoy it:

Anne says:

June 2nd, 2006 at 7:10 pm

Read the Walton ruling - had a feeling reading it that the judge is telling Team Irving that he’s had about enough of this nonsense, and isn’t going to be bullied into making this trial about something that it’s not. For such a short ruling, he fit a lot of zings in.

That was way more satisfying than the Blitzer interview with RFK, Jr. and Terry Holt. Blitzer might as well have just dispensed with guests and just editorialized. I was on the elliptical at the gym, and my steps per minute went through the roof as I listened to a smarmy Terry Holt essentially lay the blame for any irregularities on those damn Democrats, who had the nerve to try to increase voter registration. The nerve, I tell you! Blitzer did everything but say that he thought the Rolling Stone piece was a crock of warmed-over crap. “Why are you bringing this up now? Hasn’t this already been looked at?” Great workout for me, but no satisfaction from CNN (big surprise there.)

And finally - my kudos to Mary, also. When I see her posts, I always know I am going to learn something, and it will be something that helps me digest all the issues we kick around here.

This is a great group of people; I can’t tell you how hopeful you all make me feel. Even when things are very dark, I just get so much energy from all of you.

VG, RGB — I sent Jamie an email. Yes we had a recent upgrade that’s causing some minor weirdness so it’s always good to hear about these things.

Hee!

Focus on the Club for Growth Family Chafees Lincoln, Causing GOP Rash

Whitehouse Jumps Puddles as Sheldon-not-Sidney Laffeys His Way To Senate

(Ay, the end-times are nigh when goopers start fighting intramurally before elections.)

It strikes me as a bid for relevance.

Chafee might be vulnerable this election cycle for having his nose too far up BushCo ass. So a Dem could take him down. However, the Club for Growth could cause just enough mischief for Chafee to get a little street cred for said takedown. They’re running on fumes now; this might be a way to top off the tank for another few laps around wingnut lane.

Am I seeing double, or what?

As for Chafee I really do not know why he didn’t change parties. I don’t think it would have hurt him in RI. I know his family is from ancient (civil war-era) republican stock, but there has to be a point when you say that the reason the ancestors fought the civil war is now pretty much the same reason I need to be a Democrat.

Thought I had double vision for a minute - !

Jane, why don’t you delete my post at 17 -

and thanks lotuslander for bringing me upstairs!

Club For Growth should be called Club for Cancerous Growth. All they do is pollute and destroy with their zealotry, lies and greed. How much is the government borrowing from Social Security to fund their tax cuts, again?

OfT- I just saw “An Inconvenient Truth.” Amazing. Well-crafted, smart, honest, depressing, hopeful, humorous. Al Gore should get a Nobel Prize for his dogged research, and lifelong commitment to preserving humankind and Mother Earth.

“Club For Growth” sounds to me like one of those late-nite TV ads for some kind of male hair restoration thing.

OT Something for Friday: in defense of English as a national language Part VII and last

Our language like our borders is in crisis. Its autochthonic ethos is threatened by the paradox of a heterodox dogma of inclusion. This embrace of linguistic schizophrenia must be anathema to all those who love the orthogonal logic of our native idiom. We must shed our dystopic entropic psychology of cataleptic catatonia with its apathetic anergy of cultural polymorphism. Polyglot iconoclasts under the aegis of heterogeneity and with a nostalgia for the exotic are making a hecatomb of our language. They accuse us of seeking our therapeutic in a sophistic xenophobia. Alas, this is not some paranoid phantasm. We stand at the edge of the abyss on the horns of a dilemma surrounded on all sides by catastrophe, cataclysm, holocaust, and a full tetrahippal apocalypse. In such a toxic atmosphere, we, the hoi polloi, must be the catalyst of a cathartic apologia leading to the agathic agape of a pragmatic paradigm of an English only hegemony.

You’re welcome, Anne, but I’ll try to restrain myself and not do that nursemaiding thing again.

I believe that Rhode Island has an open primary and there is a long history there of independents and some Democrats voting in the Republican primary. The Club for Growth is likely to stir that sentiment and increase the cross-over vote for Chaffee. This seat is not going to be a November walk for either side.

There are lots of sane and decent people who vote Republican, especially in New England. Dwight Eisenhower is their ideal Republican. What keeps these people voting Republican? Guys like Chaffee.

I hope he’s outta there, so these decent folks have to face the real face of their newly-Dixiefied party instead of a Walmart greeter like Puddles.

