This is an amazing post.

Surely Wampum will have a new category next year, titled "I was to drunk to make any damn sense, but not drunk enough to not be able to reach my keyboard and make an ass of myself". You've got an automatic win here NCDem. Congrats ahead of time. Just glad it wasn't me. (this time)  :-)

You've got to be kidding...this stuff couldn't be scripted any more like an apopcalyptic Hollywood movie, if there were actual Hollywood writers writing it...

This from MSNBC pretty tells everything that needs to be told:

"Ratzinger served John Paul II since 1981 as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In that position, he has disciplined church dissidents and upheld church policy against attempts by liberals for reforms. He turned 78 on Saturday."

Darthvader (or Dick Cheney if you prefer) was just elected pope. Being brought up Catholic, I feel well within my rights to say screw the new pope and screw the Catholic church for electing this guy. It will be a good long time, if ever, that I go to a Catholic mass again.

I just posted a diary yesterday at Kos, and on my own blog on this.

Bloggers need to make their own lobbying group, asap. Multipartisan, lots of big sharp teeth, and backed by an angry horde of nasty grassroots-types with itchy trigger fingers. If we made a group that included MyDD, Kos, Instapundit, LGF and more it would be the 1600 lb gorilla on the playground.

If we don't get something up and running in the next couple of months I really, really have an intuitive feeling that it's not going to be good. I can't lead the charge single-handedly but I can definitely sign up to help out, etc.

Will monitor this thread and see what/who pops up over the next while.

Political Physics

...please substitute the "Dailykos" for MyDD - or "fill-in-the-blank".

...it's our job, and particularly the Democratic Party leaders' job to make sure that this isn't allowed to be buried. Are we all waiting for the right and the media to finally fall over with it's tail between its legs and proclaim their unconditional surrender and finally tell us, "We are sorry. We are wrong"? If so let me off this boat right now because THAT WILL NOT BE HAPPENING.

"Opposition" means being oppositional in the face of something that is RESISTING (in this case, in the face of lying liars and cons who are resisting being decent human being who honor the Golden Rule in an form at all). Whoever signed up thinking that "oppositional," just meant, "finally calling BS on someone for lying once or twice" didn't know what they were biting off to chew on.

When "we" as a party, not just "we" the Dailykos, really care about being oppositional the problem will take care of itself. These cockroaches we're dealing with now will need more than just a light shone on them to make 'em run (haven't we already done that a 1000 x's???). They're insisting on being fumigated. Our party spokesman need to get on the air and keep INSISTING that the convesation get pulled back to their talking points and not whatever hijacked talking points they've been letting themselves get drawn into (think Stewart on Crossfire). If the talking heads and the rights' shills don't like it and want to become abusive (and they will), then fuck-em -- our men and women don't need to be on the air until they can be promised not to have bullying tactics shoved down their throat. The American people, even Joe Six pack, will be very fucking interested and concerned as to why Democrats are so outraged as to form a boycott of the media (have Reid and Pelosi stand of the steps of the Capital and announce it). The Republican shell game does not work if there is not a willing victim on the other side to pull it off on. Resolve dammit.

Political Physics -  All we have to fear, is fear itself

...but...

"This has little to do with ideology, and it is becoming increasingly clear that one of the Noise Machine talking points about Democrats in the campaign for chair is a fictitious center-left split."

...is just not a reality-based assessment. Of course, there are some real life differences in ideology right now. That's why people are breaking their arms to high-five only 2 senator right now - they're they only ones who are acting like Democrats.

Where the heck are we going with the above quote, anyway? Centrist Dems and progessive/liberal dems can both whack the repub "noise machine", and each other at the same time. It's not a mutually exclusive thing. I know I've got plenty of vitrol to go around ;-), so let's just call a spade a spade - the dems have interal problems right now. Period. We can't even agree on a mission statement or elevator pitch at this point.

...this thread is depressing. Interesting but depressing. And by "interesting", I mean interesting in the same way that watching a loved one get wheeled into the E.R. is "interesting".

This whole scenario (e.g., infighting over which lane to get in, while arguing about what's for lunch, while the wheels are coming off our 1973 Gremlin) brings to mind an honest question I asked about a week ago ("Where's the line to be drawn?"), in response to a dairy Chris Bowers posted on Kos ("Fuck off Democrats"). Didn't get a lot of responses back then, but I'd love to hear some more opinions on it if anyone has the time and/or inclination (there's even a poll if you don't want to take the time to craft a response). Please forgive the appearance of self-whoring, am just trying to gauge the level of angst, resistance/desire level to change, etc regarding politics and party and this seemed like as good a place as any to check in at.</deflected interruption>

Wow, I can't believe it. The dem leaders, responsible for losing every branch of goverment, kick out their workhorses and their future, and people are ungrateful for them for that? What fucking audacity!

