But, back to the point of the article, please:

We have a new phenomenon in our electon results. We have an unexpected resoration of hope and reason after a sojourn in The Valley of the Shadow of Death. And, already, pompous, boring people want to try to understand it as, to corral it in, to reduce it to measured, irrelevant, outdated cliches.

The conventonal wisdom tries to take over, and reduce everything to familiar tedious blah-blah-blah, even now, just two days into our new era. But the conventional wisdom is wrong! Do not listen! That quarterback will engineer a human rights touchdown. That exalted predictable pundit will whither on his cable.

This is a new era. Take this hand-off, and run with it.

The words Liberal and Radical and Conservative, and so on have actual meanings. American right-wingers have messed with the meanings over the past fifteen years. They call everybody they do not like a "Far-Left, Extreme Liberal," but that is wrong.

So, here is the true American political spectrum:

Extreme Right (Reactioanary) = Nazis, KKK

Far Right = NRA, Cheney, Falwell

Right (Conservative) = W.Bush, Goldwater

Center Right = McCain, H.W.Bush

Center Left = Lieberman, Webb

Left (Liberal) = Clintons, Kennedys, Salon, FDR

Far Left = ACLU, Vermont

Extreme Left (Radical) = Communists, PETA

Every elected President since Kennedy (Dem. or Rep.) has come from the South, or from Texas, or from California. (Jerry Ford was not elected, and does not count.)

And the candidates they beat have come from New England or from the Midwest. (Cowboy Reagan beat Bubba Carter, and Bubba Gore beat Cowboy W.Bush, but all of the other losers have been Midwesterners and Yankees.)

Do not count on the North to rise again in 2008. Find some Democrat from the South, or from Texas, or from California.

And try to find a genuine Southern Bubba or a Texas Cowboy or a California Cowboy. Not a guy from the South who talks like a guy from the North, and not a Texan who wears tassel loafers rather than boots.

Americans will vote for an American myth. They may not vote for just some guy.

Thanks for jumping into my game! Anybody else want to try the Leftie/Rightie Delineation Challenge this weekend?

Gore has worn well. Barak is too new, but he might make a wonderfull VP candidate. I love Hillary, but too many people hate her. It's not her fault, but nonetheless.

Let's start talking about National Health Care. At least, let's talk about how we could have had it if we had not wasted so much money on Iraq.

The really dangerous war-starting, torturing, royalist right-wingers are NOT the Evangelicals, or even the fundamentalists.

Cheney and ilk (not religious, just eveil) are the truly dangerous people. And they are at bay now. We must not provide the others with excuses to jump back onto Cheney's side.

So, please just pedal softly. Go for LEGAL Gay Rights, without making some big philosophical, moral drama out of it. And stay cool on Abortion. So far, Choice is the law of the land. Just keep it that way.

You will not convince them. Do not inflame them. They really do not oppose most of the things you favor.

If for no other reason, we need a military guy. More importantly, Rep. Murtha is the father of this whole 2006 takeover thing.

Salon writers and posters talked about Rep. Murtha a couple of months ago. Good discussion. You can find it in Salon's back pages.

Finally, just in case somebody brings up Murtha's connection to ABSCAM: Rep. Murtha turned down the bribes twice! He was not guilty, and was not charged. He is a hero.

We still can put the Taliban out of business, and rebuild Afghanistan, and put the Afghans on their feet. Even Pat Buchanan agrees with Salon-types on that.

If we "pull back" from Iraq to Afghanistan, we still can bring at least half our troops home. And we can rebuild Afghanistan at a smallish fraction of the wasted cost of Iraq.

No matter what course this lawsuit takes, this is a great first step. (Read the short Time article via the link here!)

Is anybody preparing a lawsuit in the USA? The new Torture Law includes amnesty for Rummie when he ordered Alien Unlawful Combatants to be tortured...

BUT! It appears Rummie's people and the CIA have tortured many people who were not "Combatants." Possibly most of their victims have been unlucky people who got picked up and thrown into dungeon-holes for no particular reason.

We may be able to nail Rummie and Tio Torture and all the rest for their innocent victims. No point in waiting. Charge forward with these charges.

I looked at CREW's website via the link here, and they do not even bring up the ABSCAM thing, because he was a hero then.

Only two other things listed:

His brother works for a lobbying firm, and one of his former staffers works for a lobbying firm.

Take a look. It is a very short list. It is NOT corruption. It looks pretty innocent.

All this talk of philosophy and such is off the point. The Neocons failed at nearly everything they tried, and we fired them.

Here is a polite summary of their legacy:

Military Debacle, National Bankruptcy, Legal Torture and Dungeons, Wordwide Opprobrium, Civil Rights Regression, Scientific Regression, Ecological Peril, Economic Peril, Americans at one another's throats, Terrorists triumphant, more...

The Neocons are out on their butts, and we have hired new management. We do not trust them or believe them anymore. We will not pay them or follow them anymore.

And we are thinking about prosecuting them.

Do not waste your time trying to figure them out. We have a lot of work ahead trying to fix everything they broke.

Bolton would be W.Bush's personal envoy, rather than a representative of the USA. If the Senate votes against Bolton before Bush reappoints him, then the UN would have ample grounds not to let Bolton serve.