Progressives Think Different

Macs and Progressives: "The conference I was at yesterday was a get-together of various folks from the liberal media (In These Times, The American Prospect, ColorLines, Mother Jones, etc.). We are, of course, preparing to take over the world, and Apple should be very happy at the prospect. Of all the notebooks busily being tapped on during the meetings, I'd say about 70% were Macs. This compares to an Apple market share of around 4% in the real world."

(Via Political Animal.)

We Mac cultists might Think Different™, as do most liberals, but at least we're thinking.

Don't believe me?  After you read this, you'll know for a fact that Mark Noonan uses a cheap-ass Dell.

Alcee

I had the distinct pleasure of learning the in's and out's of Federal Procedure from a Professor who served as one of Alcee Hasting's attorneys during his impeachment proceedings.  I don't claim any special insider knowledge of the case due to that relationship, except to the extent that I've been aware of the matter far longer than most of the public outside of South Florida.

Hasting's name always perks my ears up.  It's a fascinating case, and Hastings is truly a poster-child for the conflicting values of "innocent until proven guilty" and the idea that public figures must avoid "even the appearance of impropriety."

Not without irony do I make the comparison of the plight of Alcee Hastings with another infamous black resident of South Florida who was notoriously acquitted of criminal deeds, yet faces a life-time of persecution because he was punished in another judicial proceeding with a much lower burden of proof than that required to deprive someone of life, liberty or property.

Yep, I'm playing the O.J. card.


I do agree with E-pony Matt, along with Neil and even Stephen Kaus, but only in the conclusion they reach, not for the reasons that got them there.  Not for one minute.

I think that the cloud surrounding Hastings, the misinformation, sound-byte culture, and politics of personal destruction makes Alcee poison to Nancy Pelosi's agenda if she were to put him in a prominent role at this point in history.  It's the same logic that makes me withhold my support for Hillary Clinton -- why give the wingnuts an easy target?

But take a cruise down the intellectual exercise highway with me to stare in the face of hypocrisy as the law clashes with politics.

Bloggers should take the same care that traditional journalists are taught in making the important distinction between someone who is a criminal and those merely accused. Up until the day that the civil jury found O.J. Simpson "liable" for the deaths of his wife and her friend, any publication or broadcaster risked a defamation suit if they didn't interject the magic word, "alleged" when branding the former Heisman star a murderer.

However, once the civil jury found that he was "more than likely" guilty, despite being previously found "not absolutely certain to be" guilty -- you and I as well as CNN's Glenn Beck and Nancy Grace, Jay Leno, or any number of Fox News moral arbitrators were free to call O.J. a murderous scumbag to our hearts desire.

Alcee's "civil" conviction in the Senate, which removed him from the federal bench subsequent to his impeachment in the House of Representatives, hung on a far less burdensome standard of proof than O.J.'s civil trial -- which demanded a preponderance of the evidence.  Alcee's prosecutors, the House managers, only had to show to each individual member that it would be politically expedient to throw this particular bum out.

Now, to be fair, I more than likely would have voted with the majority (and a huge majority it was) to remove Hastings.  I take seriously the idea that a member of the bench must avoid even the appearance of impropriety -- and Hastings did appear to have been under an unacceptable cloud of improper behavior.  But, and this is key, it's horribly inconsistent and flies in the face of integrity for the same body that so overwhelmingly voted to impeach the Judge allowed that same man to sit with them as one of their members. (Note also that my standards are higher than the constitutionally described removal for cause -- guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors, but more akin to allowing the judge to serve only upon continued "good behavior".)

How do you justify this inconsistent result?  Beyond admiring Hasting's spunk to even try and get elected to Congress after going through the ignominy of a successful impeachment, his obvious popularity in his district cannot be enough to overcome the idea that so many of his colleagues must believe that they are sitting next to a man without scruples -- that or something has changed.

Like the Senate, the House is constitutionally empowered to determine the qualifications of its own membership.  Because of this, prevention of a previously impeached judge to sit as a Representative is a simple matter of majority rule.  By a vote of 413 to 3, the House saw fit to impeach Hastings, yet when it came time to approve of the voters' decision to rehabilitate his political career, they could not muster half that many to refuse his admission.