I’ll be away tomorrow morning and early afternoon attending the Indiana Democratic Party State Convention — it’s all cut-and-dried — even Senator Evan Bayh is skipping this one. We still don’t have a nominee to run against GOP Senator Dick Lugar going for his sixth term! We do have three very hot and winnable Congressional races against Gooper wingers…

Hugh #26 - “cataleptic catatonia”?

Oh well, I took French in high schoool, so I’m certainly a traitor.

Oh Hugh, you do make me laugh!!! Are you by any chance a prof who has had to read too many papers in learned journals?

ArthurKC 27 — it is going to be a frigging dog fight, that’s for sure. Which is why we’re getting into it now, I think it’s going to be very interesting.

ccobb 21 — absolutely. Chafee isn’t someone the righties value. The perfect sacrifice to the “greater good” of showing what they’ll do to any Republican who contemplates “going moderate.”

Efcaristo, Hugh! But everybody’s right: we have GOT to share you with an even wider world.

A YKos package of some kind? HufPo? What and how best?

*ilson- are you going as a delegate?

Hugh: once again: kudos! tetrahippal indeed! one small quibble though: hoi polloi cannot be preceded by “the” - such article is included already within the Greek phrase

Hugh — hoping you’d give us an English lesson on the words that lost/won the national spelling bee. In the meantime, . . .

Bilingual law fails first test in MA

Hugh #26

That post like to a kilt a lesser etymologist.

ccobb 21 — that sure sounds like wingnut logic to me, it probably is operable in the situation. But it’s hard to believe anyone could really think that throwing a win into the “D” column in a progressive state by defeating probably the GOP’s only hope to hold it could be considered a “takedown,” especially if it means that the majority goes over to the Democrats and they get subpoena power.

I always thought the wingnut logic flaws were rather deliberate and deep down they knew what their own true best interests were. I guess they’re just idiots after all.

Jane 32 — Rhode Island, Connecticut, Montana, Ohio, Missouri….there are going to be a lot of dogfights this fall. Maybe even Arizona — one to keep an eye on. The Democratic tide is rising…one reason for the anti-gay Rose Garden speech on Monday: pandering to the gays/guns/god crowd is the Hail Mary Pass the Republicans are throwing, so to speak.

i didn’t sign up to run as a delegate — i simply spaced out on it. I usually do run and win the slot. Actually, anybody that does file gets elected. Conventions used to have great power — nowadays they are formalities and a social get-together…

*ilson or anyone- I would usually try to answer a question myself by googling, but this eve I’m feeling tired… so, am I correct in assuming that not all states have party conventions? I really don’t remember this as a part of CA politics, but…

At Instapud:

If the Marines at Haditha started indiscriminately killing civilians, they should pay for their crimes. I want that clear right now. The point of this piece is not to defend their actions. However… [my emphasis]

Do you suppose they have any freedom in the general form of this talking point?

Sorry, as always, I’m in an off-topic mood. (But Jane, I do read the posts!)

39 Phil K says

Hugh #26

That post like to a kilt a lesser etymologist.

I likes your way w/words, I do.

[tap-tap-tap]

Is this thing on?

shoephone @ 24 — i hear you loud and clear even though i have not seen it, but do you think the leftover backwash of 61% of the population is going to get it??? With O’Lielly, Malkin, York, Goldberg, Little Debbie et al? I am dead serious. From what I have read and seen, I think it will jerk them upright, but it won’t be shown in my state til June 30th– sad for me, but good for the country to roll it out slowly and methodically, so nobody stops talking.

OT –

Request for prayer, positive thoughts, lit candles, etc.

The “kid,” our pupster, had surgery (sacculectomy) this week and we just got back the histopathology report.

The news is not good. Cancer. And they were not able to get completely “clean margins” (meaning they don’t know if some cancerous tissue remains.

Dear God, help .

It’s not like we didn’t know that this was most likely the situation, but still I am in shock tonight.

There are some steps we can take, and we will take them. But right now, my heart hurts so much, because we love our “little girl” so very much. Well, I guess you know what I mean. We have never thought of her as “just a dog.”

Just wanted to:

a) explain why I haven’t been hanging out here much lately;
b) ask for prayers, good thoughts, etc.
c) give an update, as some here have asked for one, and
d) turn to a place I regard as a very special community — you guys have always been so great and so supportive in the past, and my heart turns once again naturally to you.

Will post as I can, although I don’t know what that means. Right now, tonight, I think I need to lie down or maybe get in a rocking chair and rock for a long while. I can’t think clearly tonight anyway, I may as well let this storm of pain just rip right on through.

