Besides, Obama needs me.

After the media honeymoon ended a couple of weeks ago, Obama probably does need a hug or two.

Come to think about it, I think I'll change my registration too. Hillary needs me.

I know Rush and the gang are thrilled with the idea of voting for Hillary to disrupt the Dems, but step back and look at that: Just a few short years ago, Rush's ilk was running America and now they have a Republican candidate they don't like and the go-to slick plan - the brilliant stroke - is to switch to being Democrats for a day so they can vote for Hillary Clinton? That's their best move?
Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Yeah Bill, it's amazing how much better things have gotten since the Dems took over congress. There approval rating must be controled by Rush's ilk?

This little Repub. side show of registering as Democrats for a day is hardly looked at as the "brilliant stroke-best move" you cast it as.
It's just a little entertainment.

The only hope Obama has is if you dems take out Hillary who will be fileting Barak over the next few months. And doing so unlike anything you ever imagined Rush's "il" was capable of.

You're finally learning what Hillary has been the whole time you were at her feet.

Hillary needs me.

cc, do you get everything backwards?

cc, do you get everything backwards?

Well, I used to get my screen name backwards, but you can see my elegant solution to that little problem.

The supreme irony will come when Hillary gets the nomination, against the wishes of most Democrats, and then goes on to beat McCain.

As for ORS 254.069, that little turd of a law was supported by every Democrat running for Secretary of State except for Rick Metsger. For that reason alone, he has my vote. Vicki Walker may speak truth to power sometimes, but on that bill she joined forces with the dark side.

I am staying Independent. I cant bring myself to be part of either party.
And in light of the current preacher controversy, unless Obama explains, I will probably keep my vote I and not vote for anyone this time around.

Howard,
My point isn't that it's a brilliant move. My point is that this is what it's come down to for the GOP. Don't you see a decline in options here?
Maybe it will be easier to grasp coming from the former NRCC chair:

"The House Republican brand is so bad right now that if it were a dog food, they'd take it off the shelf," --retiring Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (Va.)

Oh, come on Bill, lighten up - try to see the humor in it.

You take comedy too seriously.

It'd be a lot funnier if America wasn't going down the toilet, and it'd be a lot funnier if so many of our soldiers and Iraqis hadn't been killed or badly wounded to make it happen.
I've felt for years that this will be viewed one day as the greatest dark farce in history: The story of the screw-up son who quits drinking and decides he wants to be the Decider. And the adoring followers who behold his work and declare him another Winston Churchill. Yes, one day it will all seem hilarious.
But not yet.

Oh, sorry Bill.

I guess, there'll be no humor allowed until further notice. You ought to inform Rep. Davis about the ban, though.

Jon- Why would you or anyone seriously withold a vote because of what a candidate's preacher said? Are you freaking serious?? Do you even take the election seriously?

It's called 'scraping the bottom of the barrel', and the media has a brillo pad... so glad you're eating it up.

I did think it was funny that the CEO of Bear Stearns was at a bridge tournament when the implosion happened and is reported to wind down from a long day of playing cards by getting stoned.
So for him last week was a major buzz kill.

I'm switching to dem too, for voting purposes only. I'm not going back to the republican party as long as I live in Oregon. Similar reasons as Jack, my vote will count more. I'm going to vote for Hillary and "Anyone but "Worthless Wu".

Bill,
I know your point wasn't that it's a brilliant move, you were obvioulsy being sarcastis.
But you are off with "this is what it's come down to for the GOP".

This isn't GOP move. So this isn't "what it's come down to or evidence of a "decline in options" for the GOP.

Shifting gears into a randoom quote from Davis means little as well.

Sure the Republican brand is wanting. Especially with their abandoning what got them the majority and chosing instead to try and immitate democrats.

BUT ALL THAT SAID, look what the Democrats have "come down to". A pissin match primary race becoming uglier and a Congress they control with worse approval ratings than Bush.

All the while attributing none of the country's problems to the Democrat congress.

I can only imagine you would prefer the country to be run as well as the CoP with total Democrat domination?

TKrueg...Obama has attended this man's church for years, he married them, baptized their children, and he brought him on as his "spiritual advisor". Knows him on a personal level, had him in his home for dinner. How can you be that friendly...that close.. with someone like Rev. Wright when he says the evil, hateful, stuff he says? I couldnt.