That result is inexplicable -- except for one thing, political expedience.  There's never been a civil trial of Hasting's case.  He was never given the opportunity to vindicate himself in such a setting, or be found liable like O.J.  In fact, you might note that his Senate trial was particularly unorthodox in that he was not tried in front of the entire Senate as would be proper under the Constitution, but only a Senate committee.

You might also note that the Senate would have been well within it's rights to forbid Hastings from ever seeking a federal office again, but again, inexplicably, they chose not to.

The burden of proof in his impeachment proceedings was left entirely up to the conscious of the Members.  The extent of the punishment was not subject to any mandated guidelines, but again, up to the whim of each Senator on that committee.

Now, just looking at the results, not the evidentiary minutiae of circumstance -- acquittal in criminal court -- 413-3 impeachment vote by a body that freely accepted him as a member when it could have refused by a simple majority 3 years later -- removal by committee which avoided a trial before the full Senate -- 12 years tenure in the House as a result of a loyal constituency -- rising to a position of distinction in the Intelligence Committee solely due to his seniority and presumed merit, Alcee Hastings absolutely deserves to be committee chair.  His predicament is entirely the creation of raw political self-interest of a Congress that never, ever thought it would have to deal with him again.  Who never thought they'd have to deal with the hypocrisy of their own indifference.

Unfortunately, for those very same reasons, because of self-interested political realities, Alcee Hastings cannot be allowed to become the lightning rod for accusations of Democratic party corruption by Republicans desperate to find any absolution mitigating their historically corrupt turn at the levers of power.

After all, you wouldn't let O.J. date your daughter, would you?

This One's Hard

As I get the house ready to welcome the family for Thanksgiving, about 15 to 20 coming over at last count, and keeping otherwise busy, I've been able to avoid thinking too much about it. But it's there and it's huge, because there's one guest who won't be making it.

I've spent 44 Holidays with her, going to her house or her to mine, and just as many while we we under the same roof. She was supposed to make it home from the hospital in time for the annual fall feast, certainly by Christmas at the latest.

We won't be sitting at the dining room table together again. We won't be exchanging gifts or stories. She went into a coma and the doctors don't know how many days she'll last, but she won't be waking up. There's nothing there to wake up. She went without air too long.

She's not there, but she is. We all live in the hearts of those we touch, those we love.

Single mothers raising only-sons make for a unique bond. No matter what, one constant was always, Mom.

I miss you.

(Beverly J. Adams -- 6/3/36 to 11/22/06. I just got the call at 10:30 this morning, and had a few moments alone. I won't be having too many such moments for the next several days. Thank you for your thoughts and wishes.)

Culture Of Butchers

Oliver Willis just has a knack for cutting to the chase.  In a quickie update to a brief observation on Ted Koppel's Documentary on Iran, he blurts this out:

This is the stupid kind of shit crap I'm talking about. Why does con foreign policy always boil down to just stupidly killing people?

I really shouldn't even re-link "This crap since the juvenile posting it surely gets erotic delight every time his hit-meter goes "ping."  But for the sake of context, this is what got Willis' fur ruffled:

Bomb Iran  --   Diplomacy is doing nothing to stop the Iranian nuclear threat; a show of force is the only answer.  —  WE MUST bomb Iran.  —  It has been four years since that country's secret nuclear program was brought to light, and the path of diplomacy and sanctions has led nowhere.

It may be crass, but what else is left but to scream, "You're an idiot, you fascist ass," when you read warmongering drivel like this?  They can't be reasoned with, else how could they even contemplate such an unreasonable position on such ridiculous grounds and state it publicly.  I've never got the disconnect with people who sanctimoniously preach about a "culture of life" but have no qualms about being butchers of lives.

Note, that the ReichWingnut advocating starting yet another war also links to the Sy Hersh article Ara talks about -- which kinda defeats the argument for launching a strike against Iran.  You'd think, anyway.

Atlas Raised An Eyebrow

Wet panties should not be a gauge of competence in public officials.

Shorter Pam Atlas: "I wanna ride John Bolton's mustache, but while Nic Burns is cute, he's too cute not to be gay."

Stunning insight from the floosiest swingnut™ not to be a Fox News regular. (Yes, I said swingnut, in the hyper-testosteroned Coulter, Ingrahm, Malkin sense.)

She really needs a vacation. That or a cold shower.

