Puts things into perspective, we think it's nasty and divided now, here's a little history lesson. Back then the Party was dealing with Kluckers and Prohibitionists.

It's a long article, but well worth the read.

I like the part about delegates shouting OIL! OIL! anytime McAdoo's name was mentioned..


Those TV yappers are in a tizzy about the upcoming Democratic convention. They keep jibber-jabbering about how neither Clinton nor Obama will have enough delegates to win the presidential nomination and they'll need to woo the high-powered superdelegates. They keep yakking about a deadlocked convention! Or, better yet, a brokered convention !

These young whippersnappers don't know doodley about a deadlocked convention. Most of them weren't even born the last time a convention fight went beyond the first ballot, which was in 1952.

Back in my day, Democrats had real conventions with real nomination fights that went on for dozens of ballots. It took 46 ballots to nominate Woodrow Wilson in 1912, and 44 ballots to nominate James Cox in 1920. Jeez, it took four ballots to nominate Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 -- and he was FDR, for crying out loud!

In those days, people weren't in such a damn hurry. They liked to vote for their state's "favorite son" candidate for a few ballots just to show some local pride. In 1932, FDR's campaign manager asked Sam Rayburn, who was the campaign manager for John Nance Garner of Texas, if he could get the Texas delegation to vote for FDR after the first ballot.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...

"The Hallelujah Diet" which appears to be based on eating raw fruits and vegetables and purchasing books and some mystery substance called "Barleymax" from the Rev. George Malkmus, who claims to have cured his own colon cancer from following his faith and this diet.

Sorry Rev., but:

A) I don't seem to recall very many vegetarians in the Bible
B) I bet even a secular humanist like me could lose weight by eating mostly raw fruits and vegetables and cutting out all saturated fats, sugars and processed foods


http://books.google.com/books?id=W_SXAAAAC...

I must have fallen asleep in a drunken haze 20 years ago or something, because I could swear that we're actually debating whether torture is an appropriate course of action for the United States to take.

This is still the United States, right? I didn't wake up into some Orwellian authoritarian futuristic society did I?

Am I still dreaming?

instead of the Bible? I remember all of those self-righteous calls by repubs for freedom of religion. Oh wait, no I don't because there weren't any...

Let's cut through all of this bullshit.

The repub party as a whole is not interested in freedom of religion. They believe that this is a judeo-christian (small emphasis on the judeo) State and should be governed as such. They would be more than happy to operate as a complete and total theocracy, and they would if we let them.

I hear this morning that there could be a proverbial nuclear bomb falling on Wall Street this a.m. I'm very shocked about this, because Bushco has been telling me how great our economy is..

Oh well, time to recruit more credit card warriors to run down and buy up more cheap plastic shit made in China! FORWARD...CHARGE!!!

Ev-er-y-thing's gonna be all right, rockabye, rockabye...

it would mess up Jenna's wedding plans...

I was just reminded reading these threads about the wife of the French President outright snubbing our President and First Lady, and the chimp making comments about how he would go to France if he could mountain bike there, and taking pride in knowing absolutely no French, that we've really fallen far down into the pit, haven't we? I mean, the fucking French for crissakes.

This is what a real President and First Lady look like, these are people you can take pride in:

Lying Disease? Excellent!

so you want to shut Congress down until after September 11th cause you're askeered of the terrorists. Well Senator, what about the people left behind? What about those of us who don't have the luxury of high tailing it out of town? What about the Federal workers who are charged with keeping the business of the people up and running? What about their families? Did you ever think of them? No, you haven't, because you're too busy worrying about your own sorry ass. You're perfectly fine with sending other people into the line of fire to protect your sorry butt.

Hey Senator, if you're too scared to stay in Washington and do your job, then fucking resign. If there weren't so many other innocent people in the way, I'd wish a direct hit of a category 5 hurricane in the midst of your mint julep on the front porch.

I don't know which is more pathetic, if you're actually cutting and running from Washington because you're a frightened little rabbit, or if you're just scare mongering for your own political purposes. Either way, you're despicable. If I were one of your constituents, I'd be ashamed to have a chickenhawk coward like you representing me.

You're a disgrace.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationw...

Bush also is aggressively asserting his presidential privileges regarding the right to hire and fire prosecutors and the confidentiality of his staff's internal communications. And the White House has lashed out at a congressional move to hold senior administration officials in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify in a probe of the prosecutor firings.

The White House suggests Democrats have lost their moorings.

"Every day this Congress gets a little more out-of-control: a new call for a special prosecutor, a new investigation launched, a new subpoena issued, an unprecedented contempt vote and an old score somehow settled," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said this week.

"In our view, this is pathetic," added White House spokesman Tony Snow, denouncing the "political theater" as the House Judiciary Committee voted to cite two senior Bush advisers for contempt of Congress

Doing a little research, I found this interesting...

