Damn straight I'm voting third party.

(bluecanary)

Lose the gains you made? The democrats have a majority. They have the wishes of the people behind them. If that is not enough to do the work they were voted into office to do, then there is no reason to vote them back into office. None. Nada.

(FredRated)

OK, so they send the same thing up, and it gets vetoed again (personally, I'm for that one.) and then what? We're still where we are right now.

It takes 60 votes to end debate in the Senate. Reid's smart enough to know he doesn't have that, let alone the 67 it takes to override. You apparently are not.

The unfortunate truth is, it won't be a third party that benefits from your tantrum - it will be the Republicans, who if nothing else can be counted on to maintain party discipline. We split, they benefit. Where is American then?

Sadly, there is no such thing as immediate gratification in the political world. It's a world of making incremental gains, consolidating, and moving forward from those. Your approach will cost us everything we'd gained last time - it's far, far easier, as you may (or may not!) have noticed, to achieve your goals when you're in power. So for now, take the disappointment and work towards something strong enough to make what we want to happen, happen. Something like a veto-proof majority, perhaps.

Third parties do not, and will not help. The result will be far, far worse.

Spoiled children, both of you.

"Anonymous", I tend to agree with you, send the same thing over again, or nothing, keep peeling off a few R's, gradually make some gains. Those will be gains that last.

There is much yet to be done besides ending this misbegotten war. The war itself, I think, is a useful distraction giving Bush cover while he's systematically gutting the Constitution and destroying the country we still live in, and will still have to live in after he's gone.

I have a phone that works. Why do I want to spend $500 on one that does things I wouldn't want it to do in the first place?

I don't text-message, I don't want my email chasing me around the streets, and I'm sure not interested in watching TV on a palm-sized screen. When I take out my phone, it's to make or take a call.

Is that so bloody difficult for every mobile phone maker to understand?

First, one of the most unchanging rules of the entertainment world, since before the theatrical performances in ancient Greece, is: Always leave them wanting more. Chase, with his stopping instead of "ending", has done just that.

And for those who relish the end of the series, because you hated the show, the characters, and everything about anyone who ever had even the most tangential connection to any of it, will you please pull your turds back out of the punchbowl and go away? You're not demonstrating anything approaching your self-delusional "superiority" here, you're being jerks. It's a TV show, some of uys enjoyed watching it, as and people who like it, we want to discuss it. Would you like it if we came to your checkers game and kicked over the board? Some people...

I've edited stuff. A lot of stuff. From corporate propaganda to PBS documentary material. And Chase's ending was one of the finest technical examples of "backtiming" I've ever seen, anywhere, carrying the song, with visual notes highlighting specific bits of the lyrics, through much of the scene, across multiple shots, until he hit the "Don't stop..." just as he hit black and silence.

Anyone who's edited anything more complex than a home movie before will understand that. And yes, it's maybe a little too "inside baseball" for others.

Nicely done...

I don't suppose this will penetrate the dangerously thick skulls of the "free-market" fundamentalists, but then, blind faith is called that for a reason.

If only this sort of vision would extend to other areas of interoperability, and propagate worldwide, we'd all be spared some of the silly VHS-vs.-Beta and HD-DVD-vs.Blu-Ray nonsense loose in the marketplace today. Then companies couldn't lock people in by making things not "play well together", they'd have to earn their customers' loyalty by actually making (gasp!) better quality phones, or DVD players, or whatever, than the next guy.

And as for the non-food ethanol question, why is this even news? What sort of demented reach is it to force a dualistic choice between eating and heating? Oh, wait, sorry, forgot...it's the "free market" at work.

When cellulosic ethanol becomes workable in real-world operations, perhaps by improved enzymatic generation, we'll have a cleaner-burning fuel that doesn't preclude food crops - it will literally be able to be made from waste wood, cornstalks, or anything else that's got a digestible cellulose fiber base. And then, and only then, will it be useful as a "bridge" fuel, helping us get towards a non-combustion-based energy future. And that remains the "brass ring", doesn't it?

Perhaps the single best way to minimize illegal immigration is to make the hiring of an illegal a Federal felony, punishable under RICO statutes. The market for their services would likely dry up quickly, once the spectacle of Federal seizures of meatpacking plants, Wal-Marts, and the homes of prominent politicians hit the media.

Was that a pig that just flew past my window?

Very well-traveled friends from Chongquing have commented on a place here that they say beats anything they've seen anyplace in the world for Szechuan cooking, excepting "back home".

Me, I call it "the office".

Not only for "Go Cubs Go!" but also for "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request", featuring the ever-true lines: "Do they still play the blues in Chicago, when baseball season rolls around? When the snow melts away, do the Cubbies still play in their ivy-covered burial ground?"

Damn, I miss Wrigley Field...

Sparky Anderson always thought it was his managerial brilliance...