I've heard all your third party condescension, and all your purist clap trap, but NOBODY passes ANY laws - and therefore actually effects ANY change - UNLESS they get elected. We have what we have. I'm ultimately a pragmatist when it comes to getting the incremental movement towards what I think should be our national political course. You third party champions can save your breath. Look at how wonderful your self professed, purist "integrity" turned out in the coup of double ought. Nice way to throw away important votes is all THAT accomplished. And as far as the right wing cynic trolls goes... well... suck an egg. NOBODY in the Democratic Party can ever approach the sheer incompetent nastiness of the last eight years.

We have the binary choice that we have. There are other paths to power, but in this arena, if you want to be in a position to actually pass legislation, you have to buy your ticket and take your chances. The train only runs on the tracks that have been laid... not the imaginary ones that people like Nader, Perot, et. al. charm you into believing in. That track leads to immediate derailment.

Hell... I WANTED to vote for Angela Davis. I'll go to my grave waiting for THAT kind of choice.

... to make your false, control freak utopia come to fruition. You want people to "acknowledge" that "abortion is murder", yet you seem to think that, after that capitulation to fundamentalist "christian" taliban in this country that then, and ONLY then will we be "able" to have the "conversation" about people's right to control their own bodies.

Excuse me, but that is as ridiculous a sentiment as it is dishonest. Face it, you want control of women's reproduction to become a "state's interest", not an individual "human right". You and your fellow "abortion is murder" crowd have no intention of engaging in dialog, discussing, or even rationally addressing the dichotomy in your own arguments. In that you're no different than the most rigid pro choice activist who refuses to acknowledge the inherent moral choices involved in having the right to chose abortion. But at least the pro choice side of this debate wants the person involved to be the one making the ultimate choice. You want the state to make that choice... but ONLY as long as "the state" agrees with YOU and your faux moral rigidity.

You can't fool anybody with your attempt to appear even handed. It's an either/or decision.

After all, people of THAT particular and peculiar political persuasion constitute approximately 50% of all the letters written on Salon, if judged by volume alone.

The advice to those who find Rush Limbaugh a vile, hate filled propagandist - to simply ignore him and he'll go away - is very similar to what the Jewish population of Europe was being told at the beginning of the 30s.

No... ignoring the kind of unreasoned, unfiltered filth that Limbaugh spews every day is NOT going to make him go away. It will just allow him to continue to fill weak minds with horrid material to take out into the streets to promote hatred.

Expose the man relentlessly. Continue to brand him on to the ass of the party that just can't seem to bring themselves to admit what he, and by extension themselves, have become: mindless, hate filled, misogynistic racists.

Have no place in describing the likes of Glenn Beck: He IS, after all, a lying sack of dog SHIT"... what else was a word like that invented for?

He's a nobody... just another discarded, discredited "representative" of a failed ideology. He's the exemplar of the problem that the GOP faces... fewer and fewer actual, elected office holders. Thus: Tancredo, Gingrinch, Cheney, Romney, Guliani... and, of course, the ones who NEVER held ANY office.... Mushbo, Beck, Coulter....

What this morbidly obese individual looks like in the morning as he pulls his 102" waist silk boxers on....

You ask: "What is racism". Let me help you dearie...

It's really very simple. Take a photo of the Supreme Court, the House of Representatives, or the Senate. Count the number of faces that aren't white.

That's racism

Look again at the same pictures. Count the number of women's faces.

That's sexism.

No, I don't expect you to get it the first time.

However we all know that liberal elitists have no regard for an individual. As an aside I wonder how many of the Washington Liberal elites would have anything to do with the usual poster here on Salon.

No need to wonder, dear Republican. I can tell you. When I want to talk to my very liberal congressman or either of my Senators, I pick up the phone. No, they don't usually answer their own phones, and I'm glad of that because I'm sure they're very busy. But I DO get a thoughtful response to any issue I've been concerned about, and usually a personal (not form) letter from their office, detailing both their position and their reaction to my input.

You ought to try that with one of your "Washington Conservative elites" one day. Maybe you'll get a flag pin for your lapel. That way "we" can sort you out when "we" take over the world ... bawahaha....

Or phone Rusty.... I'm sure HE will treat you with the respect you so crave.

It was this very fruitcake "controversy" that first made me a fan of John Lennon, which I remain to this day.

It's much more productive and fun to think of John than to pay much attention to the fat pill freak's meltdown.

Buddha wasn't fat. That's a persistent, popular myth among those who know nothing more about Buddha than they do their own sanitized, white guy version of J.C.