Water beats Rock

I'd like to second Kos on this point:

I'll be shocked if we wake up on election day controlling either chamber of Congress. If we do, it'll be because enough candidates decide to give those DC consultants and staffers the middle finger and run the race they know they need to run to win.

The leadership of the party has a remarkable track record of losing when all the indicators are that they should win. Despite the elevation of Dean and other real fighters, and an increasing willingness to listen to outside-the-beltway voices, my faith in the leadership's abilities remains weak.

But I still urge everyone to vote Democrat. Why? Because it is the only option available to We The People that at least has the possibility of reversing the disastrous course this country is set on. There are plenty of good Democrats out there who represent well and, given a majority in either house, will produce good results. Returning accountability to government is a primary concern of mine and Democrats are the only (albeit fragile) possibility of its realization.

My skepticism about the leadership will remain even if we manage to win one or both houses. I won't be the least bit surprised if, given access to the levers of power, that same leadership finds ways to avoid using that power effectively.

We The People must be like water on a rock. A splash won't damage it. But a river will ALWAYS win in the end. On that proposition I have complete faith.

To >Bleep< or not to >Bleep<

The DSCC has sent an attack ad against Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) to Montana that repeats some of the harsh words Sen. Burns used to describe forest fire fighters. However, the words he used ("piss-poor" and "God-damned") are prompting some broadcasters to reject the ad because of fears that the FCC will fine them for airing obscenities.

Here's the irony. If the media covers the controversy over this ad they will probably have to broadcast it in whole or in parts. That will increase its penetration into the electorate.

But it would be doubly ironic if news channels, when airing the ads as part of a story, decided to bleep out the "piss-poor" and "God-damned". If they don't, then they risk FCC action. If they do, then they make it sound even worse for Burns since people will fill in the blanks with potentially even worse words.

>Bleep< if they do. >Bleep< if they don't.

Crazy!

Reading this post by tristero on the importance of listening to what Iranian President Ahmanidejad has to say despite his espousing batshit ideas about the Holocaust reminds me of how the police would negotiate with a hostage taker.

Now, the man with the hostage has a gun and is ranting about "THEM" and how "THEY" are taking over his mind. Obviously, the man with the gun is a crazy man with a gun.

But the police, keeping in mind the danger to the hostage, would never refuse to talk to the man just because he is crazy. That would be ... crazy. Furthermore, they would never open the talks by accusing the man with the gun of being crazy (even though he is).

A crazy man with a gun is still a man with a gun.

A crazy President of a country with the potential of developing nuclear weapons and thus fundamentally shifting the balance of power in the most unstable region of the planet is still a President of a country with the potential of developing nuclear weapons and thus fundamentally shifting the balance of power in the most unstable region of the planet.

You don't just dismiss him out of some understandable desire not to validate his crazy ideas.

That would be ... crazy.