And people have demonized conservatives for years just because of who they associate with. Is there a double standard now?

I really wanted to vote for Obama. I just dont know any more.

Don't interrupt Bill when his sanctimony is in full flood.

It's not funny.

Making this a Dem thing isn't going to work with me. I think Pelosi and Reid are absolute losers for not cutting off funding for Iraq.
The Dems definitely sold out.
And I think the sanctimony index still favors the GW supporters. Let's not forget he had all three branches of government and he blew it. Even with Jesus telling him directly what to do.
Hey, I know it's hard to face so go ahead: Entertain yourself all you want. I doubt when you vote for Hillary it's going to feel all that entertaining for you.
Remember, if she does win you can say, "Hey, I was a part of that. I helped put Bill Clinton back in the White House."
Feel entertained yet?

It's laughable to suggest that Obama somehow endorses everything someone else preaches about. What is impressive to me is that he has a fairly close relationship with his clergy, attends church regularly, and through his actions shows an abiding faith in a higher power.

Welcome back Jack. You cannot get more independent then an Oregon Democrat!

Those Democrat's down in City Hall are doing such a great job, I will also join them.

The preacher is too late.

We already damned this country by re-electing GW Bush.

Be careful what you wish for.
"W" had a higher GPA than AL Gore.
Things could have been worse.

I left just before Jack did....

I ain't goin' back. You can't make me. There's nuthin' there for me.

I just changed my voter registration from Republican to Democrat(after 30+ years). I too am inclined to vote for Obama for no other reason than I think he may be the best of the lot.

Funny that the same folks on Fox News who questioned whether Obama is a Muslim (as a whisper smear campaign) now are obsessed about what his Christian pastor said. Do you need to know any more about the motives of these people?

Sick...

"It'd be a lot funnier if America wasn't going down the toilet"

OK, what are Hillary/Obama going to do besides bring troops back home? ALbeit that would be a positive move since I think the Iraqis need some kind of, ahem, motivation to get themselves moving.

I just hear some of the plans of all 3 besides Iraq and I just hear cash registers in chorus with all the costs involved. Once our media actually gets beyond asking "gotcha" questions and starts asking something substantive like - what is your plan for a better and stronger America? Then I'll listen.

Howard-

You seems stuck on this idea of congress' approval rating. Dems don't have total control. The reason the rating remains so low is the obstructionist Republicans. Its simple. Congress is on pace to double the number of bills blocked, EVER.

On the other hand, it’s a solid attempt to blame the Dems for another of the many Republican failings.

Maybe you can clear something up for me: All the problems now are the fault of the Democratic Congress that's been in power for what, 14 months?

And all of the problems BEFORE that were Bill Clinton's fault.

At what point does the notion of accountability bubble to the surface in GOPLand?

TKrueg,

Does it not seem a WEE TEENY WEENY bit hypocritical when Barak's association with a hate-mongering, racist preacher is dismissed as trivial smear politics, but when it is say....hmm...dubya merely giving a speech at Bob Jones U., he is an under-the-RADAR racist?

I'm having trouble seeing how this controversy over Rev. Wright is different from a religious test for office. The people holding Rev. Wright against Mr. Obama are not even testing the candidate's religion, but his preacher's politics. That's messed up.

I'm open to the idea that Rev. Wright could be a nutcase. Could be true, though most allegations I've seen against Rev. Wright thus far have been pretty easy to refute or explain... and Mr. Obama himself has disavowed a lot of Rev. Wright's more controversial statements.

But there's a larger issue here: Do we really want to ask our politicians - our Presidents - to surround themselves only with people that fully agree with them? Is there no room for allowing them to associate with people with whom they disagree? Where does that end? Do I not get to talk to my friends who supported the Iraq invasion any more, lest I be accused of supporting the invasion as well? How do we settle our differences when we're punished for speaking to people with whom we disagree?

If we want to sunder this nation, to divide our people, this is the way to go: punish anyone who crosses clique boundaries. It's to avoid this that religious tests for office were specifically prohibited by the Constitution, and why "guilt by association" has a well-deserved bad reputation. Such things are symptoms of a political disease.

"I think I'll change my registration too. Hillary needs me."

