Everyone says that encumbents don’t have to debate. But Phil Kline did…several times. Kathleen has too.

Turn on cspan any evening and encumbents all over the country, are debating.

Why is there no local pressure, especially with the mess this country is in. With the financial mess the middle class is facing. Why on earth is there no pressure being placed on Tiahrt to debate not once but 3 times.

He’s ready,Don’t wait,Ben Huie in ‘08.

Actually, I heard on NPR that there these signs all over D.C., except Obama’s name is substituted for Ben’s.

“Gee, where are all those tanker jobs anyway?” Even if Boeing gets them they won’t be in Wichita.

I have to wonder if Tiahrt is shying away this year because he sees himself as being more vulnerable to any problems that might come up.

Hello Fellow Kansan,Due to the enormity of unsolved problems we’re facing, people absolutely want and deserve change. Oh rest assured those in power will give these problems plenty of lip service especially in an election year but action is what I demand and on that their record is clear. They govern solely on fear and divisiveness and when they actually bother to do something we get the ridiculous drug plan, the energy plan, and the highway plan that are all mired in $1000 per plate corruption while dumping four trillion dollars more debt on the backs of our kids and grandkids in order to hand out the largest tax cut in American history during a time of war – 2/3 of which went to 2% of the American people.The problem is, until we elect enough people in Washington willing to fundamentally change the system, the corrupt system that we have to compete in is almost solely about money. That being given, how can those of us demanding change effect change when those in power hold a couple orders of magnitude more in their campaign purses than we do?The fundamental idea behind daretwocare is that maybe you don’t personally have much money to give but I bet you know two people that do. Maybe you don’t personally have a lot of time to volunteer but I bet you know two people that do. Maybe you always vote in every election but I bet you know two people that don’t, don’t always vote, or are a negotiable vote. These two people aren’t strangers you have to harass on the phone or go door to door to find. Since 50% of the people in this country don’t participate in our democracy, these are two people just within your inner circle of family and friends. If you want and demand change, you’re going to have to pledge to this effort those two people and ask them to do the same. That is a task that I know everyone I reach in this campaign can easily do and when you look at the almost exponential manner in which daretwocare can grow, you’d be surprised how much difference something this simple can make.Lastly, “.us”, besides being a legal internet domain name extension, simply means that this is afterall “about us.” It’s been “about the wealthy and powerful few” for far too long in this country. It’s high time the conversation in this country became more “about us” because getting this nation out of the trouble it’s in begins “with you and me” . . .. . . two donations, two volunteers, two votes at a time!GarthGet involved ============== Get informed ============== DareTwoCare =============== Vote

How about a thread on the important 4th congressional district race between democratic challenger Garth McGinn and the man who currently holds that office? I THINK his name is Todd or something. It’s kinda hard to remember because he doesn’t come home to see his constituents.

“For months, the standard neoconservative complaint has been that their Great War was failing because it wasn’t being prosecuted with enough violence, enough force, enough troops, enough killing. If only we would step up and act like we want to win, things would be great there.

This seems a critically important issue to note. Escalation of this war — not a draw-down of it — will become the new strategy after the election. There are simply no other choices. What we are doing now simply isn’t working, so much so that not even the White House bothers to deny that any more. At the same time, the President yesterday made expressly clear what has been obvious for some time — we aren’t leaving Iraq. And we don’t have nearly enough additional troops to make a meaningful difference in the troop strength we have there or to enable new strategies by increasing our military presence.

What other real option is there for trying to change the course of the war there other than to try to bomb and kill our way to “victory”?”

In other words: we invaded that country, now we must exterminate any who want freedom and subjugate the rest to our rule.

Here’s an interesting article I saw at salon.com a few years ago, “Who is a fascist?”

http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2004/04/19/fascism/index.html

April 19, 2004 | “Fascism”: No word has been used more freely by people who have so little idea what it means — and that includes “postmodernism.” “Fascist!” was for years the preferred epithet hurled at anyone engaged in authoritarian behavior, racial stereotyping or even certain kinds of design.

. . .

Robert O. Paxton, a former professor of social sciences at Columbia University and longtime historian of the political movement, sets out to formulate a working definition in his new book, “The Anatomy of Fascism.” According to Paxton, there have only been two true fascist regimes, Nazi Germany and Italy under Mussolini, the man who gave fascism its name. And some of what you think you know about them is wrong.

Paxton argues that most theories about fascism focus on what the leaders of “the major political innovation of the 20th century” said or wrote, rather than on what they actually did. Big difference. For example, in their early stages (and most fascist movements never make it out of those early stages), fascist leaders and thinkers attacked “international finance capitalists” and the “soft” bourgeoisie, promising to defend the rights of workers, artisans and peasants. Once in power, if they got that far, they jettisoned such plans, except for a few strategic concessions.

“The Anatomy of Fascism” takes readers step by step through the budding, flowering and withering of these two nightmare states, in the process comparing them with other less successful efforts to set up similar governments in Spain, France and some non-European nations. Only at the end does Paxton reveal what he’s settled on as an acceptable definition. Here it is:

“… a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.”

*****

I agree with Paxton’s definition, but I disagree that only Nazi Germany and Blackshirt Italy were fascist. Red China during the “Cultural Revolution” was clearly a fascist state, with its mass “demonstrations” of weeping Chinese holding aloft Mao’s little red book . . .

The re-writing of history to “we were stabbed in the back by liberals” during Vietnam and the compensatory cult of “national unity” (neo-cons) sure resonates with what is happening these days.

Anyone who criticises Bush is “a traitor,” (just look at Ann Coulter’s book by the name of “Treason!”); anyone who believes in The Bill of Rights is “soft on terrorism,” “wants the terrorists to win,” and “hates America.”

Explain to me how that isn’t a kind of fascism?

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/10/bush-followers-demand-escalation-in.html

From the above (sorry the link’s not live, but there’s a server error which prevented me from giving a live link), sounds like this may be under strong consideration. The influence of Dr. Kissinger, perhaps? (1972 bombing attacks on North Vietnam, for example)

Imagine your image with all senses being artificially reproduced being sent anywhere in the world.

Interaction will seem real as well as the actual ingestion of food.

It will give a whole new meaning to reach out and touch someone.

Agriculture and feeding the hungry will take on new perspective as ‘beamed’ human images can be pre-loaded with artificially enhanced instructions on crop growing and monitoring.

Future wars will involve shutting down networks and infecting other cultures with Macro Virus warriors.

Wait… or was that a movie I saw…

http://www.daretwocare.us/press.html

There are many who would claim that fusion lacks that; therefore it should not be funded. I disagree with them.

http://www.wral.com/news/10159614/detail.html?subid=22100762&qs=1;bp=t

I don’t have a problem with government funding of certain research. I just want it spent with focus on things that have a reasonable probability of a positive result. I guess it comes down to the wisdom and knowledge of the people steering where the money goes.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/10/trandahl_names_.html

As the token WeBlog racist (glug!), you’re diversity boy around these parts. Don’t ever forget it–I know I’LL never let you forget it.

But at least you’re not a fascist (glug!).

Viva La Raza Mesitzo!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061025184239.htm