Well guess what folks. We're right smack between laugh at and fight on the progression. Don't underestimate whats happening.

Remember too that attrition will also take its toll in the long run. Many of the "beltway elites" we've been railing against are older than I am and I'm already older than dirt. - Paul Dirks

Thomas Edsall at Huffington Post:

Writer Quits NRO After Fabrications Exposed

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/07/writer-quits-nro-after-fa_n_75873.html

That was mighty quick...

Deborah Howell (ombudsman) at the WaPo criticizes Perry Bacon's highly questionable story on the "rumors" of Obama being a Muslim:

Stories about rumors are tricky and easily misconstrued. A Nov. 29 story and headline that explored Barack Obama's "connections to the Muslim world" and rumors that he is Muslim were met with a swift Internet reaction that left some staffers stunned at its ferocity. Even Post editorial cartoonist Tom Toles was "so upset" that he took the unusual step of taking potshots at the story in an editorial page cartoon.

My problems with the story by National Desk political reporter Perry Bacon Jr. and the headline ("Foes Use Obama's Muslim Ties to Fuel Rumors About Him") were that Obama's connections to Islam are slender at best; that the rumors were old; and that convincing evidence of their falsity wasn't included in the story.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/07/AR2007120701799.html

Certainly not the same Deborah Howell whose comment threads had to be shut down during her earlier bouts with the blogosphere, due to "bad language" from bloggers. In those days, she stonewalled consistently, trying to defend the WaPo's decision to hire obviously biased writers without any real experience or credentials. Again, this dispute was resolved much more quickly than it would have been just a year or two ago.

I think there was another one I wanted to highlight, too, but for the moment it escapes me.

It's also worth noting that both of these episodes overlapped with the Time/Klein fracas, in which both mag and writer ended up with lots of egg on their faces. Apparently, there are those who watch and learn.

It should be obvious the Dems have little ideological problems with a strong executive and now they have zero political incentive to reign in the Bush administration. They are almost certain to capture the Presidency next year by basically every indicator at this point and why should they weaken their future power base? They want to have their own Democratic rubberstamp congress for their Supreme Leader.

It's an old story:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

I know what I would do, Glenn. Unfortunately, Nancy Pelosi has unconditionally taken impeachment off the table*.*No qualifiers or contingencies that I am aware of?

By that logic, Bush could invade Iowa and impeachment would still be off the table.

I hope the checks and balances are in the mail...

at least,

bah.

Is that people here are not realizing just how much effect our presence is having on the debate if not yet the outcome.

Remember:“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

Well guess what folks. We're right smack between laugh at and fight on the progression. Don't underestimate whats happening.

Remember too that attrition will also take its toll in the long run. Many of the "beltway elites" we've been railing against are older than I am and I'm already older than dirt.

The key battle at this point however remains minimizing the damage. I guess what I'm trying to say is DON'T WASTE YOUR VOTE!

Just imagine a President Rudy if you need convincing!

I can tell from where I am how deeply all this affects you. I have noticed it on several occasions. I wish you would go to the library and get some books on the subject, PoliSci. Particularly electoral statistical analyses and voting theory. It's all over my head but you have the skills to make real sense of it. It would help you focus on something constructive and take your mind off all this, assuming you find this area of study entertaining. I always like theoretical physics as a distraction.

I am not in need of psychoanalysis by any credible assessment (and I dismiss as meaningless hallucinations those assessments that do find me to be). Electoral statistical analyses will not produce hope, have you seen "was the 2004 election stolen?"? Personally, w/resp to electoral statistical analyses, unless and until the media releases the VPN/Mitofsky results and promises to always do so, they don't deserve a shield law. Instead, they should go to jail for shielding election fraud.

I don't need my mind taken off of "all this", either. I'm an "eastern philosophy" guy, I can believe in multiple things at one time (I can even pray and be an atheist simultaneously, it isn't very hard), and I don't believe hope is necessary for right action, or to elude depression. I also believe things should affect people, so I don't need a distraction -- theoretical physics is too much hard work to be distracting anyway, and I'm far closer to ingesting Calabi-Yau for breakfast than I wanted to be right now anyway.

"All this" is very important. There are two bright never-go-there lines drawn by the good peoples of the U.N. -- torture and genocide. It's important to me that these two cease to exist before global warming turns us into raging savages as the food and water dwindles. I did actually put up a solution to the global warming long term, sent it to several places, got no response. Several of us (from here, Jim White, RMP, and I) did contact organizations with the hope of bringing charges against those in our government who are facilitating or practicing torture -- it's still in the works but you'd be surprised how luke warm a lot of the legal crusaders really are to do that. Wanna do some theoretical fluid physics? Look up Rayleigh-Benard problems on the sphere, or Turing instabilities (also on the sphere). That is the reason for the lack of hope, not some overdose of cerebral histamines. But I do believe in right thought and right action, and I will go out and vote, and I don't believe the two parties are the same.

To modify a biker 1%er expression, "Work for the best, expect the worst."