Oh, PLEASE don't tell me those little wrapped packages are childen. Please.

Now that you're into your exploration of stupidity, the words of Chairman Mao to comfort you along your long, very long march:

It's always darkest before it's totally black.

Cheers.

I think that Mr. Perrin and Mr. Silber are being a little too pessimistic. This is, after all, the Democratic Party we're talking about, and if they win it will replace a ruthlessly efficient hive of criminals with the gang that couldn't shoot straight. Sure, the big things will probably continue on without the slightest variation (B*sh, now that he's been given imperial powers, is not likely to even set foot in the houses of Congress once they've been tainted by a Democratic leadership), but all of the little acts of petty revenge? They'll all be gone, and the ongoing war of breath-holding between Mount Doom and the houses of Congress will bring the machines of government to a screeching stop because the Democrats won't propose any laws that don't have buckets of money for their districts, and the Coward in Chief won't sign any bills that don't give buckets of money to his dearest friends.

If you're looking for moral behavior and a quick remedy for the mountain of Evil Party corruption and outright treasons, well, sure, you might be waiting a while, but think of the outraged squeals from the right wing when their pet government is driven out of power for even the shortest period of time. It might not be productive, but doesn't the thought warm the cockles of your heart just a little bit?

David Parsons

Yeah, you're right on "it might not be productive," as Frau Clinton has not been productive--for one small example--in helping the citizens of upstate New York.
So, a less ruthless, just as greedy, and quite a bit more incompetent. The best reason for Schadenfreude in the departure of the Bush gang might well be that we'll hear less of Jesus and his dad. The boys and girls on K Street will be as busy and as much in charge.

I'd like to hear more about Richard Lugar's "socialism." If I ask Your friend Perrin, do you suppose he'll explain?

There is a vicious circle in this country. Some politicians inflate some issue all out of proportion to reality: Blacks, immigrants, drugs, child molesters, terrorists, blah and blah. Once sufficiently scared, we elect them as our saviors and allow them to take all of our money.

When the next guy comes along, he has to go along with this exaggerated problem that the previous guys convinced us was real; or else be accused of being soft on blah or blah. So, first they screw up our thinking, and then they let it guide them. Our leaders have no concept of leadership.

Rare is the guy who is willing to pull back the curtain and expose the whole scheme. I can think of two: Ron Paul, a Republican and Ralph Nader, an Independent.

I am voting straight Democrat; but it is because I believe in checks and balances, not because I believe in Democrats.

PS Dennis Perrin is a rocking writer.

Dennis is right simply because politicians don't normally make dramatic changes in policy. "Normally" being the operative word. Dim son has been a disaster, but it'll take years for the Dems to correct all his mistakes.

I'm just hoping the international community steps in and goes for the jugular on these war criminals. With no help from congress, they might very well go down.

inflate some issue all out of proportion to reality: ...child molesters...

Uh, I don't think that's possible. Child molestation has no proportion.

I'm not looking for the Democrats to do anything spectacular. Just slow the descent into madness a bit.

Lay off my namesake and his daddy - They might get pissed off and skew the election to the Righteous Republicans behind Her (holy ghost) back.

When I think of the Democrats, I think of Firesign Theater, in "I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus":

"Look! It heard the word 'power' and responded, just like we do!"

That could be any DC-based Republican operatives talking about their Democratic counterparts--assuming, of course, that they're not one and the same. Maybe if Gore, or even Kerry, had won, Iraq would not be a California-sized behead-a-thon. Somehow, I don't think so. Maybe a few more of the GOP insiders are insane and/or millennial, but power is power, and the French Rev proved you don't have to be religious to be crazy.

Still, I wish Perrin had come in a handy pocket-sized version, or even a spray, back in 2000. I could have used it on those good Bush-haters in my office who wouldn't stop screaming at me for voting for Nader in 2000.

Silber says,

'Raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, maybe in one step. Cut the interest rate on student loans in half. Allow the government to negotiate directly with the pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for Medicare patients."

Then he says,

"On one hand, dictatorship and torture, murder and more war -- on the other, minimum wage, student loans, lower drug prices.

A very, very tough call, I grant you."

It seems to me that even though I do not care much for Kerry and even less for Hillary that I have serious doubts that we would have invaded Iraq if either one had been president at the time. And I believe that makes Silber either wrong, dishonest or a fool no matter how angry he is which matters not a fig to me. But I will say this; it is good to know who your enemies are.

I have little use for people who are so selfish, so self centered, so self righteous and that care so little for other people that they cannot see that raising the minimum wage, cutting interest rates for students or reducing drug prices for the elderly, and let us call them the elderly rather than Medicare patients, is actually quite a big deal at least it is for those who are earning only a few bucks an hour and live in poverty or students who are about to enter a world after they graduate to find they will probably not be able to find a job, or elderly people who are on a fixed and extremely limited income and cannot afford to buy their often life saving drugs.