Actually Billary has made it quite clear that they don't need the votes of average people. They only need the votes of superdelegates, whom Billary says know better than average folks what is best for them and the party.

Hillary to Democratic primary voters: "Screw You."

"... association with a hate-mongering, racist preacher..."

Just out of curiosity, have you actually watched or listened to any of his sermons? I'll grant that race seems important to Rev. Wright in a way it's not to me, and I find that a bit... well, old-fashioned. His speeches sound like they're straight out of the sixties civil rights struggles, with all that entails.

But "hate-mongering"? No. A quote: "He taught me, Jesus did, how to love my enemies. How to love the hell out of my enemies. And not be reduced to their level of hatred..." He doesn't sound hateful to me, just full of old-fashioned Christian liberation theology with a strong aroma of fire and brimstone.

Alan,

You are grossly underestimating how distasteful and hateful Wright's comments were. Hard to run for President of the United States when your closest spiritual adviser and mentor thinks that the United States government invented AIDS keep Africans oppressed and 'brought on' the 9/11 attacks by bombing Japan in WWII.

Congratulations Barak....you've successfully rendered yourself unelectable in the General Election. Hillary is playing nice with this stuff so as not to alienate lefties. Wait until those conservative 527's start digging into this stuff.

No hate at all here:

"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people, God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."

- the good Reverend Wright, 2003

Now maybe its just me, but I don't think a good way to get elected to the highest political office in a country is to closely associate yourself with a pastor who repeatedly tells his congregation to damn it.

our current president, gets his orders directly from his fundamentalist GOD, no one seems all that disturbed by this.

Obama's pastor preaches in Chicago, i assume, to a delegation that truly feels this to be fact. It seems to me reverend wright may be speaking to his audeance. He seems to clearly be for fixing a bad situation in chicago.

As Alan stated above, he seems to be an old fasioned preacher, just because your idea of fire and brimstone doesnt meet up with those in chicago, doesnt make obama unelectable.

It comes down to the fact that obama will make his own choices, not rev. wright's, and not God's like with Bush.

If it kills innocent people,

If it treats its citizens less than human,

If acts like it is God and it is supreme,

Then, I'd be right there with Rev. Wright.

As noted already, the voters already accomodated by re-electing GW Bush.

Reverand Wright has done nothing worse than did Old Testament prophets. Anybody who has any understanding of the Judeo-christian traditions should be well aware of this. Which means...those who condemn him have not listened, do not care and wish our nation to continue killing innocents, continues to treat its citizens as less than human, and to continue to support an arrogant hubris in its dealings with other peoples and nations.

And I'm neither a theist, nor an Obama supporter.

The hate generated with this attack on Wright is misinformed and evil.

Uh-huh. Okay, I agree, that's kind of offensive. So does it not matter that Mr. Obama disagrees with that? Are you saying just associating with someone is enough to be tainted with their opinions?

'Cuz, you know, I seem to recall that - in rare circumstances - you and I have actually agreed on a couple things here, Butch. And you certainly persist in hanging around Jack's blog even though he and others here seem to say things you don't agree with on a pretty regular basis.

So should that impact the way other people view you? Should you be cast out of the conservative club because of it? Should I be tarred and feathered by liberals because I know Jason Williams personally and I think he's a pretty okay guy? Is a willingness to engage one's opponents in debate cause for political castration?

Yeah. Great plan.

And don't tell me it's just a matter of degree, Butch. It's not. My spiritual advisor as a young adult - the man who confirmed me in my church and buried my parents in his churchyard - he was a vocal supporter of 1992's measure nine, which I thought was a horrible idea. (I'm still appalled.) But religion is not politics, and confusing the two is dangerous.

Face it, Butch. All of us hang around with folks who don't agree with us on many issues most every day. They're called "other people". Listening to other points of view is healthy.

"The hate generated with this attack on Wright is misinformed and evil"....hmm...I think that "misinformed and evil" comes more from when Wright referred to our country as the "U S of KKK A".

This is not just some guy that Obama happened to brush elbows with now and then. He has a more than 20 year close relationship with the guy. Wright's statements are just now starting to leak out. And who knows what those evil Republicans are sitting on.....

Alan,

Don't take what I say personally or read into it more than I am saying. Politics is a fickle thing. I'm not speaking of Obama's character or attitudes toward race, or even the amount of influence I personally think that Wright has had on Obama.

