"did terry mac ever give us anything but disaster?"

That depends... Is failure the same as disaster?

I wouldn't donate to Ford.  Maybe they are hoping with Ford they wouldn't need me.  And, they could have all that nice new corporate DNC money to spend as they see fit instead of using it to do crazy $#!+ like building the Party.

Schumer, Emmanuel and Dean should all be embracing each other as equal partners in this success. (eventhough I think Dean's work will prove more valuable in the long run) Carville should be taken to the woodshed for denigrating Dean doing the job he was elected to do.

I'd like someone to say (on TV) "It's The DemocratIC Party.  If you won't call us the "Democrat" Party we won't call you the "Publican" Party.

publican

one who farmed the taxes (e.g., Zacchaeus, Luke 19:2) to be levied from a town or district, and thus undertook to pay to the supreme government a certain amount. In order to collect the taxes, the publicans employed subordinates (5:27; 15:1; 18:10), who, for their own ends, were often guilty of extortion and peculation. In New Testament times these taxes were paid to the Romans, and
hence were regarded by the Jews as a very heavy burden, and hence also the collectors of taxes, who were frequently Jews, were hated, and were usually spoken of in very opprobrious terms. Jesus was accused of being a "friend of publicans and sinners" (Luke 7:34).

This is the smartest thing I've read today.  Thank you.

Firing Howard Dean as Chair means going back to the way the Party used to be run, instead of rebuilding.  That didn't work for us in the past.  There's no reason we should expect it will work for us in the future.  It took the GOP 4 decades to build what they have now and reap the political benefits.  I think we will make significant gains in the coming elections.  But, to do 40 years of party building in one year would make Dean a Superman!  The most important thing he can do is lay the groundwork for change that will continue thru the years.

"...but Howard Dean has misused the money and got to raise huge amounts of dollars between now and election day.  It's a question of if he doesn't do it he might lose his job."

This is bullshit.  Why are "Democrats" so willing to do the GOP's smear work for them?  Some pols in DC are upset because Dean isn't milking the states for money and bringing it back to them.  But, he is building the 50 state campaign just like he said he was going to - just like what has to happen.  This costs money.  He's raising money in the states and it is staying in the states.

http://www.mess.be/pirate-names-male.php
http://www.mess.be/pirate-names-female.php

Ye can't set sail sounding like a lubber... can ye?

I would hope that parents are checking out the church before they send their kids.  And, I would hope that they are following up with some "So, what did you learn in Sunday School? Let's talk about that." discussion.  But, given the nature of the outreach that doesn't seem likely. The idea that someone wants to take my kids somewhere, ply them with Snackables and fill their heads with stuff that (by virtue of me not being especially interested in accompanying them to church) I have no input/mediation in really bothers me. But, because it is a Church Bus I should be satisfied that less harm than good is being done.  There's an assumption that any church is better than no church.  That's not necessarily true.

I think church can do a lot of good.  But, I think it can also do a lot of harm. Not all churches present a basically harmless view of the Universe. It was 20 years between my being made to go to church as a child and my finding my way back into one as an adult.  And, this was the church that the rest of my whole (birth) family still attends and calls their spiritual home.  Somebody else's church is never going to get the chance with my kids to do damage that will take a generation to undo.

No, you don't.  Let me answer for Renee since she is at church right now. Later she may take our daughter to a different church where she sings in the choir. (I choose to commune with God in the restful privacy of my home. I'm quite comfortable that God knows where to find me.)

The issue isn't that this church is reaching out. Or, with their message. It is more the combination - and the tactic of targeting children to the exclusion of the adults.  I think this tactic does an end run around the parents judgement.  Sure, the parents make the decision whether to put the kids on the bus or not.  But, once that bus pulls away I wonder how much interaction the parents will have with the lessons being taught. I wonder how deeply those seeds get planted and what they will grow into.

I would much prefer the whole family found a church that it likes. (As you said "DON'T SEND YOUR KIDS TO CHURCH....TAKE THEM.") Or, that a parent was with the kids to supervise what they are learning.  If we don't let our kids watch MTV because we don't like the lessons it teaches about the world - then we should certainly be more careful about the lessons our kids are learning about the Universe.  I fear that "The Church Bus" is designed to lure kids away from the parents with the promise of assuaged guilt and a morning off - and to isolate that impressionable new audience for indoctrination into a less than Progressive mindset about God.

It's not the same thing.  But, this bothers me the same way someone passing out "free" nickel-bags on the playground bothers me.  "There's no market in the parents. Let's get the kids while they're young."  I suspect if we cruised their churches for kids to take to Science Camp (Free breakfast - then we'll teach you all about our tree dwelling protohominid ancestors) that many of them would feel the same way that I do.