I mean, just what is she getting at here:

If you don't BLOG FOR BOLTON you can't hang in the Atlas Sphere. That's the price of admission.

Or this little love note about the man she calls "Super Ambassador":

Gd bless that man. WTF would we do without him? Would no one stand up? I, for one, sleep better knowing that Bolton is preserver and defender of all that is good and true in America.

But Nicholas Burns, arguably the most competent official left in the State Department, a rational actor in an irrational world:

He is such a metrosexual. We need testosterone.

Pam, seriously. You've got enough man-sap running through your own bloodstream for all of us.

42-39 -- Rematch??

Thanks for the B-Day Present

	1 2 3 4 Total (2) Michigan 7 7 10 15 39 Final (1) Ohio St. 7 21 7 7 42

Could Happen.

Michigan and Ohio State have played 102 times, but never as No. 1 and No. 2. That kind of matchup, anywhere, has happened just 36 times in 70 years -- usually a marquee nonconference game in September or a bowl in January.

In November or December? Between conference rivals? In the history of college football, that has happened just three times, and only in conferences that don't exist anymore -- twice in the Big 8, once in the Southwest Conference. Two such Oklahoma-Nebraska games, in 1971 and 1987, were billed as Game of the Century I and II. And the 1969 meeting between No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Arkansas lured President Nixon away from the Vietnam conflict.

USC (8-1) has threee chances to lose a bid to take the Number Two slot from the LOSERS at Ann Arbor to challenge the NATION'S NUMBER ONE TEAM, OSU.

The Trojans should beat Cal tonight, but if they don't totally humiliate 5th ranked Notre Dame, who's to say they are better than Michigan with an identical record if they also beat UCLA ON Dec. 2? And they could totally choke in one of the three games left.

It was only a three point loss for Michigan on the Buckeyes home field.

How 'bout it Blue? You up for a trip to Arizona?

OH Suh-Nappp!

Oh my. Godwin lives!

It can be a very dangerous thing for an ideological zealot to gain a large and uncritical audience, whether you're talking about Adolf Hitler, Muqtada al-Sadr, or Ann Coulter. The kind of solipsistic, eliminationist rhetoric these people trade in has a particular appeal to disaffected angry young men who are socially isolated and bursting with undirected rage. When you band these people together into groups, they turn into mobs. If they're religious extremists from Muslim cultures, we call them muhajadeen or jihadi. If they're political and religious extremists from Western nations, we call them freepers or just "Republicans".

Chad Castanaga is a 39-year-old, unemployed Californian who, in his own words, thinks of Ann Coulter as "a goddess" and "worship(s) Michelle Malkin and (Reich Wing Talk Radio shrew) Laura Ingraham". Up until a few days ago, Mr. Castanaga was living with his parents and seemed like a nice enough guy, sure. A quiet type. Kept to himself. You get the picture. (TRex)

"Nice enough" until we found out he was arrested on suspicion of sending fake anthrax through the mail to "demagogues" like Jon Stewart, Nancy Pelosi, David Letterman and Keith Olberman.


Go ahead and read the rest of TRex's screed against the suspected Freeper terrorist and his rant on the Pajamahadeen's disgusting excuse for "dialogue" that manages more to incite and outrage rather than legitimately debate issues.

The Right Blogosphere is a cesspool of boiling hate and howling insanity and we need to stop pretending that these are people who can be engaged rationally, appeased, or tolerated. They stand in direct opposition to everything that America is about, freedom of speech, plurality of ideas, and equality before the law regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, and ideological or spiritual affiliation.

Funny, throughout Wingnuttystan and the beltway punditocracy, great pains are being taken to push the meme that the Republican loss of Congress was not a loss for the conservative movement because Bush and the Rovians are not true conservatives, and the newly elected Democrats are. TRex must have missed the memo.

I would have ignored that memo too. While I do agree that it is too early to bring down the curtain on conservatives, especially in their most extremely virulent form, they are in critical condition. But it's farse not to recognize that repudiation of conservative ideology at least played a significant role in their defeat.