Thanks to all!

*ilson46201

“The hoi polloi” is both repetitious and redundant, much like me.

Re: CNN Constipation Room and Leslie–he’ll never hold a candle to the only daypart worth watching on CNN: the International Hour. Those hosts know how to report and interview. Instead of the dumbed-down pap we get from the rest of the Merkin segments. Shame, CNN for dumbing down.

Happy weekend from dinosaur dialup in the tall timbers….

I believe all state parties have conventions — it’s the place where statewide candidates are chosen (except for Governors & Senators). In Presidential years, the state party convention is where national convention delegates are selected. Electors for the Electoral College are chosen at state party conventions too…
Primaries have minimized the role of state party conventions somewhat. Senator & Governor candidates are chosen by primaries but state “minor offices” are not.

Chafee may still prevail over Laffey, but the negative ads being run against him are sure to bloody him in the process and soften him up in a race against Whitehouse.

CfG would rather lose with their guy than win with someone elses. Unfortunately, I don’t think the right-wing attack dogs will “soften” Chafee up. More likely, and unfortunately, they’ll serve to put some distance between Bush and Chafee, thus making him appear more palatable to the centrists (of both parties). Whitehouse has A Lot of work to do to before he can expect to beat Linc in the general.

Mr. and Mrs. K8 and family– especially the pup–

You are loved and cared for, I will light a special candle for your little one tonite and send special thoughts right now. XO

Oh my dear Mrs. K8- I am so sorry for the not good news. You are such a steadying presence at FDL and I am sorry that you and the pupster are having to go through this. Huge hugs. xxooo VG

48 Hugh says

“The hoi polloi” is both repetitious and redundant, much like me.

OK, maybe it’s repedundant.

But when you do the hokey pokey
and you turn it all around:
That’s what it’s all about.

Hugh: I am still chortling over “tetrahippal apocalypse” — Briliant!

Hugh 25 - LOL

I think I went to school with an Agathic Agape. Eastsider?

More OT - anyone who is wanting to keep an eye on the State Secrets NSA battle in Michigan - here is a bit of info on the Judge.

http://www.micourthistory.org/.....taylor.php

I am soooooooooo waiting for this, but soooooo not wanting to get disappointed.

*ilson- thanks. The part about choosing EC delegates would have answered the question for me, had I thought about it.

Funny. I heard some gooper talking about “something planned for Chris Shays.” But now they want Chaffee out? Fat chance if it walks & talks like GOP. I saw on some local coverage this guy in Rhode Island saying, “the name Chaffee is gold.” Don’t have much sympathy for that rubber stamp guy, Chaffee though.

Mrs K8 - all good thoughts and prayers coming to you and your pup. So sorry to hear that things did not go as well as you hoped - it’s just so heartbreaking when this happens.

I swore when our lab died in 1999, that I couldn’t go through that again. We lasted a week, and then my husband brought home the little yellow lab. Three years later, we decided she needed a buddy, so we got a black lab (in shedding season - which we are in the thick of - the yellow plus black somehow combines to make gray…). I talk to them like they might one day just start conversing - my kids tease me about it, but I don’t care.

Just thinking about what you are going through is making me tear up; I know there are no words that will make it all better, so I will just say that I understand, and will hope for the best.

*ilson—don’t think you are right about every state and the state convention. In WV we vote for our national convention delegates on our statewide primary ballot; we also vote for all statewide offices, there is not convention that chooses “minor” office nominees. Maybe because we are a less populous state?? (Our primaries are closed)

OT - Jsst say a stream on CNN saying the judge refused the Admin request to dismiss the case against the NSA program. Looking for story.

Mrs. K8 #46:

Covered here, as always. Thanks for keeping us posted.

Yes, Mrs.K8, I wish all three of you a restful night, and one that begins her strong recovery.

Prairie Sunshine,

“Re: CNN Constipation Room and Leslie%u2013he’ll never hold a candle to the only daypart worth watching on CNN: the International Hour. Those hosts know how to report and interview. Instead of the dumbed-down pap we get from the rest of the Merkin segments. Shame, CNN for dumbing down.”

I was in Cozumel, Mexico last week and the ONLY “cable”, actually satellite news available where I was, was BBC World News, good stuff! No ‘Aruba Girl’ tabloid trash. I read an article earlier this week that they’re getting in to the U.S. market. Fingers crossed.

Mrs K8 - hugs and prayers. It is so unfair that they don’t stay with us longer. I’m very sad to hear your news.