Personally, I think that his association with Wright was more political expediency for his rise in the local political scene. But what I'm talking about is the PERCEPTION this leaves for casual or fence-sitting voter in the general election. There is a reason candidate dubya had to apologize publicly for a one-time appearance at Bob Jones. Barak is going to have to explain to 'lunchbox Joe' why he attended what will be portrayed as the white equivalent to KKK rallies for the past 20 years.

Huh. Well, you seemed to be doing your bit to help it be portrayed in the most evil light possible, so I kinda figured that's what you meant to do.

If you really think it's unfair it might , ya know, be helpful to say so straight off. :-/

Anyway, I should probably mention that I'm an independent (due to that stoopid law Jack mentioned) so I don't have a horse in the D race. If the dems were to pull their heads out of their donkeys and repeal that law, though, I'd drop a ballot for Obama over Clinton. Although...

I'm not trying to portray it in the "most evil light possible"....just trying to illustrate what those fabulous 527's are licking their chops at doing. Thank you McCain-Feingold.

Hysterical hypocrisy! Oops, sorry about the word hysterical, Bill - I forgot that you're the humorless hall monitor.

godfry, man, you win the 2+2+5 prize for the most convoluted route to end up condemning those concerned about Rev. Wright's blatant racism and Obama's tacit acceptance of it. The "evil" tag from a non-theist doesn't really pack a lot of moral force, though, does it?

Do it again, please, it's priceless.

Alan, my friend, Wright's been preaching his racist, divisive, hate-filled "sermons" for years. Doesn't your discerning, analytical mind find it the least bit disingenuous, not to say outright phony, that it's only when the media finally does its due diligence and turns up the good preacher's actual words, that the anointed one disavows them?

No?

You guys really don't have anything other than the 155mm howitzers, do you? How about a measured response?

...bwaahahahaha

And cc is ready to repeal the First Amendment.

Thanks, it's nice to know who the fascists are, cc.

Oh, God, godfry!

The first amendment, as you well know, applies to the right of the people to peaceably assemble, etc., etc...

It's protects me when I say that Wright's unabridged speech is objectionable. You may find his "sermons" less so; you may agree with the sentiments expressed in them. Either way, the government is prohibited from stopping either of us from expressing our opinions about it. What part of "free" don't you get?

Unpopular speech is that which is most in need of such protection. If you think Wright's speech is somehow immune from the criticism of those who disagree with him, then you're the fascist.

However, being a Christian, I forgive you.

I'd turn the other cheek, but that's a whole 'nother thing.

Peace!

cc,
So much for your powers of perception. If I'm the humorless hall monitor how come I make a living selling comedy?
Oh, wait. That's the real world. Let's get back to Bush World where everything's spin. Heck of a job, cc.

There is NO difference between the idiot Jerry Falwell saying that 9/11 was our payment for allowing gays to live among us, and Wright saying that the government created the AIDS virus to take out the black population. Both are evil, vile things to say, and I would have left either's church and publicly condemned them. People even associated CHRISTIANS with what Falwell said, whether they knew him, attended his church, watched him program, whatever. How's that for "guilt by association?"

And some of the other things Wright said...if a white person said them, he would be sued or in jail.

Like I said, I want to vote for Obama. And I know he is a religious man, probably just as much as Dubya (which I am surprised the lefties havent condemned him for by now, but we all know that wont happen)...anyway, when he has a major problem to deal with, do we want him seeking advice from a "spiritual leader" like Wright?

The ultimate spin: The Dow broke even today.

Are you kidding me? I'm liquidating my 401(k) and buying pallets of canned tuna.

I just got an image of all of us with wireless laptops blogging around a campfire.

"If I'm the humorless hall monitor how come I make a living selling comedy?"

Dick Cheney is pretty damn funny at those White House Correspondence Dinners. So Bill, that must convince you that he is just a funny guy, eh?

Funny weird. Funny odd. Funny wackjob.

That's Dick**d Cheney's "funny". Not funny ha-ha.

Ok those are fighting words.
I've met Bill and he's no "humorless hall monitor". A lefty but Ok.
Comparing him to Dick Cheney,(who I've also met) is a viscious attack and out of line.