The upshot is, if it was not the triumph of liberalism that rejected Compassionate Conservatives™ but rather the elusive and nearly extinct middle American -- who just elected their first muslim to Congress, a self-described socialist and 16 women to the Senate along with over 70 in the House led by a liberal San Fransisco grandmother; not to mention red state Ohio voting for an anti-free-trade, bona-fide progressive Senator -- then the Limbaughs, Hannities and Pam Atlases of the world are even more radical than even I imagined. Of course that's because as a proud liberal, I seem to be more in the mainstream than I was ever led to believe.

Of course, to fully understand this you must embrace the Orwellian hyjacking of the language we've been subject to for the last several decades -- which reached it's zenith only recently. It's not what they say, but rather what they did. They did lable themselves proudly as conservatives. Those self-described conservatives did reach new heights in arrogance, deception, hubris, exploitation, fiscal irresponsibility, historical ignorance and indifference to consequences. Those conservatives did vilify Democrats and all things liberal as equivalent to murderous terrorist extremists who target civilians with airliners and lop off the heads of journalists just for effect.

Maybe TRex is a bit over the top. Maybe I should let it go -- and if I were in a position of authority I'd consider it -- for the good of the country. But I don't have to, and I'm not ready to forgive and forget just yet. The extremist on the right will not be, and have not been silenced by their defeat. Those that have not already reverted to form, soon will. They're not done by a long shot.

Their noise machine is still in place, their infrastructure is as strong as ever. They're not going away and they not only have learned nothing, they will preach exactly the wrong lesson to millions and millions of listeners, viewers and readers for hours and hours each and every day. The MSM (mindlessly stupid media) will continue to pair the most insane right-wing exibitionists and hacktacular propagandists against a mainstream Democrat representing a reasonable position and present it as a balance between conservatives and liberals -- that the "truth" lies somewhere between the rational and irrational, that the middle ground is somewhere between reality and fiction.

It's absurd, of course. But it will continue to skew the argument not only to the right, but away from reason.

The O'Reillys and Saviges, Hindrakers and Glenn Becks, the Little Green Footballs, Instapundits, and Hugh Hewitts will not stop just because middle America chose to vote for their avowed enemies. They will only stop driving this nation apart and profiting from divisiveness when actual conservatives directly denounce them, when the GOP, for it's own survival, repudiates their tactics and philosophy in no uncertain terms.

A New Dispassionate Liberal

I'm delighted to announce that Cleveland Attorney Philip D. Althouse finally accepted my invitation to become a Dispassionate Liberal contributor instead of just sending me the occasional piece of fantastic information to put up here myself.

Phil and I met in Law School and found we shared many of the same beliefs about the dysfunction of our system of government, and specifically how (at the time) the Reagan Republicans were ruining this country. Little did we know what Republicans were capable of.....

A professional teacher, registered nurse, mediator and practicing lawyer, Phil is one of the nicest people to ever come out of Milwaukee, you can read his complete bio here, and some of his publications here.

For a taste of what you can expect from Phil, take a look at his treatment of the Patriot Act(s):

WHEN BIG BROTHER COMES KNOCKING

Philip D. Althouse

Vocal proponents of socioeconomic or political change, human rights advocates, and members of racial and ethnic minorities have been scapegoats of public sentiment and targets of the federal government, especially during tough economic times. In 1919, during a post-war economic slump and domestic unrest, a series of political bombing attempts against political and financial leaders ended with an explosion at the home of U.S. Attorney General A Mitchell Palmer. The Justice Department effort led in part by J. Edgar Hoover, head of the Alien Radical Division, rounded up thousands of suspected immigrant subversives across the country. Many were held incommunicado and some tortured. 500, mainly from Eastern Europe, were deported . In Cleveland, May Day was marked by rioting. “Patriotic” groups confronted Trade unions and socialists who were holding a parade Superior Avenue to protest the jailing of Eugene Debs and to promote the mayoral candidacy of Charles Ruthenberg. Two people were killed and scores injured. A mob of over 100 anti-red rioters destroyed the office of the Socialist Party on Prospect Avenue.

That's right, they named a building after the cross-dressing head of the FBI's Alien Radical Division, who went on to take over the whole agency -- making his bones by exploiting our irrational fear of outsiders and and a public that turned a blind eye to torture and illegally "disappearing" people as long as they weren't one of us -- whoever "us" has become.

I didn't know that, did you?

Welcome Phil! Glad to have you aboard.

