janx

Republican one.

I'm serious. I had hopes that the Democrats would do a filibuster to try to keep Alito out, but it looks like that's going to fall though.

Since Bushbaby ADMITTED to doing searches without a warrant, I think now is the time to push for impeachment. Democrats won't do it.

The Democrats are using the same damn tactics that's been killing us for years. They're kneeling down to the Republicans in fear of pissing off the conservative crowd. Well fuck that! Look where it got us. Another lost election and we're about to lose Roe. We have a government that wants to smash the constitution all to fucking hell and our party either stays silent or approves of certain things.

I want things like Universal Healthcare, but right now my main concern is the get the government out of my uterus, out of our bedrooms, and out of going to war in countries they don't need to go to war in.

Since the Republican Party keeps winning (and will probably keep winning since our party won't stand up for anything), I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't join.

Seriously, there are pro-gay rights, pro-choice, and anti-war Republicans working to change the party from within. The one time I visited one of their meetings on campus, I found that the fanatical Republicans were getting told to STFU by the moderates.

So this is the ultimate devil's advocate thread (because I'm beyond pissed). I really want to know. Somebody please tell me why I shouldn't do it. I need uh, guidance right now.

So rather than put effort into changing the Dems you think that changing the Republicans is an easier task?

:shrug:

How much time will you devote to that effort?

I know the Dems are dead crowd will tell you that this is proof positive that the party is dead, but that is because they want you to focus on the top.

A fish rots from the head down...

You have three choices:

1) Reform the Dems
2) Reform the Republicans
3) Start a new party

If you seriously believe time is of the essence, which of these three options do you believe is the most doable?

All I know is that the Dem party has been using the "I'm a conservative, vote for me" tactic. It's getting us further in shit. People have been trying to change it from the inside for years. IT'S NOT WORKING. They're only getting more conservative. It's only getting worse. They're making no progress. They don't give a damn when real liberals tell them to stop. I'm frustrated with them. I don't know if they can be reformed because they're too busy whoring themselves off for votes.

By contrast, the more moderate Republicans are making some Republican politicians realize they can't go but so far. RN is right. That one party won't be the same in 10 years. Give it 15 and no way in hell is the religious right going to be controlling it.

Nonsense...

How long do you think this has been going on? 20 years?!!! Get real...

There hasn't been as large a counter push since the Dean campaign showed us how to raise huge whopping amounts of cash in little amounts and got us organized.

There is a large effort around the country that has already resulted in:

1) Dean in charge of the DNC spending large sums rebuilding the state and local parties
2) which are being taken over by grass roots groups from the fools who had been running things.

3) Massive gains made in state and local races
4) candidates who would have been shut out before now find they have access to money, volunteers with a real shot at winning the primary.

You need to stop focusing on the national election scene and get your butt down to your local party...WHERE THE FUTURE OF THE PARTY WILL BE DETERMINED!

So many people focus on the national elections as if that is where the emphasis needs to be made...

Doing so pisses away your efforts. Third party people who try and build a party by running candidate for the president are foolish....full stop.

Learn from your enemies....everything you are saying was said by conservatives back in the late 60s.

How long did it take them to get to the mountain top?

And it should be pointed out, you will never get to the mountain top. Our system is designed to prevent that from happening...

So fine, give up. Go waste your time trying to change the Republicans who have absolutely no incentive to do so (and I defy you to show me a single moderate in the Repugs who are not marginalized and only trotted out during national conventions to make people think they give a shit about moderates)...

As for myself, I am not going to let Justice Alito's appointment deter me from reforming this party. Perhaps some of you need to examine US history to get a real sense of how often stuff like this happens.

Okay, but can you give me ANY HOPE AT ALL that the Dem party is going to reform? You're saying the Republican Party won't reform, but I fear the Democratic Party really won't. It seems like for at least twenty years, they've been going further to the right to keep from losing votes to Republicans. AND THEY WOULDN'T LIFT A FINGER FOR US JUST NOW. Yeah, we got Dean as head of the party. What the hell are we actually doing to stop the Republcians? I don't see it. I don't see the Dems even trying. They're not lifting a goddamn finger to help us. The only thing worse than the other party running us over is the people representing us either letting it happen or helping them make it happen.

