not meaning to be a wet blanket or anything...but might i suggest to you that

the state of texas is large

and there are many many progressives that reside therin.

furthermore, we tried to fucking warn the rest of the country ~ We TRIED

about george w bush before he took to the national stage after 'governing' texas after 'stealing' the election down there. give me a break. it should have been his 'record'. why didn't anyone call him on his first of many lies regarding his 'record' of 'governship' in the state of texas?

can NO ONE spell conservative except liberals?

many sincere progressive folk reside in and around the state of texas my friend. do not underestimate them. (i'm just sayin').

It has become increasing clear what the Republican Party has been doing under the leadership of "The Architect", Karl Rove.

Republicans simply present anything as fact and keep repeating it over and over until it is accepted as truth by a large percentage of the electorate. For example, "He has weapons of mass destruction and he has used them on his own people". This mantra was delivered by every member of the administration including Colin Powell, an honorable man, who was hung out to dry at the U.N.

The Republicans are experts in mass psychology and realized that Americans are so dumb it doesn't mater what you say as long as you keep repeating it.

In the debate last night, Gov. Palin answered any question she was uncomfortable with by using one of her talking points which were on the lectern in front of her. When asked what her 'Achilles Heel' would be as Vice President she started describing her strengths.

She received rave reviews from the professional liars at Fox and generally favorable comments across the board with very few people noticing her duplicity. A large number of people thought she won the debate. It is frightening how gullible the American people are and it explains how this President won two terms. Of course we can't forget to thank the millions of pro-lifers who put a religious belief over the general welfare of the entire country and the stability of the rest of the world.

Republican policies benefit a small segment of the American population. Since they need a majority of votes to win, they need a large component of their party to be willing to vote against their own self-interest. So the Republican "controllers" use people like Palin to appeal to and control the Republican "sheep" so that they will not realize that they are voting against their own self-interest.

How is this accomplished? The controllers rely on manipulating the sheep's emotional responses to issues by emphasizing cultural issues and by repeating and socializing propaganda that is completely at odds with the actual policies that they are implementing. The sheep are discouraged from a deeper understanding of what is actually going on by demonizing anyone who might help the sheep see what is actually going on.

This is why the media must be demonized as the liberal media and Democrats must be demonized as elitists.

Encouraging beliefs in creationism, how the science behind global warming is wrong, pro-life and anti-gay fanaticism, fanning racism, and an unrealistic understanding of who terrorists are all contribute to separating the sheep from the rest of society and to enhancing the ability of the controllers to control them.

This is why an "intellectual elite" like myself can only be frustrated if I try to have a conversation with a sheep. It also explains why the controllers, who seem to be smart enough to know otherwise, are willing participants in these departures from reality.

This is why otherwise intelligent Republicans are willing to defend Palin. They know that she will help control the sheep - necessary for the party to remain in power.

While some have rightly pointed out that Nixon's Southern Strategy marked the first unraveling of the Republican party, it was the Reagan administration that rolled in the hay with actual traitors, liars and incredibly stupid, self-interested people, while propping up an actor (by trade for god's sake, and so not all that different from Sarah Palin who proved Friday night she is an actress, nothing more or less) as their leader.

As a conservative who grew up admiring Dwight Eisenhower, Barry Goldwater, Adlai Stevenson, and worshipping Huey Long, it has become increasingly clear over the past 28 years that there is, indeed, a vast neoconservative conspiracy that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with "right" or "left", but everything to do with the resurrection of facism right here in the midst of our great Republic. Idiot Ollie, the guileless liar and those leftovers from the Nixon burglary team (people like G. Gordon Liddy) helped smooth the segue to Newt Gingrich and the revolution of 1994 by making them look respectable by comparison. We've been watching this exploitation of the most base impulses of ordinary people for over a quarter centry now, and yet everyone seems surprised when Sarah Palin shows up, winking and nodding and chattering like that damned ventriloquist's dummy, The Great Gabbo, as wielded in the movie by Erich Von Stroheim, now brought to us in female form by John McCain. Once again the thing is out of the owner's control already, and speaking of him in the past-tense (or, as Captain Beefheart put it, "The past sure is tense").

Does no one read anymore? "It Can't Happen Here" has already happend. It could only happen, as Sinclair Lewis showed us, by cultivating and exploiting stupidity, a la Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, and the string-pullers are not usually at center stage. We know who they are, however, and because of this their time is short, which has made them desperate. It's a short but dangerous moment in the history of the Republic, but it has not escaped the attention of all Republicans.

We who are left to sweep out the ashes in the morning come next January 20 will have done all we could to help put Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the White House, because we are not stupid, and we're not going away.