Thank You Sidharth

Never doubt that a small group of comitted individuals can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. -Margarate Mead

Things to Think About:

There's no doubt that the margin of Webb's win over Allen was far smaller than the margin provided by the instant disgust and ensuing fallout from the 'Macaca' comments. Given that, it's literally true that S.R Sidharth, the slurred Webb staffer, flipped the Senate. Himself. His very presence at that event, when combined with Allen's bigotry, ended Republican rule over Congress. So while Isaac Chotiner ably rounds up the various Allen advisors disgraced by their boss's implosion, we should all take a moment to think fondly of Sidharth, the lowly staffer who won Democrats the Senate.

(Via Ezra Klein.)

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups. -George Carlin

Don't Get Me Wrong, I Love Her

Hillary Clinton is a GREAT lady. I believe her importance to history is secure, and she still has a long and impressive career ahead of her. I don't think that will change when and if she runs for president, and she has a decent chance of winning.

I think any contender who has her support, including herself, has a decent chance of winning and she would make an extraordinary president.

I think it would be absolutely horrible for her to run, at least this time.

I know, she's not getting any younger -- but neither is John McCain. She's got great health coverage, right?

Earl Ofari Hutchinson analyzes the "Hillary Dilemma at HuffPost. His outline of the polarizing nature of Hillary in the '08 presidential race, let alone another Clinton presidency, is only half the story.

It is one of the better dissections of the galvanizing forces on the right just salivating for the chance to pounce on her.

She's still, well Hillary, and to top cat Republicans licking their wounds over their midterm debacle, she's still their made-in-heaven balm. Hillary is a living, breathing wedge issue.

It's keep your eye on the ball time folks. The goal is not simply punishing the neo-cons, reigning in the corporate give-aways, purging the corrupt and incompetent, blocking any more extreme nominations, or even ending the war.



The goal is not simply a Democratic White House working with a deep blue Congress.

It's about putting in place what American's have wanted for decades, what we thought a Clinton working with a Democratic Congressional majority would give us last time -- real health care reform, real investment in the people of this nation and not just paving the way for get-rich-quick schemes and stay-rich-always conspiracies. It's about the promise of Government being a force for good, for shared prosperity, for educational excellence, for safety at home and security from threats abroad.

It's about our government representing ALL our interests, not "50% plus one" strategies that don't merely become a "wedge," but literally tear us apart in disastrous ways.

"You have to understand, this administration is further to the right than much of the public understands. The view of many people [in the White House] is that the best government can do is simply do no harm, that it never is an agent for positive change. If that’s your position, why bother to understand what programs actually do?"

This is what we've become accustomed to from our so-called representative republic -- a government that does not do our bidding, but exploits our petty disputes with vitriolic rhetoric verging on the extreme that benefits absolutely no one -- except those already in power and their K-Street keepers.

It must end.

Because she is who she is, and for no reason better than that, Hillary Clinton cannot accomplish this vital mission, to bring our nation together, to leave no American behind.

Just as we resist the urge to kick the GOP while it's down (although it sure is fun to watch them kick their own), we can not be tempted to provide them with the gift that will reunite them more than any tax cut or border fence.

When you listen to Barack Obama speak of ending the punditry's "slicing and dicing" us up into Red and Blue States, when you hear John Edwards encourage us to remember that we are One America, you too will understand that, great lady that she is, Hillary Clinton's time has not yet come.

The Terror Within

Creepy Freeper ... Check.

Proud, Lifelong Wingnut ... Check.

Underachieving Computer Geek ... Check.

Brainwashed by Cute Conservative Bimbos ... Check.

Closeted Xenophobic Racist ... Check.

If you know someone who identifies with these qualities, you've got someone who fits the profile of this charming domestic terror suspect, who allegedly likes to sent fake anthrax powder to celebrities and democratic public officials.

QUESTION: Do you think that the rightwing noise machine will ever figure out how irresponsible it is to equate Democrats and/or liberals with terrorists?

Looney Libs

My good friend (we call him "Brain") is a full-time, bona fide scientist and admitted "loony liberal."  (I have pictures to prove it.)  Not content with his studies in meteorology, he became a climatologist.  He once told me he'd rather study what the weather was yesterday, instead of predicting what it's going to be tomorrow.  I suspect it was the easy way out -- but that's another story.

