shoobe doowop

Speaking of swiftboating Obama...
I heard his mom hates freedom.
[Deleted]

Ron @ 2:

Could someone give us an estimate on all the money spent on campaigning of all the candidates and the 527s. I bet it would be in the billlions of dollars. Just think if the money could have been spent on making improvements in our society. A great reason to have public financing of our elections. Might even help Grover Norquist keep more of his money

Ron public financing of elections is a great idea but I personally don't see it happening on a national level as long as the supreme court says speech is money and money is speech. You can withhold public moneys if a candidate spends private money but you can't stop people from spending private money.

Ron @ 6:

Don't you think they would be richer if they kept the money in their own accounts? How about the swiftboaters. The only ones that benefit are the richest 2%. The people that contribute to these groups are the real losers.

Some people can afford to lose:

http://www.opensecrets.org/527s/527indivs.asp?cycle=2004

It's debatable how much these 527s have done to elevate the level of political discourse, but the people who donate must think they're accomplishing something. And these organizations do create a lot of jobs, although many are temporary positions.

Over the past 7 years I have allowed myself to fantasize about Americans actually taking their country back, somehow always ending up with a old movie vision of millions of people marching to washington, arriving in the dead of night with flaming torches, and taking over the city. Then, when I saw Barack Obama's campaign start to gain momentum, I allowed myself to believe that this might be the way we could do it - regular people, standing side by side, with a leader actually asking the American people to do something other than sit on their collective ass and watch those in power systematically remove all governmental checks and balances in the name of protecting us. After years of listening to divisive loud-mouths driving us apart, maybe we could all realize that the majority of us want the same things. Limbaugh/Hannity/Coulter/Beck et al would have to do what they told all of us 40-something IT people to do as we watched our jobs being shipped overseas - go back to school and start a new career....nevermind the 20+ years of work and experience you're put in - start over!

Once I snap back to reality though, I can't imagine those in power will allow it to happen. There's too much to lose for them and while it does seem like a bunch of people suddenly woke up and realized they were being screwed, I'm not sure it's enough yet. It will be an interesting ride I guess.

Good stuff, all, although I particularly like the driftglass and galloping beaver pieces.

And you'll never guess just what goes through Muhammad al-Fayed's mind in that inquest into Princess Diana's tragic decease which he wanted all this time....

Doggedly, as the original author of the Swiftboating Obama piece, I can tell that the original appeared on my blog The Woodshed and was crossposted in its entirety to the Galloping Beaver, where I also blog, by me. What the hell that has to do with its coherency or the point I was trying to make, is beyond me. How does it being crossposted make it more difficult to understand?

And not to nitpick -- I'm grateful to Mike for linking to the piece -- but it would have been nice if he had credited the original source - the Woodshed - for it. But hey, I'm just glad it's being read.