You should call the MyDD poll the "bullshit poll of candidates as defined by Chris Bowers". As far as I know, not a single person in your poll has declared their candidacy. You have created an arbitrary and subjective set of criteria and set yourself up as the sole judge of people who meet it. If you apply objective criteria to include only people who are candidates, your poll should include no one.

Every poll that is open to the public is a people's choice poll, unless the pollster has forced the people to artificially choose among candidates that do not include their first choice. Then it becomes a bullshit poll.

Ya wanna know who your readers want as their candidate? Put their choice in their poll. Otherwise, it means nothing.

>> Markos has been trying to sell this term "progressive" which I think is kind of repulsive. <<

I've never really considered myself to be a liberal; I'm not clear even what that means. I do know that my view of the term "progressive" describes the way I feel about myself and what my country should be seeking: an acknoledgement that we are less than perfect, but we have grand ideals going back to the Declaration of Independence, and we have been working for over 200 years to achieve them, and that we want to keep working toward those ideals despite setbacks of the last 25 years.

Election after election since 2000 we have seen the GOP perform better than the pre-election polls and the exit polls. Despite all of the factors that would seem to favor Democrats, I have no reason to expect that they will be sufficient for a Democratic victory in 2006. I will not be optimistic until the day after the election when the numbers show the Democrats picking up seats, and then it will be "guarded optimism".

See response below.

that a law was passed on Warner's watch that prohibits municipalities from setting up free wifi that would compete with existing commercial internet access services. So in other words, if you live in a place where boradband is available and don't have $40/month, you're screwed.

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+56-484.7C1

"The prices charged by a county, city, town, electric commission or board, industrial development authority, or economic development authority for providing communications services shall not be set at a price for the service lower than the prices charged by any incumbent provider for a functionally equivalent service that is as generally available from such incumbent as it is from such governmental entity."

So, as I said, MuniWiFi is for all practical purposes banned for non-rural Virginia. The Virginia Wireless Service Act also creates a regulatory licensing process that will make sure that no municipality has a chance to create a WiFi network without hearing every objection from any internet service provider.

The Roanoke project covers only a tiny part of the city, a few blocks, and access is limited to two hours a day. Warner's photo-op there reminds me of something Bush would do.

Just another reason why I don't want him to be president. (His Iraq "strategy" and lack of election reform are others.)

It was probably the single standout action in Kerry's Senate career that allowed him to be framed as a flipflopper. It made it difficult for him to attack Bush about the war, and had him dancing like a guy in an old western with the bad guy shooting at his feet, trying to explain the nuance that made his vote right but the war as pursued by Bush wrong.

Senator Clinton faces the same problem, and it is probably one reason that she will not call for a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, but instead criticizes Bush on Iraq from the right, for chrissakes.

All of the Democratic senators who voted to give Bush authority to go to war are tainted, and nominating one of them will be ceding to the GOP candidate the high ground on what is the most important issue with American voters.

The GOP has a lot to lose, including control of a possible impeachment. No way are they going to let Democrats take the House. They will stop at nothing, and I mean nothing- voter suppression, voting fraud, allowing terrorist attacks or a pandemic- to retain control of Congress. The GOP has shown time and again that it is willing to step it up a notch beyond what we think is the furthest they will go. They are willing to destroy our democratic institutions if it will allow them to stay in power.

In 2002 we got the drumbeat for the war in Iraq as a way to regain control of the Senate. Almost 2000 American troops dead, thousands of others maimed, and countless tens of thousands of dead Iraqis, all so that they could win the 2002 election. What will they do for an encore? Expect the worst.

Is it too much of a stretch to argue that these diaries on Gore are part of a larger anti-Gore rumor mill that encompasses Kos and Bowers?

For Gods' sakes, Gore's denial is a non-denial. If he doesn't declare by a couple of weeks before Iowa, well, maybe it will mean something.

Certainly part of the unfavorable rating is dependent on Democrats that have an unfavorable view of him, and I'd bet that in a poll Bowers would be counted as one of them. He continues to damn Gore with faint praise (at best) and his omission of Gore from his "straw poll" is another way of subtly excluding Gore from the dialog on presidential contenders. His only Gore diaries provide an opportunity to tell us what's wrong with him (can Gore's "flaws" be fixed?), or to tell us why rumors that Gore may be considering a run are not credible (equivalent rumors for anyone else are enough to get them in the straw poll). Kos is doing the same thing. Obviously, these are some very influential people in the netroots that are going to do what they can to suppress a Gore candidacy.

This crap would make the GOP noise machine proud.

The Salvation Army may be brave souls all but they also have had a major lobbying effort to support Bush agenda and I won't give them a penny for anything.

I was already waiting to see relief to the people in New Orleans before I gave money to anyone. I don't want to give money to Alabama or Mississippi, I want to give money to New Orleans; I also don't want to contribute to the establishment of refugee camps throughout the South that may become more or less permanent, a way to help La become more dependably GOP.

I gave $1,000 to tsunami relief.

is not necessarily damaged to the degree that New Orleans itself is. We really don't know much about it since coverage has been more directed toward the tragedy in the city itself. Also haven't heard anything about the shape of the offshore platforms.