And yes, I am getting involved on a local level. For what good it's actually going to do.

It's in the process of a reformation right now, believe it or not. But this is happening at the state and local levels, and it won't happen overnight.

Stopping the radical right can only happen if we have enough representatives of our own to do that. Until we gain seats in Congress, we can't do much. The 2006 elections will be very important.

We used to have a kennel when I was a kid.  We raised Collies and Shelties for show.  I had a shelties names Shasta who would drag our dirty underwear and socks around the house.  It was just gross  .

But the best was our Sandy.  She was already 10 when we got her and had many litters of puppies.  She was a very large sable collie who had beautiful puppies. She was a mother in every aspect of her life.  When my half brothers were born my mother would put them on the living room floor in their little seats and she would stand over them trying to get them to nurse.  Or she would very gently get between us and the baby when ever we tried to play with them.  She would just slowly walk aground the chair and makes sure she was between us and the baby.  The only person she didn't do it to was my mother.
When they were older Mom could send them out to play with Sandy who would herd them.  She kept them away from the road and in the yard.  I remember her taking Jared by the shirt and gently pulling him back towards the house when he went to close to the road or driveway. 

One Christmas we opened our gifts baked the turkey and left if cooling on the stove while we went out to X-country ski for about an hour.  When we got back, there was Sandy on lying on the counter like the queen, having helped herself to much of the turkey. 

She had never done anything like that and we just couldn't be mad at her.

Dogs like gross things. I love this Weimaraner Rescue quiz:

http://www.weimrescu...quiz/index.html

He ignoramus we need a programmer and no one asks for credentials on a farm.

Thanks, I'm already employed.

I wonder if there is something short of banning education requirements, that serves a similar purpose, since I've expressed this idea to people for a long time and practically noone I've talked to agrees.

I've got mixed feelings about this.
I do understand the idea of credentials for teaching K-12, but I also think that it keeps people who have specific knowledge of a subject out of the field unless they want to go back to school and get education credentials.

The best teachers are those who love their subject. As Ches points out, these people, should they want to teach K through 12, can get certified to teach.

He ignoramus we need a programmer and no one asks for credentials on a farm.

Thanks, I'm already employed.

I wonder if there is something short of banning education requirements, that serves a similar purpose, since I've expressed this idea to people for a long time and practically noone I've talked to agrees.

I agree with you Ig, but I am not sure we can make a ban.  I think what has happened is that colleges have become businesses with huge endowments and they create degrees for jobs which never needed one before.  So now that there are people with degrees, it seems reasonable that those are the people who are hired. But it was not always that way.

For instance several of my ancesters were doctors in the 1800s but got their education from study and working with a doctor who was practicing.  I don't think that is possible anymore, there is too much to know.  On the other hand I think that if skills can be tested for a job then maybe the degree shoudn't matter as much.

One that always cracks me up is the need for people who do nails or dye hair to get a certification that takes months to obtain.  What could you possibly have to learn that you can't know in a long weekend seminar?

I think that makes me a snob.

Universities as businesses--how right you are, Ches. It's out of control. It has gotten so bad that to teach English composition (essay writing) at some universities, you have to have a...(brace yourself)...Ph.D. in rhetoric!

There's now a Ph.D. in creative writing at some schools, which I find equally ridiculous. If you can't publish a book with a master's degree, what is the Ph.D. going to do for you?  

And then there are the burgeoning business and engineering degrees and all of the new programs universities come up with to gain endowment money. I worked for one of these for awhile. Some are legitimate, but I can't help but be suspicious of others.

I have been accused of being an "angry person"

(mostly by crooked old democrats)  Does that mean that I'm ugly on the inside?

Not necessarily. Are you angry all the time?