He wrote me today about wishing he lived in a more competitive congressional district, just to get in the trenches.  Dennis Kucinich represents "Brain," and like my Rep., Marcie Kaptur, our views couldn't be better represented in Congress.  I used to be represented by Stephanie Tubbs-Jones who was Stephen Colbert's first "Better Know A District" guest.  Great lady.

Nobody can ever beat these fine Congress Critters because they're that good, that committed, and that right on the issues that matter.  Take this news about the former Cleveland Mayor known as Dennis The Menace:

Joshua Scheer: Rep. Kucinich: America Needs Iraq War Hearings:... (more under the fold)

In an original Truthdig interview, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), the potential next chair of the Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations, calls for congressional hearings into how and why America invaded Iraq, and demands 'accountability' for those who led America into a 'war based on lies.'

[snip]

KUCINICH: I've had a plan to get us out of Iraq from the minute we got there. I've had it on my website for three years--elements of which are still very viable. It calls for the U.S. to give up its control of the oil assets to move towards soliciting U.N. involvement.

[snip]

And people have to be held accountable. You can't lead this country into a war that has lost thousands of U.S. troops and perhaps hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis, [and that has] cost the American taxpayers $400 billion--and maybe up to $2 trillion--and leave it with some kind of blithe apology. There has to be accountability. When the people elected Democrats, they also voted for accountability.

[snip]

We'll never be able to bring closure to this Iraq matter unless we tell the truth about what happened. So America needs a new approach of truth and reconciliation. This isn't a Democratic or Republican matter. This is a matter that relates to the conscience of this country. This is a matter of the heart--the heart of democracy itself. This is a matter of whether we're going to a sober reflection about the events that have transpired since 9/11, with respect to Iraq. And until we do this, we will be trapped not only physically in Iraq, we'll be trapped emotionally and spiritually in Iraq. We may never get out of Iraq if we don't tell the truth.

There shouldn't be any partisan direction on this. We should all be together. America wants a new direction in Iraq; it stated it loud and clear. It wants a Congress that's going to question the president, not a rubber-stamp Congress. This is a time to tell the truth and to heal our nation. And the time for Congress to function as a co-equal branch of government and for the government to function as it was intended to function.

(And by the way, "Brain" sez it's getting hotter and we're all gonna die from global warming unless we legalize pot -- or something like that.)

I Didn't See This Coming

Pelosi Backs John Murtha For Majority Leader..."

(Via Huffington Post.)

Everyone knew Murtha had a good shot at stepping over Dem. Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) for the job, but Hoyer looked to have the inside track, support of the powers-that-be, etc.

The guy's job is to count votes, and he did, and said in true Rovian fashion that he has the votes.

Obviously, he didn't count on the lady in charge. Folks, there's a new sheriff in town, and she looks Fabulous!

This is a shot right over Cheney's bow, and Nancy ain't quail huntin'. Man I love thumpin' time.

Just for laughs, check out the aneurism this is giving the lizard brains at LGF.

Two of the worst leftist lunatics on the US political scene are about to take control of the House of Representatives

Bwahahaha! Wait 'til they get a load of how much time she spends on her nails and make-up instead of the country's business. They're gonna flip. Remember how they lost their minds over Clinton's haircuts?

Death Penalty and Gay Marriage

My old friend, Cleveland Attorney Phil Althouse, a homeless and consumer advocate, sent along two interesting articles, data points in the arsenal of reality.

Both are from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (subscription required), which concern the passage of an "advisory referendum" approving reinstatement of the death penalty passed the in the deep, deep blue State of Wisconsin, which also passed an anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment.

What the referendums left off the ballot was an alternative choice -- civil unions as an alternative to gay marriage (favored 51%-28%), and life without parole as an alternative to the death penalty, favored by the majority of those polled by the paper:

When the Badger Poll asked state residents last spring whether they favored reinstating the death penalty, 56% said "yes." When an advisory referendum posed the same question on Tuesday, 56% of state voters replied "yes."

The Badger Poll went on to ask an important second question: Is the death penalty or life imprisonment with no possibility of parole a better punishment for murder? About 50% chose life imprisonment and 45% chose the death penalty.

Notably, the referendum did not ask that follow-up question.

