Let's be confident, but not overconfident about our prospects in November. Despite Bush's historically low job approval ratings, the Republicans' intra-party turmoil, and their low turnout in the primaries, let's suspend the schadenfreude of watching the GOP implode until we actually see the dust cloud. (In other words, after the day of the election and we've won, then we can gloat.)

Republicans are in chaos and heading toward a brokered convention. But once they have their nominee -- now matter how badly bloodied he is -- expect them to fall into line and go on the warpath. The GOP has an arsenal of dirty campaign tactics at its disposal. We're talking about a relentless barrage of fear-mongering, race baiting, and gay bashing.

It's all very exciting. Not just that we are in a good position to win, but also that we may have our first female or African-American president. Things are looking up, but let's not get complacent or distracted.

Personally, I'm quite reassured that the Democrats may well nominate one of Dick Cheney's relatives.

I'm very apprehensive about the dynamics of a McCain / Obama matchup. The contrast in personalities ia striking. I'm afraid I'm not very sophisticated at putting it into words, but it's almost like a masculine / feminine thing. It's a contrast that I don't even think would be so pronounced with McCain vs. Hillary. In uncertain times voters sometimes prefer a paternal figure more than anything else. My sainted mother, from a family of Democrats, just loved Reagan because he reminded her "so much of my father". Whatever other qualities they might have, McCain projects this paternal persona more than any other Republican, Obama less than any Democrat.

Jubal say's "Personally, I'm quite reassured that the Democrats may well nominate one of Dick Cheney's relatives."

It's clear proof of Garblezingers Theorum.

"You can pick your nose,
you can pick your friends,
but you can't pick your friends nose,
nor your relatives."

Does he even know that he has the seeds of evil coursing through his veins ?
Wait !! There is MORE in this dastardly complot ! They MAY be FRENCH !!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7048325.stm

(Rousseau swoons at the ghastly thought that somehow the lessons of the Revolution, and the glory of "Les Lumières" has somehow missed Darth's bloodline completely, but is revived by a glass of pastis tossed in his face, and a Gauloise-smoking friend who assures him that "Même en France, en à des enfoirés..." *)




* "Even in France, we have assholes.."

Victory in November will not (ABSOLUTLY NOT) be the final victory.
Everything will certainly not be all nice and nice again after the Dems pound Republican butt!

What will very likely happen in November well amount to just one more tiny step in a very like hike up a very steep and rocky path that will hopefully take us to a place in which the air is still not pure, but cleaner.

Those who do spin will tell us what happens in November was momentous. And maybe it will be.
Win or lose though, it's gonna be a long, long fight and sometimes we will lose. That has to be expected.



If the country should fall apart and we have to go through something as catastrophic as the great depression, then what happens could happen relatively quickly. Unfortunately the likelyhood of despotism taking over is as likely, if not more so than Progressivism. Without a calamity such as this, we'll simply have to move the house whole, as is, without rebuilding. And that'sgonna take a lot of effort and a lot of very dedicated people.



Am I confident about what will happen in November? Yes I am. Am I deluded into thinking what happens in November 08 will mean that come January 09 we can shift back into glide? Not a chance!

The House and Senate elections are far more important than that of whichever corporate shill we send to the White House.

Add the governor races as well as state and local elections.
All of this is foundation for the future.

Or at least a temporary holding measure until more of the population is ready for the kind of revolutionary change that is so desperately needed.
When change comes, it won't be brought by the Democratic Party.

Agreed. Change will come from an aware people.
They will ultimatly demand, or allow what ever we get or accept.



Me? Takes a lot to piss me off. But when I do get pissed off, there is no doubt, and it doesn't go away quickly.

McCain is despised by Republicans. They view Bush, not McCain, as heir to Reagan.

I'm much more worried about Huckabee. Huckabee comes across as a genial fellow, but he's a theocrat. If he wins, say good-bye to the few civil liberties we have left. He will finish the job Bush started.