Mrs. K8 — hugs from one firepup to another. And you take care too.

Mrs. K8—my heart goes out to you and yours this evening.

You were the first person to respond when I delurked long enough to make some fairly inane comment last fall. Your kindness then, and since, helped me understand what a gift this community had to offer.

Our thoughts are with you.

Scarecrow 60 - Here is a link, from dailyKos Midday Open Thread: http://detroitnews.com/apps/pb...../606020426

loubarr- thanks. I really am interested, but when I try to think of google terms that would yield the info I want, I am stumped. Search terms I can think of just seem too general.

Scarecrow 60 - Prof had a great post in the Lou Reed thread with links.

http://www.firedoglake.com/200.....ent-127023

His post was the trigger for my link above to the bio on the Judge.

Scarecrow 60 — this, I think:

Judge: Spy case hearings will go on

http://detroitnews.com/apps/pb...../606020426

(((Mrs. K8)))

Prayers and lots of white, healing light surrounding you, your pup, and your family in this very difficult time.

we get CNN International on the ‘digital tier’ on Indpls cable-tv. It’s so much better than the domestic pap but I still primarily watch US-CNN to hear the official partyline. Canadian TV (CBC) used to be on cable until that damn capitalist pig Al Gore bought the channel and made it into an unwatchable playtoy for California nuts and fruits.

ArthurKC, Mary, lotuslander, et al. Thanks for the links; sorry, still catching up.

heh, *ilson46201! Nuts and fruits, indeed!

Mrs. K8 - so sorry about your chien. You’re in the right place - I can validate that from direct personal experience. When we lost our two young cats late last year and early this year (unfortunate encounters with cars in the street in front of our house) - well, this is where I found encouragement and solace. We can’t “help”, but we’re here for you.

angie #45 - I don’t know how it will be received by “middle America” (but I don’t even know who that includes anymore). This morning on our CBS affiliate, Jim McDemott was filling in for the vacationing host. He interviewed Gore. He also interviewed the KIRO -AM movie reviewer (who is a fucking pompous idiot!) and he was telling Jim that the only people who are going to see the movie are those who already believe that global warming is reality. Well, duh. Usually the only people who go to see Woody Allen films are the few who grew up with his neurotic humor and can still stand him. I personally believe millions more will go to see An Inconvenient Truth - a documentary, after all - than will ever see another Woody Allen film. Tagny (the reviewer) also snarked “well, it’s not a BAD film”. I think we can expect the MSM to roil themselves into full attack mode: 928 peer-reviewed scientific articles were published on global warming and not one disputed that it is fact. By contrast, 53% of MSM articles on global warming questioned its validity as science.

I’d never try to predict box office or percentages, but at this point, with Bush’s poll numbers in the toilet, I think quite a lot of people will see the film. Incredible word of mouth is going to attract a lot of moviegoers. I’ll surely see it again very soon. And I can’t believe how much I learned in an hour and a half. I also never thought that charts and graphs could be so compelling!

Al Gore is the man.

Hey, hasn’t Chafee always positioned himself as a real environmental steward? Maybe he’ll go see it and give it a thumbs up.

Of course, that won’t help him much with the Club for Growth.

HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM.

I went back and read the badinage with Alice Marshall towards the end of the” Roots CtG Pop Quiz” thread. From her blog, she appears to be a Dem Party activists who is focused on getting Virginia Democrats elected.

http://www.firedoglake.com/200.....ent-127604

She said stuff like:

Get over yourself. These are busy offices, they don’t have time to indulge every pet project that comes down the pike.

Politicians always have a huge stack of very dense reading material. Legislation, policy and research papers to support legislation. It is true they read only a small fraction of the material they vote on, but even that is a very high stack. And netroots isn’t the only group sending them stuff.

Do you think Mike McCurry goes around issuing required reading lists or pop quizes? Of course not. There is a reason eeeeeeeeeevil lobbyists run circles around citizen activists. It is not just a question of money, citizen activists are legendary for their disagreeable approach to public policy.

So we all slammed her for her institutional arrogance in saying that elected officials don’t need to pay much attention to their constituents.

If I have her pegged correctly, Alice represents the workhorses of our party - the folks who actually get their hands dirty and get Democrats elected. Go look at her blog, she’s for what we’re for. http://gotv.blogspot.com/. We Firedogs represent the highly concerned, informed, and passionate extreme of the progressive citizenry, but by and large, we have day jobs and do not do campaign work.

