Good Morning…Much NPR coverage about TeaParty this am; interesting analysis. Also about Delaware race….When did I become the first to arrive? Tasteless!!

Mornin’, BT, pups

With the Tea Party (aka Southern Strategy for Dummies) winning in a number of states in primaries this season, November is really gonna be interesting.

Talk about yer basic social faux pas.

OooooSo sorry. How ya doing?

The Republicans reaped what they’ve sown last night. Jim DeMint will drive the Republican train in 2011, not Mitch McConnell. Ideology uber alles.

Heckuva job, Rovie.

If Gates wants to trim the War Dept’s budget he could start by closing 90% of the bases it maintains outside of the US.

Everybody is saying that all of these Tea Party primary wins mean that the Democrats will have an easy time holding their seats or winning in delaware and nevada. However, i cant remember the last time the Democrats have actually taken advantage of a political gift. Everytime they get a sure thing, the Dems always screw it up. How can we be sure they wont screw this up again?

That’s okay. Try the pate.

We be fine. I’m waitin’ for Mojo and Kismet to ask me to take them to work so they can drive more two-leggeds crazy.

All of the polling had Castle beating Coons by a lot but has Coons beating O’Donnell by even more. There are states in which the Democratic candidate would lose big without a teabagger opponent like Kentucky, Alaska, Nevada, etc. but now they have a shot at it. Look for example at Blanche Lincoln: If Arkansas voters had run an insane teabagger she would have a shot. As it is, she’ll be moving into her new Wal-Mart office instead.

The computer programs showing small margins of victories for the Tea Party candidates have already been written by the unverifialbe voting machine operatiors.

Calling this a sure thing gift is a bit premature.

How can we be sure they wont screw this up again?

We can’t be sure. I’m not saying these teabagger wins make the those seats automatically Democratic wins, I’m saying that they have a chance they wouldn’t have had against a sane Republican

Rethug Party pooh-bahs gotta be pullin’ their hair out. Now if only the left could take over the Dems like the reichwingnutjobs have taken over the Rethugs.

Right? As the Republican party gets wingnuttier, the Democratic Party is being dragged to the right.

Wow the comments on that CNN bit are nutty. It musta brought all of the crazies (most of whom can’t spell) out of the woodwork.

Good morning, pups!

Must be take the kids to work day…have fun. Im out; this is my early start. Later…

Yeah, I avoid those comments pages. In point of fact, I haven’t even clicked a CNN link in a long time.

Namaste

Just to throw out a contrary opinion. I think the far right nuts win is not necessarily good for Ds. I think it evidences a profound disgust with everything going on in D.C., with all folks on every side of the political spectrum. It’s possible that in the 2010 general, throw the bums out may trump everything else,* and that some of these candidates could well win.

*After all, what else is there to vote for? Saw part of a panel on cspan over the weekend with Clintonistas, whistling past the graveyard on how the Ds are going to do much better than people think because Rs are having a civil war. Great messaging: vote for us because the other guys are nuts.

Speaking of whistling past the graveyard, here’s Big Dawg himself with the talking point.

Is Firedoglake considered to be a progressive blog? If so, what exactly do progressives stand for/support?

I use it as a start to see what’s in the news but when some of the items under “Latest News” have been listed for 2-3 days it doesn’t do much for their credibility. That and celebrity news is mixed in with everything else. For the live of me I can’t figure out why anyone would be interested in movie stars’ marriages or bust size.

Well I hope the Democrats manage these elections better than they are handling the issue of tax cuts for middle class vs tax cuts for the rich. Bone head comes out and says that he could vote for the middle class tax cuts without the rich tax cuts and then immediately the Dem from Maryland comes out and says , yea well we can compromise . . . No man, your just beggining to win on the issue dont give in now! Sometimes i cant believe it.

They’re out early this mornin’.

Good morning all. Lurking as always but enjoying it a lot this morning.

Left that one for you to handle. (or not)

Nah, amateur.

You could look at some older posts to answer your own Q & then come back & ask some more focused Qs.

Good Morning
Ideology over evidence? That’s an interesting way to describe what the “new Republican” movement is valuing. And, that’s very scary to me. I’m with eCAHN @19. Wondering how this will play out from the D’s.

Yeah…Van Hollen wouldn’t say no to gutting Social Security either. It took Obama to come along and say that. The Democrats are their own worst enemies. They seem to pick the weakest most wobbly blue dogs for their leadership posts.