Sibler is quite mistaken if he thinks others besides is royal self cannot see what the democrats are and if it makes Sibler angry that some of these people are not willing to shoot themselves in the foot on top of everything else well boo hoo let me just shed a tear for poor Sibler. Perhaps it is time to burp him or change his soiled diapers. I can only guess that Sibler does not have to worry about money or thinks he will never grow old or if he does he will be able to buy his drugs when the time comes.

By the way I see Sibler is quite accomplished in using the same type of propaganda that the republicans employ, that being fear.

Hey, LBJ might have killed 25,000 Americans and a couple of million Vietnamese, but he also got the Voting Rights Act through congress.

Rob, you forgot to call Arthur a feckless hippy and "objectively pro-wingut", for the full Democratic monty. Otherwise, good show. I'll be sending that comment along to every wavering libertarian and green I know. They love crank psychologizing and Puff the Magic Dragon political analysis. You can be sure they'll weigh it carefully when they decide how to vote on tuesday. Be proud!

I tried to read it but my ADD kicked in when he started talking about Carter and the draft.

Look, it's up to us. We can't elect Demcorats and go back to sleep. We have to elect Democrats and ride them.

Shorter rob payne: Who cares about thousands of people tortured and a half-million dead when student loans are so darned expensive?

Although it's true that a New Age of Peace, Freedom, and Justice will not necessarily flow from a change in the party in power in either or both houses of Congress, there still will be SOME consequences, and these are more likely to be positive. So, yes, this glass IS three-sixteenths full.

In the presidential election of 2000 Al Gore won the popular vote with 48.4 percent and George Bush trailing just a bit behind with 47.9 percent of the popular vote. The lion's share of the remaining votes went to Ralph Nader who was able to get 2.7 percent of the vote as the nominee of the green party.

Technically you might say Gore lost to Bush because of the 25 electoral votes Bush was able to squeak by with in Florida. On the other hand one might also say that the green party siphoned off many of the votes that would have gone to Gore. Though the green party had its hey-day that fateful year of 2000 they did considerably less well in the 2004 election. In the 2000 election they received 2,882,000 votes but in 2004 they received only 465,650 votes for their candidate Ralph Nader which is a substantial decline for the green party and with good reason. Though the green party is the party of peace they almost single handedly ensured that Bush was elected the first time and the rest is history. The war in Iraq was soon under way with a recent estimate of 655,000 Iraqi deaths.

Way to go green party, which should change their name to the party of death. Though a lot of people who had voted for the green party in 2000 they left the green party of death in 2004 after witnessing what the republican party was capable of, which as we know is just about anything. Another war for oil, trashing of the constitution and civil rights, corruption that knows no equal in the republican held congress who George Bush led around by the nose. If Bush wanted it Bush would get it was the motto of our republican congress. As for the new minority party the democrats were completely left out in the cold as there was absolutely no effort by the republican leadership to include the minority even though they represented a large chunk of Americans.

Of course today the hangers on of the green party of death and avid non-voters choose to forget that the democrats were essentially powerless and blame them for what they should blame themselves for when they let the crooks take over the government. The republicans were quick to learn from the past and are now doing the best they can for the green party of death per this interview at Democracy Now.

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:KuKFrw6e81IJ:www.democracynow.org/article.pl%3Fsid%3D06/10/25/1422220+republicans+green+party&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=4

"AMY GOODMAN: You’re not dealing with a close race here in New York, but I wanted to talk about one of the places where there is a close race. Turning to Pennsylvania, where newly released campaign finance documents have revealed the state's Green Party has been receiving money from a most unlikely source: the founder and owner of the mercenary company, Blackwater USA. Federal Election Commission filings show that Erik Prince and his wife donated $10,000 to a chapter of the Green Party in Pennsylvania.

Other prominent Republicans who donated to the Green Party chapter included a Halliburton lobbyist, a former aide of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and California's leading anti-choice activist. The Republicans were trying to help get the Green Party’s Senate candidate, Carl Romanelli, on the ballot in an attempt to take away votes from Democrat Bob Casey in an extremely close race he has against Republican Senator Rick Santorum."

There you have it, the green party of death and the republican thieves and murderers are in bed together and everyone is out for number one. So please spare me the crap about how the noble green party is for peace and how the non-voters are too high and mighty to vote in an election that could have and would have prevented so much death and destruction in Iraq and here at home. And that does not even begin to get into the damage done to the poor, the elderly, the children who live in poverty, the victims of Katrina, the death of democracy, the spread of hate, racism and fear.