We need Alice, she gets the job done. Alice needs us, her boys and girls don’t get elected without the base fired up. Alice is wrong to suggest that citizens go sit in the corner and let the adults run the country, but we Firedogs are wrong to ignore what Alice has to say about how elections get won and legislation gets passed. We’re allies treating each other like enemies.

I propose that we get Alice back in here for a CONSTRUCTIVE dialog on how we can best advance our MUTUAL agenda within the institutions of government.

Follow up ; )

BBC starts World News broadcasts in US

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The British Broadcasting Corp. on Thursday said it is bringing its BBC World news channel to the United States in a bid to capture American audiences hungry for international news.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/200.....a_bbc_dc_4

maestro Hugh, I bow to you

K8:

New here, so you don’t know me. (I don’t really know anyone.)

Just wanted to say I been thru what you’re going thru w/your dog: GI cancer, undetected by previous check-ups/X-rays, discovered after emergency surgery to correct a bout of gastric torsion.

It’s tough.

Wish you and your pup the best and hope you both pull thru together.

Mrs. K8,

((((((((HUGS))))))))

in other words, hugs to the K8s and the K9

Looks like Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) is going down for corruption, along with his protegee who has made a specialty of getting “earmark” bills passed for her lobbyist clients after leaving Lewis’s staff…http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/03/
washington/03white.html?hp&ex=1149307200&
en=4fcbc850437cbd51&ei=5094&partner=homepage

‘It’s just gone 8 o’clock and time for the Senator on top of your television set to micturate’

Mrs. K8, ditto on the hugs for you and your darling, there’s no such thing as “just a dog” when it’s yours.

op99 — Alice Marshall’s attitude sucks and she can just get over herself. She’s shown up here before pissing on other people and trying to prove how damn smart she is.

I’m not interested in any kind of dialog with someone who wants to be that know-it-all and negative about other people’s efforts. If she doesn’t like it, she’s welcome not to partake.

And that, BTW, is a rare moment where you will EVER hear me bash a liberal blogger. But I’ve had it with her.

Thanks shoephone! I will continue to feel tingly about Gore’s and the world’s chances and sad about the daily destruction of our beautiful blue and green planet.

It is all we have, after all. We can fix this!

while we mourn the passing of pets, it’s comforting to know there’s a new generation coming along. Click on my screen-name to bring up the link…

Jane, I recently went to a Dem party fundraiser in my county, and the party establishment types all sound pretty much like Alice (with less vinegar, I will grant you.) So how do we penetrate that institution level mindset? Their only focus is winning elections, and Democratic ideals are just a fuzzy backdrop.

I totally agree with Jane on the “Alice Marshall Matter” (sounds like the title of a Perry Mason episode). Every state party has its workhorses, the insiders who are really more like Tamany Hall pedigree than defenders of the citizens right to lobby their own legislators. They act like mob bosses a lot of the time, and for my money, I don’t care as much which party nametag they wear, as what they do for constituents - you know, like promoting democracy and stuff? We have a few of them in my state’s party, and I wish we could get rid of them. They line their own pockets as “consultants”, “movers and shakers” and they do nothing positive for the future of the party. They consider us to be like gnats. And BTW, they don’t always get their poeple elected.

*poof* my post back to shoephone disappeared!

Thanks for the info– he is going to save this beautiful blue and green planet and all the creatures in it– as much as he can, as fast as he can as soon as he is President Al Gore.

ps you are lucky my other post went *poof*, cause it was mighty long- winded!!!

P.S. Ms. Alice got on my last nerve today!

the Al Gore film is scheduled to be shown in only one theater in the entire State of Indiana — masses will not be reached that way. The flick will really have a political impact when it gets its wide DVD release

I think the answer is to get ourselves elected to party positions, starting with PCO and moving up the chain to county and state chairperson. We have to infiltrate at the neighborhood and local level and gain strength in numbers as we go along. It’s a deliberate, measured process, but it works.

Angie - You’re right. This planet really is all we have. And when you consider how infinitesimal the Earth looks in a photo of the universe, it’s mindboggling that we could ever march around with such hubris.

I don’t mean to get everyone all fixated on the evil Alice Marshall in particular, I mean just generally the Alice Marshalls of the left (even though I didn’t say that). Nobody gets elected without party people at the local level working on campaigns.

Believe me, local Democratic organizations are desperate for precinct committeepeople! They are the ‘grass-roots’ of any Democratic machine. Candidate organizations are also happy to get volunteers…

shoephone 94, bingo.

How good will it feel to see Puddles go down, Jane?