Instead, it confirmed what polls have long suggested: When presented with no other options, a majority will say they favor the death penalty. But in Wisconsin, there is an alternative that polling routinely shows has more support: life with no chance of parole.

So until that follow-up question is put to voters, lawmakers should avoid misreading the referendum result as a mandate for the death penalty, which a wise Legislature scuttled in 1853. The last Legislature not so wisely toyed with reinstating a penalty that the world is gradually abandoning.

We have a long way to go to make our government truly representative, like universal health care which is supported by an overwhelming super-majority, and has been the case for years.

Biden In, Richardson A Definite Maybe

Biden In:

"Senator Joseph R. Biden (D-DE) said this morning on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos that he planned to seek the Democratic nomination for President in 2008."

Richardson?  He'll get back to us:

Democrat Richardson tells us he's mulling over a January announcement and says, "I've got something to offer."

Feingold Bows Out

Russ Feingold will Not be running for president.

In a letter on his Progressive Patriots Fund website, launched last June to "to explore the possibility of running for president in 2008," Russ has disappointed his supporters by formally withdrawing his quest for higher office.

Via Yahoo News:

MILWAUKEE - U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold (news, bio, voting record) has decided against seeking the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, saying he wanted to focus on his work in the Senate.

In a letter posted on his political action committee's Web site, Feingold said he was excited that Tuesday's elections gave Democrats control of both chambers of Congress, giving them the chance to "undo much of the damage that one-party rule has done to America."

"We can actually advance progressive solutions to such major issues as guaranteed health care, dependence on oil and our unbalanced trade policies," he wrote.

Feingold, 53, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he realized he would be a long-shot candidate in a bid for the presidency.

He said running as an underdog appealed to him, but not the way it would "dismantle" his work in the Senate and his personal life.

You can read Feingold's letter here.

This is a gut-check to progressive liberals everywhere, but coming off a terrific election last week, the sting isn't as bad as it could be.

If you haven't figured it out yet, this means you really ought to consider joining Ohio For Edwards. The Ohio For Edwards Blog is open for comments, but under construction -- stay tuned, .

Fraud!

What seems like a couple hundred years ago, I wrote my first blog post. It was about my morbid fascination with the bloviating Rush Limbaugh.

That was before Air America (actually just days before it launched), before Rush was outed as a drug addict, and well before he admitted that everything he said in support of the Bush Administration and the rubberstamp GOP Congress was a Big. Fat. Lie.

Rush and his cohorts ignored the real problems of this country for too long, opting instead to demonize anyone with the temerity to realistically examine our situation (let alone offer a solution) unless they had an "R" next to their name. It's time for America, at long last, to ignore Rush Limbaugh .


One of the newest members of the reality based community™ is John Cole, who turned his back on the GOP late in the campaign -- but before Rush, Hewitt and the disgraced Neo-Con-men turned the Corner, before the paleo-con calvary saddled up their aging mounts. Cole summed it up nicely:

In short, fat, drugged, and stupid is no way to go through life

I can't tell you how many times my ears turned red hearing one of these blowhards in the wingnuttystan noise machine say that the liberals would say or do anything to win elections and power.

As they Rush for absolution now that Rush has given them permission, mock them if you must, but remember that what they crave most is attention. Deny them relevance. That'll hurt more than any smack-down. We did all the smacking necessary last Tuesday.



P.S. Hey Pam, get a life you loser.

Welcome to Dispassionate Liberal 2.0

I hope you like the new crib. I stuck it out at the old site for a long time, but it's time for a change. The nitty-gritty beneath the fold...

Okay, I write a political blog, and I'm cheap. When I looked at free blogs almost three years ago, Blogger of course was first on the list. But I explored and found a lot of excellent features at BlogDrive.com.

I didn't complaint to much about the slow speeds, or the fact that all the cool bloggy features on the web support Blogger but never, ever BlogDrive.

And I know that downtime is to be expected anywhere you go. BUT when a political blog can't be seen from the Sunday before an important election until the Wednesday after -- the new post simply didn't show up -- it's time to move to new diggs.

Low and behold, as I explored, I found that Blogger had grown up! All the features I liked from my old blog and much, much more.

This is a Beta.Blogger.com blog, with its fast loads, and fantastic interface. Thanks to Ramani for the 3-column layout and fun gizmos.