sounds like the mantra at a halfway house.

At this rate how about:

'Every day, in every way I'm getting better and better...'

Seriously:

Proven leadership not empty rhetoric

CORRECTION: Cindy Sheehan not Kathy. (Kathy is an old friend of mine who is so much like Cindy that I keep transposing them. My oops.)

in the general election progressives will have an Independent alternative, Kevin Zeese.

Kevin Zeese running for the U.S. senate in Maryland is what I wrote about him a couple of weeks back. Among other things he has been an advisor for Kathy Sheehan in her campaign against George Bush and the Iraq war policy.

He is a progressive who is more likely to vote with the progressive wing of the Democrats. More likely to vote progressive than too many Democrats today.

Zeese is also doing something the Democrats could learn from. He is building a coalition among the third parties and Independents in Maryland. If John Kerry had listened last year when Nader, with Zeese advising, urged Kerry to build a coalition among the third parties, Kerry would have won.

Thanks. Your understanding is a rare treat. I want to hit on all of your points.

wmkrayer: "There is no getting around the fact that the majority of those that are denied the rights to vote, based on past criminal acts, would not be voting to the right."

Me: I've come to believe that drug use has always been, for the right wing, a litmus test for conformity to status quo dogma. Anyone who would not only question the drug prohibition policy but act by using an illicit intoxicant are demonstrating a willingness to both question and challenge the status quo. This is how Nixon and the Wallace wing of the Democrats perceived the pot smoking hippies, college students and younger civil rights militant civil rights activists. This was what they were combating when they wrote the Controlled Substances Act in 1970. They were looking for ways to mitigate damage done by the Voter Rights Act and the 26st Amendment to THEIR established body of Jim Crow laws.

wmkrayer: " Unfortunately, as you point out, the Democrats continue to be Republican Lite."

Me: The Democrats have always been far more conservative than they are demonized as being. I grew up in the ward politics of Frank Rizzo's South Philadelphia. His Democrats in the 1960-70's were decidedly right wing. Aggressively.

John Kerry left the anti war movement when VVAW started talking about joining up with the civil rights movement. He spoke out against the war because it was the biggest popularity contest of his generation. But then he ran off to law school and quickly became one of the first drug war prosecutors. In doing so he then rehabilitated himself with the Tip O'Neil conservatives by racking up a high conviction rate of nonconformists, especially minorities. Clinton was doing the same thing at the time. They figured they could forever poach from the GOP middle to make up for the loss of the left and their splitting of the civil rights community.

But we have hit the critical. We did so in 2000. Between mass disenfranchisement, gerrymandering, Deibold and old fashioned voter intimidation and manipulation the GOP can keep anyone out of the White House. The right wing Democrats can't poach enough from the GOP.

wmkrayer: "I find it compelling that any state could deny somebody their right to vote in a Federal Election.  Perhaps it could be argued for the local races, but Federal!"

Me: This is an important distinction that falls on dead ears whenever I raise it. States should not have the right to deprive a citizen of America their federal franchise in federal elections.

wmkrayer: "Now we stand at 40% overcrowded!"

Me: According to a Mother Jones special report on prisons in 2001 called "Debt to Society" "advocacy group called Stop Prison Rape estimates that as many as 364,000 prisoners are raped every year." thanks to the prison overcrowding. This results in, according to the CDC: "study found that 3 out of every 1,000 inmates catch HIV in jail each year -- more than 10 times the statewide rate." (for Illinois)

wmkrayer: "The Democrats are the best hope for a quick change"

Me: No. The Democrats snubbed the drug reform community for more than 20 years. As a result no policy initiatives moved forward in legislatures. In the early '90s many in the movement started going over to the Libertarians and the Greens and they started to win significant changes. Like CA prop-215 in 1996. Since then the issue has been moving forward despite the concerted obstructions of Democrats and Republicans, together, in congress.

In among the poor Democratic showing of 2004 was the win in the Albany District Attorney's office by a renegade drug war opponent, David Soares.

Medical marijuana garnered 12,000 more votes in Montana than did career drug warrior John Kerry.

wmkrayer: "At this pace, this experiment in Democracy called America is about to fail."

Me: If I am right that the purpose of the Controlled Substances Act was and is really to subvert the VRA and the 26st Amendment then we have not had a valid federal election since 1970.

problem with Bernanke, for me, is that George W. Bush picked him. Bush has not proven the best personel manager.

in the Plame case?

come down as expected Bush co. will be busy making a mess for itself. The more suicidal Republicans will support him and obstruct congressional oversight.

Don't worry about Bush and the loyal Koolaid evangelicals so much since they will be busy digging their own collective grave.

Coming up with 1. alternative candidates that span the spectrum rather than only right wingers and 2. a congressional agenda is the trick for Democrats.

Last Week Bill Press was saying on CNN that the Bush staff was running around the Capital telling senators that they had to vote for Miers because it would destroy what is left of the Bush administration if her nomination crashed and burned.
So Bush is now depending entirely on loyalty to get through congressional process.

And it looks like they are admitting among themseves to having hit bottom.

It seems to only make sense that a mid term convention would be to focus on the congress. Deliniate the differences between the Democrats and Republicans in Nov. 06. Highlight the candidates in ways to help them all see winning characteristics shared between them.

Another consideration:

Depending on how the G. Gordon Liddy's of tomorrow matriculate this week as indictments are announced, the Plame issue will carry into congressional politics for the next two years. But especially into the elections. Congressional oversight hearings will abound making new daily TV heroes and villians among both administration and congressional committee members involved.

Childish misdirected and baseless partisan denial.

I am not going to waste bandwidth.

SEE: my answer on another thread.

Celebrate all of the alternatives available. This means stopping the Party establishment in the states from preordaining candidates.

Celebrating the alternatives left, middle and right will attract reasonable voters from each of those constituencies.

Let's see conservative Democrats talk about social issues as knowledgably and passionately as left wing Democrats converse about economics and national security issues.

Flawless! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!

commentator Bill Press said that he has heard from Hill staffers that the administration has people running around telling senators that they must vote for miers or it will be the final thing that destroys the Bush presidency.

So they are now down to loyalty to get a win in a GOP majority senate.

They are now down to loyalty as their only political currency left from the 2004 election.

LOL!

The same tired and baseless right wing Democrat demonization of people willing to confront you with the truth about yourselves. That environmental argument is just plain silly and irrelevant.

It was you intransigent right wing Democrats who drove millions of disaffected liberlas and leftists to the Greens, the Libertarians, the Ventura Reformers and the Independents-(who in 04 took up with Nader).

Gore screwed himself when he voted to confirm Scalia.

Before you trash the 94K Greens in Florida in 2000 who voted for Nader look to the 240K Democrats who voted for Bush in Florida in 2000.

And look to both Gore and Kerry who have both ardently supported the Jim Crow drug war that has electorally disenfranchised more minority and nonconformist Americans than would have made the difference in both 2000 and 2004. They intentionally supported the mass disenfranchisement of minorities and the left thinking that they could poach the moderates in the GOP for votes. It didn't work and now they live with defeats at their own hands. SEE MY DIARY: Why Democrats can no longer win the presidency