If anybody can screw it up the Dems can.

I doubt there are any Wobblies among the Blue Dogs.

Emphasis on “focused”. What progressives stand for would be the subject of a tome, not a blog comment

Yeah, I was “inartful”. That was meant to be weakest, most wobbly OR blue dogs.

So just come over & set a spell by me. My cat’s outside, so there’s an empty chair.

Really. and, for sure. Although, we do have a few commenters here who could prolly fill several threads full of a long winded explanation. :)

Hey, hey, I resemble that remark. *g*

No doubt. I often have to cut my own comments down to a more manageable size. I find myself tempted to skip past comments over about three paragraphs, don’t you? Kinda pointless to do all that writing when no one is reading.

I guess if I had to put it in a nutshell, I would say that most progressives are far too nuanced in their likes and dislikes to make simple, short definitions possible.

Have you seen Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story?

My mind is swimming with questions and connections which I can sort of put into two categories. There are people, clearly, who will vote ideology over evidence. Like the folks I talked to during the campaign for Prop 8 who said, Oh no, the bible says gays can’t marry. In fact, the bible does not say that. And, folks like Terry Jones who want to burn qu’rans, but have never read a word. The other issue that’s running in my brain is this whole throw out all the bums theory. Makes me think of the old testament and Noah and the Ark and Lot et all. Do you know what I mean, or do I need to hone my thinking?
But, yes, I will come sit with you. If you promise that we will stay out of trouble.

I saw it when it came out but I’ve slept since then.

* Great messaging: vote for us because the other guys are nuts.

You go with what you have. In Delaware, Kentucky, Colorado, Nevada and Alaska this is what we have. And, it will probably be good enough to avoid a sweep by the GOP of theses five seats [3-2 or 2-3] and maintain the Senate for the Democrats.

Everybody should be pretty happy that the Republican primaries have put genuine crazies on the ballot for the Democrats to shoot down. The real voters don’t want those nuts in office.

My mind is swimming with questions and connections which I can sort of put into two categories. There are people, clearly, who will vote ideology over evidence. Like the folks I talked to during the campaign for Prop 8 who said, Oh no, the bible says gays can’t marry. In fact, the bible does not say that. And, folks like Terry Jones who want to burn qu’rans, but have never read a word.

Actually, I put those people in the same category. Save me from ideologues! :)

Morning BT, Firepups:

So as regards post-election investment advice, are we going short or long on starched white sheets with eye holes already cut in them?

I must admit that I usually skip over the really long ones. I figure that they’ve got a cache of long winded rants written down previously and then pull them out. I prefer comments that are written in real time and in response to what is currently being said.

To quote H.L. Mencken, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” Elected Nixon and Reagan twice and Bush once. The first time he was appointed by the SCOTUS.

I’m thinking 3-2. The problem is that there are some nutty teabaggers who WILL wind up in the Senate….

There’s always not voting. TPers won because of enthusiasm. Others stayed home. Could happen in general. Massive no shows.

Anyone have any turnout figure comparison for primaries? I think I heard only 21,000 in Del-R primary but I don’t know if that’s right, nor do I know how it would compare to other midterm R primaries in that state.

Yeah, you’re right. Those are usually conspiracy theory people and people with an axe to grind. They come here for validation because the one or two people who come to their own blogs just aren’t enough.

Yup. Angle, maybe? Just…surreal…

Oh, yes. I wrote poorly. I was putting the h8ers and Terry Jones together. The other category was those who are trying to play God and start the whole thing over. :)

I have no idea how to focus the Qs. What I have observed is that the instant analysis talking heads coalesce around a theme that is often wrong, so I like to look for other possibilities.

As for staying out of trouble, you know I can’t promise that!

You’re lucky. Kuroneko wants to share my seat.

Ah! Got it. ;)

Since most progressives are now seriously considering voting for a third party, we should take heart from the success of the Tea Party. They have shown us that a strong third-party movement can affect a major party far more than working from within.

The last election represented our effort to change the Democrats from within, and all but a few progressives now realize it has backfired horribly.

Even if the Dems hold on to power, they will only spend the next four years further damaigng the party. The logical thing to do at this point is to vote for the progressive third party of your choice. This has a far better chance of moving the Dems leftward than anything else–and as I say, the Dems are toast anyway.

I think Reid can beat Angle. Too bad we didn’t have a credible challenger to Reid in the primaries. Reid is such a dud.