You bloggers should be, like, totally greatful to even be allowed within ten feet of any high ranking state or national DNC figure. Instead you want people to write letters, some that are even angry sounding (!) to some of the bigger jerks of the party. What the fuck are you bloggers thinking?! We dems have a long and proud tradition (10-15 years) of apologizing for getting punched in the face by bad guys. If we write angry letters to anyone, or get indignant that would, like, be totally disruptive to the status quo. And what I, a flatearth-centrist-dem-who-has-sole-ownership-to-what-constitutes-"reality" can tell you is that you're all crazy.

Matt and Jerome, you're no better than that Michael Moore whose populist message was directly responsible for our loss this year. I have wasted enough time on you people, however - you will be relegated to the dustbin-of-history just like all other marginalized groups are. Compromise and compromise again...and oh, yeah keep them check comin'!

Political Physics

I've been absolutely ravaged by lefty-militant-secularist/rationalists/atheist (emphasis on militant) in recent days - and I'm not even of anything resembling traditional faith. The intolerance and the arrogance of many has really been quite overwhelming. Truly, lots of pots calling lots of kettles black these days. (e.g., it's only the "Christians" who can be dogmatic, intolerant, and abusive - "us", well we're perfect and if you can't see that we're perfect then you must be an idiot who is best friends with Karl Rove)

You said it best, "lots of people on the left believe that anyone who is religious is dumb.  And no one is going to vote for someone who makes them feel dumb." - that's the very same thing people in the "reality based community" article by Suskind were saying too.

The "Big-Tent" apparently needs a few more riggings.

...way to many times to rehash everything with anyone here again, but I will say this for the record: Not engaging the right, in some way or fashion, on the topics of "God" and "morality" is literally to abandon the field to them.

Don't ever forget the wisdom/conundrum behind these words:

Adlai Stevenson in response to one of his supporters who assured him that, "all intelligent people in this country will vote for you":

"That's not good enough. I need a majority".

Define the "God" / "Morality" debate for the "unthinking masses" or have it defined for you. Period, end of story- it doens't matter a bit how you "feel" about it.

Political Physics

...I'm driving a stupid Ford Taurus right now, and Olive Garden is where I met the girl I had my son with, and is - no was - one of my favorite restraunts. Pieces of #@#%.

Political Physics

...that losing control of every branch of govenment was worth bumping up the speed of the selection process so that the "building of the new" could start ASAP.

We're angry, we're not going to take it anymore, and we're going to start the new Democratic revolution right...

...after this nap.......ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz....

Political Physics

...doink...

...I do agree that Kerry has neglected his base - badly. The motivators for this are the same as the motivators which promted him to run ambigiously on issues until "too late" in the race. Kerry has and still is operating under the false hope that by, "just waiting long enough, he can co-opt every position and strategy out there".

I voted for Kerry, Kerry would have been a 100 billion times better for Bush, but he IS a conscious flip-flopper these days (partial backstory there, and also here at the bottom), who in fact has lacked a conviction to run on what he believes in. He only came strongly out against the war and Bush when he was substantially down in the polls at the end of August (when he basically adopted Dean's positions).

Better to stand for SOMETHING strongly, than stand for everything meekly. That was this election in a nutshell:

"I'm George Bush and I'm running on the fact that I didn't blink when I hit that wall!" ("Yeaaaa!!!" - the masses go wild!)

vs.

Kerry, "I'm going to wait to see what you want me to say..." ("boo!" the masses hiss)

...to hear you Jerome, or you, and you. Even those "on our side" would want us to capitulate right now...

...so I say to you, welcome. Welcome you new generation of the reality-based community. Welcome you new members of the disaffected and the marginailzed. My name is History and I welcome you all with my anthem...it may be all you have to console yourself with for many years to come:

If the sun refuse to shine,
I don't mind, I don't mind,
If the mountains fell in the sea, let it be, it ain't me.
Alright, 'cos I got my own world to look through,
And I ain't gonna copy you.
White collared conservative flashing down the street,
Pointing their plastic finger at me.
They're hoping soon my kind will drop and die,
But I'm gonna wave my freak flag high, high.
Wave on, wave on
Fall mountains, just don't fall on me
Go ahead on Mr. Business man, you can't dress like me.
Sing on Brother, play on drummer.
- Jimi Hendrix - If 6 was 9

Political Physics