The American system is commonly called a "two-party system" because there have historically been only two major political parties with candidates competing for offices (especially in federal elections). The first two political parties had their origins in the debate over the ratification of the Constitution--the Federalists and Antifederalists. Today, the Republican and Democratic Parties dominate electoral politics. Almost every federal or state-level elected official in the United States is either a Republican or Democrat. In fact, in the United States Congress, there is only one member in the House of Representatives that is not a Republican or a Democrat--Rep. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is an Independent. Every other House member and Senator belongs to either the Democratic or Republican Party.

The American two-party system is the result of the way elections are structured in the United States. Representatives in the Congress and in state legislatures are elected to in single-member districts where the individual with the most votes wins. Because only one party's candidate can win in each district, there is a strong incentive for political competitors to organize themselves into two competing "teams" or parties. By doing so, party members and their candidates maximize their chances of winning elections. (In some countries where there are multi-member districts, parties that win smaller percentages of the vote can often win legislative representation. Consequently, in such systems, there is an incentive to form smaller "third" parties.) Other features of the American system of elections, such as campaign finance rules, the electoral college and rules giving party candidates ballot access further solidify the two-party system in the United States.

The same features of the American system that have encouraged a two-party system also serve to discourage the emergence of third parties. When third parties have emerged in American political history, their successes have been short-lived. In most cases, the issues or ideas championed by third parties have been "stolen" by the candidates of one of the two major parties. Sometimes the issue position taken by the third party is even incorporated into the platform of one of the existing parties. By doing so, the existing party generally wins the support of the voters that had been the support base of the third party. With no unique issues to stand on and depleted voter support, third parties generally fade away.

-snip-
further down the article there is a chart showing the historical third party candidates and how they did...

http://www.thisnation.com/question/042.htm...

Gotta stop that man,
I gotta stop that man cold . . .
Or he'll stop me.
Big deal, big rocket,
Thinks he has the world
In his pocket.

Gotta stop, gotta stop,
Gotta stop that man.



Finch: Now there you are;
Yes, there's that face,
That face that somehow I trust.
It may embarrass you to hear me say it,
But say it I must, say it I must:
You have the cool, clear
Eyes of a seeker of wisdom and truth;
Yet there's that upturned chin
And that grin of impetuous youth.
Oh, I believe in you.
I believe in you.



I hear the sound of good, solid judgment
Whenever you talk;
Yet there's the bold, brave spring of the tiger
That quickens your walk.
Oh, I believe in you.
I believe in you.



And when my faith in my fellow man
All but falls apart,
I've but to feel your hand grasping mine
And I take heart; I take heart

To see the cool, clear
Eyes of a seeker of wisdom and truth;
Yet, with the slam-bang tang
Reminiscent of gin and vermouth.
Oh, I believe in you.
I believe in you.



Executives: Gotta stop that man,
Gotta stop that man . . .
Or he'll stop me.
Big wheel, big beaver,
Boiling hot
With front office fever.
Gotta stop, gotta stop,
Gotta stop that man.

Finch: Oh, I believe in you.
Executives: Don't let him be such a hero!
Finch: I believe in you.
You! You! Mwah!

Remember our buddy Frank Hargrove who told African American's to "get over" slavery? Well, he's been forced to see through an additional bit of conservative hypocrisy. Maybe the guy will be a Democrat soon if this keeps up..

RICHMOND, Feb. 15 -- A House committee revived a proposal Thursday to raise the state's minimum wage to $6.50 an hour by sending the measure to the full House, even though Republican leaders have fought the move.

The decision by the House Commerce and Labor Committee sets the stage for a vote that could result in Virginia having a higher minimum wage than the federal standard for the first time in history.

-snip-

But when Democrats on the committee forced another vote Thursday, they picked up support from Del. Frank D. Hargrove Sr. (R-Hanover), who had consistently opposed raising the wage.

Hargrove said he changed his mind and decided to buck Republican leaders after prolonged thought that concluded with his realization that he pays the person who cuts his grass $13 an hour.

"I pay the fellow who takes care of my grounds a lot more than" $5.15 an hour, Hargrove said. "I do not believe it's going to cause an economic disaster to raise it. Some of my colleagues say the roof is going to fall in, but it's not."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...

When the foot turned up at the Spotsylvania County landfill, the first thought was that someone had committed a brutal crime. Deputies began sorting through mounds of trash in a somber search for body parts.

Now, the foot is a phenomenon.

Spotsylvania sheriff's officials have said the foot may have come from an "ape-like species," leaving Bigfoot believers across the country wondering if there may finally be proof of the creatures' existence. Others think it might not be from any primate, saying it resembles a bear's skinned hind paw.

"Discoveries like the foot in the landfill quickens the heartbeat of every Bigfoot researcher, but all of us realize it probably won't be that easy," read a message on the Virginia Bigfoot Research Organization blog. "Stay tuned!"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...

Just a feeling I have.

I think Clark has a good chance of being her eventual running mate if she gets that far. I doubt Gore would be interested in being V.P. again. It will be interesting to see who he backs, if anybody, if he doesn't end up running.