Or at least he will try.
I'm not so sure the peopleof America will let it happen as easily as they did with Bush.
I mean that with Bush I think most people didn't believe it could happen, and it did.
Now they're twice shy. (excluding of course the evangelicals who constantly look for excuse to seek the after life)

It's McCain's turn. That's how Republicans do it. It's his reward for being a good and patient little soldier after letting Karl Rove piss all over him and his family in 2000.

THEY'RE BACK!

The Return of the SwiftBoaters

January 4, 2008

The shadowy group that smeared John Kerry in 2004 is ready to do its dirty work again.

More than three years after John Kerry's bitter defeat, at the dawn of what looks like a far more promising campaign cycle for the Democrats, the party is still haunted by the specter of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Once upon a time, "Swift boat" denoted an obscure military vessel, but thanks to the activities of this group it has come to represent movement conservatism's penchant for ruthlessly (and effectively) smearing any and all political opponents, from a sitting senator and war hero to an 11-year-old boy with a cranial fracture.

Research by The Nation into Federal Election Commission records of the group's top twenty donors reveals that they've been remarkably active in this cycle, contributing and bundling nearly $200,000 to presidential candidates. This does not bode well. During the last presidential campaign, the wealthy backers of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth--now rebranded as Swift Vets and POWs for Truth--didn't do their real dirty work until the general election, where as a tax-exempt 527 group they operated outside the restraints of direct campaign contributions. We may wish we were done with the Swift Boaters, but they aren't done with us.

In 2004 the top twenty donors all gave (with one exception) at least $50,000 to the group. The top three--Houston home builder Bob Perry, Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens and billionaire drugstore impresario and investor Harold Simmons--gave a combined $9.5 million ($4.45 million, $3 million and $2 million, respectively). Calculating the influence of these and the slightly less wealthy Swift Boat donors during this cycle is a touch more complicated than simply adding up their contributions. Each one exerts far more influence as a bundler, given the federal restrictions on individual giving, which limit donors to a maximum of $4,600 per cycle. So The Nation looked not only at the contributions of the donors themselves but also at those of their family members and employees. It's an imperfect method, since some employees are clearly contributing of their own volition (such as one employee of a Simmons company who gave money to Hillary Clinton), but it gives a rough estimate of who's backing whom and to what extent.

The most notable recipient of Swift Boat largesse is John McCain, erstwhile front-runner and Stand Up Guy. When the Swift Boat ads were first unleashed, McCain was alone among his Republican colleagues to condemn them. A fellow Vietnam veteran, a good friend of Kerry's and a former target of smears about his own service, McCain called the ads "dishonest and dishonorable," a "cheap stunt," and he urged Bush to condemn them. But in pursuit of the GOP nomination, McCain ditched the mantle of maverick for that of hack, and his once-floundering, possibly rejuvenated campaign has been aided along the way by $61,650 from Swift Boat donors and their associates. "There is such a thing as dirty money," said Senator Kerry in a statement, after The Nation informed him of McCain's FEC records. "I'm surprised that the John McCain I knew who was smeared in 2000 and thought so-called Swift Boating was wrong in 2004 would feel comfortable taking their money after seeing the way it was used to hurt the veterans I know he loves." (McCain's office did not return calls for comment.)

continues: http://www.alternet.org/election08/72696/

Like I said, it's McCains turn.

Good point.




Mum?

Miss, I haven't once yet been pissed off about anything on the forum.
I have disagreed, I have at times been argumentative, I have at times even been wrong,
but I have never yet been angry.

No! Not I want my mum!
I was asking are you my mum!
You just sounded like her for a moment, that's all.

Oh! I think we just had a clash of old and new english.

I assumed by Mum, you were meaning you chose to not say anything.
Mums the word?


Interesting that things people told me,ortried to tellme when I was much younger,
are now coming back as fundamental truths.



Understand, I can become quite emotional and vocal in my disagreements.
But when I get really pissed, I go quiet and walk away.
As in, I'm so pissed I'm gonna show you the greatest disrespect possible, and ignore you.

Are you kidding? We get to run against Bob Dole again.

There you go again, reminding me of my mum. You KNOW when that woman's mad at you by the sheer venom in the silence. Takes an awful lot to get hr that mad though.

I probably should have said 'mom' in the first place to save any confusion, but that's not what I caller!