P.S. I love the site!

NOW on PBS just ran stories on Net Neutrality and the Librarians vs. the Patriot Act.

Have seen these 2 topics covered on exactly ZERO other TV networks. Has anybody seen these important stories covered anywhere else on mainstream television or is NOW the only show that has even mentioned them?

op99 — I’m perfectly open to talking with people who want to show up and have a reasonable discussion. If someone has just exhausted all other opportunities for places to be a bitch that day I really don’t see much point.

“Penetrate the mindset?” I don’t think it’s possible, nor desirable. It’s been facilitated by the people who have been running the party. But the DLC is crashing and burning. She’s welcome to join them in the unemployment line.

shoephone 94 — Amen to that.

Jane, can I still come to breakfast? I’ll sit quietly.

op99– she tried to throw the equivalent of a hapless bucket of ice cold water on everybody here– if Alice wants to help, she should offer a suggestion or three. Otherwise, I am yawning. Your instincts, op99, are very good, hers may be as well– let her show me the motivation. ;)

Wishing all the best for you and yours in coming days, Mrs K8. Thoughts and prayers heading your way from here.

Wanna bet that Alice Marshall thinks Bob Shrum & Steve Elmendorf walk on water?

besides, I respect what you tried to do because you are kind, just like almost everyone here, op99. (*).

angie, thanks, hon, but don’t worry about me, I’ve got a hide as thick as a water buffalo’s.

Lights-out time in Lotusland, y’all, so best wishes until the morn to all Firepups, -kits, -ferrets, -parrots, -water buffaloes, and sundry other -mates an’ -beloveds.

Who’d I leave out?

Oh yeah, -lawyers too!

[Lotuslander goes }}}KLUNK{{{]

At what point does “pandering to the gays/guns/god crowd” turn off independents and induce them, if not to stay home, to vote dem?

all of us do, it’s a matter of survival. I just want to make sure everyone is appreciated as we march forward and win the biggest, bestest fight in a peaceful but vociferous and unified way for our Planet and to regain our place in the world as a force for good.

angie,

“she tried to throw the equivalent of a hapless bucket of ice cold water on everybody here”

Yep, she doesn’t “get” the community here either, obviously. We may disagree at times but it’s always civil.

And…

http://www.sitemeter.com/?a=st.....e&r=36

jane 39 - you’re right that the wingnuts have been more deliberate than to just throw a win into the D column. IMHO the underlying dynamic here is that if Chafee looks like he’ll lose going into the general, then CFG will jump into it for the victory lap.

Kind of like the guy who runs the first mile of the marathon, sneaks away for a three martini lunch, then jumps back in for a last mile photo finish.

Cozumel– welcome home and saw you had a wonderful time! Missed you lots and thank you for your words. ;)

Jane, thank you for that great comment at 100. It reminded me once again of why I have become such a FDL supporter. I’m not sure I can explain this to do you justice, but you do have such a great instinct for seeing the lay of the land, calling bullshit bullshit, cutting to the chase, whatever. I wish I could say this better, but I trust you know what I mean.

Okay this will, or should, end the raging debate about using the word “the” in front of “hoi polloi” since, as has been pointed out, hoi polloi means “the many” in Greek. From Wikipedia:

Since “hoi” means “the”, it might be said that the common usage of the hoi polloi is incorrect. However, this later usage is very well-established and it is often the case that phrases borrowed from other languages become treated as single words in English. The Chicago Manual of style considers the usage “the hoi polloi” to be the standard usage. (Merriam) Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage says:

It is interesting to note that when hoi polloi was used by writers who had actually been educated in Greek, it was invariably preceded by the. Perhaps writers such as Dryden and Byron understood that English and Greek are two different languages, and that, whatever its literal meaning in Greek, hoi does not mean “the” in English. There is, in fact, no such independent word as hoi in English — there is only the term hoi polloi, which functions not as two words but as one, the sense of which is basically “commoners” or “rabble.” In idiomatic English, it is no more redundant to say “the hoi polloi” than it is to say “the rabble,” and most writers who use the term continue to precede it with *the*

So Hugh 26, you were using correct usage. Anyway, the post was great!

Democrats and Republicans in office today are one and the same. Is it safe to then vote for the candidate you admire, rather than along party lines?

Nah.

Forgive me, but what the Club for Growth is doing makes sense. If they take down Chafee in the primary, they have their trophy and a seat at the big table. If Laffey doesn’t win, what they are doing is helpful to Chafee in the general. Cake and eat it too. That’s how I read it.