I agree but like I said, while teabagger victories won’t give Democrats those seats, they will have a chance that they otherwise would not have. Blanche Lincoln is the perfect example. The only reason Reid’s not trailing by as much as she is is because her opponent isn’t batsh*t crazy like Angle.

My cat’s outside, so there’s an empty chair.

Yeah, but it is fulla cat hair. LOL.

What I really can’t stand is forgetting to hover my cursor over a link to see where it goes, and then winding up at Politico. UGH.

I’m just glad I don’t live in Nevada! Between Reid and Angle, I might just be on vacation.

No. No doubt I’d vote but I’d really hate doing it.

As SD would say: They don’t call it FURniture for nothing.

Hee Hee Hee. We do give them a run for the money at the same time, don’t we? There are several people here who I don’t mind sitting in the penalty box with. Ha!

Apologies, Demi, but when someone says, “It says in the Bible” I have to tell them that I don’t hold the Bible as authority. Which I’ve done before, by the way.

Took me a long time to always remember to do that! It’s frustrating when you wind up at FAUX “News” or Politico.

That’s true.

Yeah, I sure do miss having kittehs, but I don’t miss the furry upholstery.

That’s a positive way of looking at the situation. Thanks, Perry.

I always point out that it says something entirely different in The Silmarillion and view hold both books with equal credibility.

No need for an apology. We just have different methods of shutting them down. S’okay.

Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.

US KIA Afghanistan: 1,278

US KIA Irak: 4,418

Iraki and Afghan casualties: estimates vary to over 1.5M

US MBS 2010: 31,868 and counting

Twist In My Sobriety

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.

Namaste

Be excellent.

Speaking of throwing the bums out, here’s a poll that sez 3/4s don’t trust gubmint.

Had to Google that one, Margaret. I had no idea what Silmarillion was.

One of my FB friends posted this, and I think it’s great:

Sentients want to know (Tom Tomorrow cartoon)

That number doesn’t surprise me. We are really stuck. If we elect someone who’s a newbie, they don’t have the clout, the relationships to be affective, but the ones who are already there are corrupt. It makes my head hurt to think about this early in the day.

LMAO! Wouldn’t THAT be “horrible”? *g*

This has been a great thread. Everyone gets a gold star.
Now, I think I’ll go do some stuff. See yaz later.

The fact that seems to elude most haters of the Christian, Muslim or Jewish varieties is that they all share the very same deity. They’re arguing and killing each other over flavors.

Good analogy! Religion is like Baskin Robbins…

For the live of me I can’t figure out why anyone would be interested in movie stars’ marriages or bust size.

Beats moping about the expiration of your unemployment benefits.

Tea Party, fwiw, is very motivated to vote. Agree that Dems in states listed above now have more of a chance that if running against credible Republican candidates, like DE Mike Castle. The question is: who will GOTV? T-party very motivated. The rest of the voters? Not so much.

Nov will be interesting.

I feel a little sad that progressives will never get the traction and attention that the T-party gets… bc we never going to be given the attention and validation by the corporate-owned rightwing media. SIGH.

Correct, but if you speak to Xtians, esp, they will tell you that only they have the hotline to the “real” god. Jews & Muslims are only dealing wid de debbil (and Xtians are very firm in that belief). Ya gotta know that to “get” where the fundies are coming from.

For an idiot, maybe.

More Rethugs turned out in the primaries than Dems because more Rethugs had challengers. How many Dem primaries yesterday?

It’s the responsibility of local Dems, and activists, to GOTV where they live. GOTV also involves giving rides to seniors and others who need a ride to the polls. Also involves helping those same folks apply for absentee ballots if that’s a better alternative for the voter. People taking the initiative on their own will be just as valuable as party efforts.

More Rethugs turned out in the primaries than Dems because more Rethugs had challengers.

True, but let’s face it: the T-Party is much more motivated. They, at least, have T-Party candidates running. Progressives mostly do not.

We can mock the T-Party candidates, like O’Donell, all we want; say what you will, the T-Party has a number of candidates running. And they speak very directly to what their constituents want to hear, nutty as it may seem to progressives or trad. Dems.

Who do progressives have who are really “speaking” to progressives and supporting what we believe in???? Reality bites sometimes.

They’re arguing and killing each other over flavors.

Not just between religions, but flavors within religions — think Northern Ireland (Christian v Christian), Sunni v Sh’ia, or Ultraorthodox v everyone else.