Peace

Butch,
You bring up a sore point. Leno was doing the White House Correspondents dinner one year and he said one of mine in USA Today the day of the event. So I had my tape running on CSPAN that night but nothing.
I'm sure Cheney was as funny as you say. Anyone who can lie that convincingly has to be able to deliver someone else's line well.
The one I remember from the Bush administration at that dinner was the video of President Bush pretending to look for WMDs under his desk, etc...while our soldiers were getting torn up in Iraq.
I didn't think that was particularly funny.

"Alan, my friend, Wright's been preaching his racist, divisive, hate-filled "sermons" for years. Doesn't your discerning, analytical mind find it the least bit disingenuous, not to say outright phony, that it's only when the media finally does its due diligence and turns up the good preacher's actual words, that the anointed one disavows them?"

I don't think Rev. Wright's statements actually matter even one little bit in the first place, so it's hard for me to get all bent about it. Obama's repudiations seem contrived and pandering to me because I think it's ridiculous that he's being asked to repudiate someone else's statements at all.

I would have been more impressed if he'd said to the press: "See, I know all y'all have trouble telling us black folks apart, so let me set this straight. That fella over there is Rev. Wright, and he's not running for Predident. He is, however, a damn fine preacher. My name is Barack Obama, and I am running for President. So if you have questions about the black candidate's political statements, please direct them to me. Thank you."

THAT would have been refereshingly honest. :-)

It is good news that you do what you can and act your plan, Jack. You know that I call it futile, but what do I know. (Here's a truth: I'm a registered Republican, for the purpose of monkeywrenching 'their' primaries by toxxing a fop to the worst one 'they' run in a field, who then can claim supporters exist when, at show time, 'they' cannot show me; and, 'they' waste ad campaign money on 'buying' my vote when, trust me, it is all wasted; and, there is something of 'protective camouflage' in wearing a black letter-'R' swastika in voter registration rolls -- gestapo fascists skip over making targets of those 'they' think are 'their own'; and on the other hand, it doesn't matter to me who comes out of the primaries on the Democratic side, since I am going to vote for the worst 'D' much preferable to the best 'R' (realizing, here, "best 'R'" is an oxymoron); and, the Democrats should avoid spending campaign funds on me, I'm already in their column, ('scuse me, in the fold); and, bottom line, in the General Election, voter registration don't mean squat since everyone gets the same ballot. Plus, as a personal pleasure in sadistic torture, I enjoy watching rightists squirm like a salted banana slug when I can say truthfully to 'them' -- as I did to LIARS and he about crapped green gopher guts -- first, one of the radical leftist wisdoms I believe, endorse, and support in argument, followed second by the fact that I am a registered 'R.' Truth be told.)

It surprises me that so many comments come on this thread. I expected the rightwing-o losers lurking in these parts would avoid bringing attention to Jack's principled stand -- as I am sure to a certainty that racist LIARS Larson is never again going to drive traffic here from among his fascist audience of dull-witted mockingbirds.

It is not surprising that when the loser rightwing wackos came, all they got and brought is goon-stupid knuckle-dragging self-defaming snotty talk. Astonishing, it is, that voices admit to thinking the self-incriminating senselessness that comes out of their mouths. For one thing, (Bill), you can't expect that any sensibility or reasoning you supply can possibly get through to, or affect, a fencepost who is puke-stupid. It's not as hopeful as the chance that swine might recognize pearls in their path; it is the lost cause of depth dimension to a cyclops.

For the studiously sentient some, (this includes you, Jack -- it is also good news that you are buying canned tuna wholesale), the 'trap' is closing fast in these abysmal days. (Perhaps the more pointed pull-quote is, regarding frogs in the near-boiling bath, 'every one is croaking.') Registering one way or the other to vote, indeed, voting at all, appears to be coming a day late and a dollar short.

