Bucky, count me as one more reader who doesn't understand your positions on most issues. The reason for my shameful ignorance in this regard is that the great majority of what you write seems to be attacking others' positions, real, or more often, imagined. Do you really imagine that all of us "socialists" are busily rehabilitating LBJ? Interestingly, my copy of the Liberal Agenda makes no mention of such a pointless endeavor. Perhaps your suspicion arises from the Right's fevered project to rehabilitate Reagan?

As to whether Liberals are really liberal; does anyone evn know what that word really means anymore? You yourself seem to find it insufficiently derogatory, and have thus moved on to "Socialist." Further, would you call "Conservatives" conservative? If so, pray tell what in the world they are trying to conserve, besides inherited wealth?

I would certainly agree that the only candidate who embodies libertarianism, intermittently, is Ron Paul, but one of his chief attractions is that he seldom engages in the kind of personal attacks you are employing here.

I think you would find more common ground, and less acrimony, if you followed your own advice, and stick to what you've actually read, rather than ascribe to others a load of righty baloney you picked up from the Freepers.

WT... I bet it's a red nose, you closet commie. Still, it could trap the bubbles from the champagne, when you're snickering about those wars you're always mongering.

It'll be noon in just a few minutes; I'd better get the shaker ready.

It's Poppy Bush's favorite town.... Home of Powells Books. I'm a proud lifer.

Happy New Year UT gang... Austin's awfully tempting. Mom and big bro are coming over for New Years, famous lamb curry is on the stove. B's already off and running; really it's the time zone. I'm beginning to like Bloomberg running, if only to be a rich caricature of what they've become. A shorter, less handsome Mitt? I'll take it.

Pedinska....

Here's a resolution or two:

1) No curlers after 12:00pm

2) No cocktails until curlers are out.

3) While never forgetting 2001-2009 happened, no dwelling.

4) Get ass to Austin.

"The war is not meant to be won, it is only meant to be permanent."

Raising taxes and cutting the military budget are Unmentionable for the same reason; once people are taught that they never receive anything in return for the taxes they pay, because all the money vanishes down a rat hole of "defense," they assume that all taxes are wasted.

That pie chart, left blank, would make a good, if depressing measure of this phenomenon. Most people would think that "welfare" and "foreign aid" are the big slices, because that's what they've been told, ad nauseum. They're even told that immigrants come here for our social services, although we don't really have any to speak of.

Eisenhower's prediction has come true in spades; the military-industrial complex commands our resources, and every other expenditure suffers, and taxes are still high.

But even amid this situation, another Imperialist pipe-dreamer must be given a "voice," i.e. William Kristol elbowing aside a sane person's potential spot on the NYT op-ed page.

Where are the true conservatives? Aren't they at least offended by the wasted money?

I don't know who you are, Mr. Warning, but I hope you plan to stay awhile. Imagine my delight to come home and find that the Elmer Fudd of Right Wing Authoritarianism had shown up. Boy, you showed us wascally wibwulls how the real world works. I can almost picture you, armed with your bazooka, sure that the next time that dastardly Arne blows your pants off, or Kitt, RMP, ondelette, et.al, trick you again, you're going to get 'em, once and for all.

Gentle and patient explanations bounce right off; point by point destruction of not only every point, but the disordered and sociopathic thinking behind it, seem to matter not. Each time you're back, ready for the next roun, confident as ever.

You really are the best thing to happen to UT in at least several days. And y'all here saved me so much effort.... I owe ya.

"As for you, Cocktail Hag....."

That's more wicked witch than Elmer Fudd, but aside from the fact that the heartland is grossly overrepresented both in the Senate and the Electoral College, and its outsized influence over the more liberal, successful, and creative coasts is another matter, every poll places your particular fantasy of the way things ought to be in a tiny minority.

Therefore, while you may feel like the boss in your Cheeto-littered basement, implying that the 65-70% of Americans who would rightly consider you wrong and the additional 95% that would consider you an a**hole, are living in a petri-dish, your perceptions of reality aren't adding to your credibility.

But you go.... I love you, man.

Bethincary.... There are a lot of house slippers around that won't expose you to comments on the blog. You needn't sacrifice comfort just to be heard.

Ondelette and bethincary....

Is Jane Harman's primary nemesis from last time running against her again? God, I hope so. As much as I am generally in favor of having cocktail hags in high places, that woman makes Jay Rockefeller look like a paragon of bravery.

Her serial "new" admissions, which only illustrate how much she had abandoned any principle in favor of politcal expediency in the past, have actually made Pelosi's ditching her look like an (unintentionally) good move.