As (re)told here: FOOD, FUEL, AND FASCISM: THEIR ELECTION OR YOUR LIFE?, By Carolyn Baker, 13 March 2008.
... amid what is unfolding in front of us, I receive emails from readers who tell me that they are quite sure that somehow Obama is our hope and that if we just get the right leadership, things will turn around. I hear talk at the checkout counters of "all recessions eventually end" and "we just have to ride it out." I wonder what these individuals will be doing one year from now. I wonder how they will eat, where they will be living, what will get them up in the morning, and whether they'll be able to sleep at night. And as the hollow, trite, tired clichés assault my eardrums, I see and hear Richard Heinberg reporting soberly and assertively in "The End Of Suburbia" [LINK in the original] that we will soon enter "a recession that never ends." I also hear Matt Simmons telling us that oil is still too cheap, and I ponder his recent interview [LINK in the original] on CNBC forecasting $378 a barrel. I recall overhearing a man last summer saying, "Gasoline is now three dollars a gallon. What's happening to this world?" I wonder where the man is now; I wonder if he'll still be around for ...

Whether it adds credence or contempt, I don't know, but true disclosure is I claim a corroborating insight of intimacy with the writer, (the wildest weirdness you ever heard of, if you were to hear it, but you didn't hear it here), and she writes with a perspective informed as a once- and future-Oregonian. [SAMURAI SUNRISE:, by Carolyn Baker; see also, related: FromTheWilderness.COM/free/ww3/032006_killing_hope.shtml -- 'Killing Hope, Enlivening Options,' by Carolyn Baker ]

For myself, I plan to act by voting, too, like Jack. Do what's possible now, and work, watching, toward future potentials. The comments here actually boosted my hopes for Obama, (and voting for him, 'if the election were held today'), for the potential possibility that he may, in office, follow through investigating leads his Pastor gives him, particularly in the concern of the origin of AIDS, (as his Pastor raises to him, I learned from comments here). It restores my faith in humankind, (downcast by obscenely moneyed Euro-SupremaRacists such as LIARS and his lickspittle LINKalikes), that I find Word on the street is boldly braver in knowledge than the mince-word massminded. Even during these years of Bushbutchery obliterating history, new findings are published from Ed Hooper's continuing research in The Origins of AIDS, a movie to watch and read up-to-date on ... if you are not afraid of 'just a movie.'

There seems to be some entertainment value in analyzing the current political train wreck.

Bill McDonald, don't tear your rotator cuff patting yourself on the back. I have never seen somebody funny, have to tell people how funny they are, but you sure do.

Don't be concerned about me patting myself on the back. I make sure I stretch first.

Jack, I just did the same thing a month ago.

So much for your powers of perception. If I'm the humorless hall monitor how come I make a living selling comedy?

Look Bill, this started with the "change voter registration and vote for Hillary" thing. I thought it was funny, I still think it's funny - in a way that involves irony. You were all up about it as if that sort of humor was "off-limits". Irony, ironically enough, is also what I had in mind when I called you a "humorless hall monitor". I doubt anyone here doesn't know you make a living selling comedy, I just wondered if you'd sold it all.

As for your question: "If I'm the humorless hall monitor how come I make a living selling comedy?", I have to admit I'm still working on that one.

Did the same thing two weeks ago, will be switching back in the fall. Never been a Dem before- feels a little weird.

Okay cc,
I apologize for being cranky yesterday. The news these days brings that out in me.

Dear Bill,
I read your comments on this blog and others, avidly. I think you are pretty funny. And yes there sure is a good deal about which to be cranky these days.
As for those of you out there in blog land that think a continuation of the same policies we have now is going to be good for you....
Sell off your stocks;liquidate anything and everything.
Buy lots of gold in small coins of some kind.
Bury the above in your back yard in a Tupperware container.
Prepare to pay for everything with wheelbarrow loads of gold coins.
Say good-by to your grand children; they will be in Iraq for the next 100 years.

Dear Bill,
I read your comments on this blog and others, avidly. I think you are pretty funny. And yes there sure is a good deal about which to be cranky these days.
As for those of you out there in blog land that think a continuation of the same policies we have now is going to be good for you....
Sell off your stocks;liquidate anything and everything.
Get out your guns and ammo; you are going to need it to defend yourself.
Buy lots of gold in small coins of some kind.
Bury the above in your back yard in a Tupperware container.
Prepare to pay for everything with wheelbarrow loads of gold coins.
Say good-by to your grand children; they will be in Iraq for the next 100 years.

Bill,

Humor's sometimes all we've got.
Just because I don't seem to take much seriously doesn't mean I don't. I acknowledge many of the same problems you do. We may differ on their causes and the means to their solutions a bit, but I think we share a goal. Locally, we'd probably agree on 95% of things...

...which frightens me.