ot..... The Dumbocrats and Repugnicans show. Too F'd up ?

[knotkranky]

you all have to be on viagra (apologies deva) to keep it up this long. the lebanon thread went, what, 23 pages? you can beat it.

it's recommended if you have an erection lasting longer than 4 days you should probably go see the doctor

oh and if you start seeing blue - that's bad

trust me, it's bad

No, thats not right. An election is one day and seeing lots of blue is good.

If you have to wait four days to vote, then yes you'll need a doctor.

[knotkranky]

I believe this is relevant enough for a bump. Register, vote and relieve the gop of some power.


Tactic Uses Pulpits to Power the GOP
Evangelical leaders, on the first day of a rally, ask pastors to advocate for a social conservative agenda despite recent IRS investigations.
By Peter Wallsten
Times Staff Writer

September 23, 2006

WASHINGTON — Worried that discontent among conservatives and the lack of a clear standard-bearer to follow President Bush might cost Republicans in November, top evangelical leaders pleaded with their followers Friday to put aside frustrations and turn out for GOP candidates.

The appeals, coming on the opening day of a weekend-long rally and strategy conference, included entreaties to pastors to use their pulpits on behalf of the social conservative agenda.

"There is no choice, because the alternative is terrible," said James C. Dobson, founder of the influential group Focus on the Family, referring to the potential for a Democratic takeover of the House and Senate in November.

Dobson's organization recently launched a major voter recruitment drive in eight battleground states that will include placing registration tables outside Sunday worship services at conservative churches.

The Values Voter Summit — which will include appearances by several potential GOP presidential hopefuls — underscores evangelicals' growing power in national politics. The agenda serves as a road map of their tactics for energizing voters, including sessions on fighting gay marriage, attacking Hollywood liberalism and denouncing embryonic stem-cell research.

Kicking off the conference Friday, Dobson joined other evangelical chieftains in lobbying pastors to feel more free to advocate for conservative causes from the pulpit despite recent investigations by the Internal Revenue Service into alleged partisan activities by churches. One such investigation has ensnared the liberal All Saints Church in Pasadena, over a sermon denouncing the Iraq war shortly before the 2004 election.

One session today is to focus on the "role of churches in political issues." On Friday, Dobson and a representative from an evangelical-backed legal group told the crowd that churches were free to distribute fliers and other materials promoting stands on issues.

"You still can't endorse candidates, but you can do voter guides," Dobson said. "You can do all kinds of things."

Critics say Dobson and his allies are crossing the line and giving bad advice to churches. The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, mailed letters this week to 117,000 churches in 11 states warning them not to go along with voter registration drives and other activities.

"They are talking about a systematic effort to get churches involved in political activity," said Lynn, who attended the conference and met privately backstage with Dobson to debate the question. "They say this isn't partisan, but then they turn around and make it clear that their goal is to keep Republicans in power."

Friday's events showed that evangelicals intend to broaden their focus on issues that can motivate voters. Leaders framed the GOP's signature issue of terrorism as a matter of "protecting the family" and winning a war between Judeo-Christian traditions and Islamic extremism.

Dobson, whose radio show is heard by millions, said protecting the country from terrorism was a "family issue."

"If we don't have security for ourselves and for our children and future generations, we don't have a future for the family," he said.

The mention of terrorism was the latest indication that conservative strategists are looking for additional motivators beyond the issue of gay marriage, which was credited with helping Bush secure reelection in 2004 thanks to a series of ballot initiatives that year in key states such as Ohio. Republican strategists have acknowledged that they intend to mobilize the conservative base by painting Democrats as soft on "foreign threats," as one internal GOP memo recently explained.

Other speakers on Friday focused on illegal immigration and called for a border crackdown, invoking an issue that has divided the GOP's conservative core from the White House and from Capitol Hill moderates.

But Friday's events showed that gay marriage remained a central rallying cry, with Dobson and others promoting initiatives this year in eight states.

"We see America on this collision course between religious freedoms and the homosexual agenda," said Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council.

Three possible presidential candidates, along with White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, were applauded when they raised the issue.

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a likely White House contender who is viewed skeptically by many evangelical leaders because he is a Mormon and is viewed as a moderate, said the country "desperately" needed a federal gay marriage ban. He won cheers as he spoke of his opposition to a ruling by his home state's highest court upholding same-sex marriage.

Similar themes were sounded by three other presidential possibilities: Sens. George Allen of Virginia and Sam Brownback of Kansas and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Allen — whose race for reelection this year has tightened after his use of the word "macaca," a racial slur in some countries, and his reaction to revelations that he has Jewish heritage — was boisterously applauded when he asked the conference activists to come to Virginia and assist with that state's initiative this year to ban gay marriage.

But though some potential Bush successors were eager to score points with the crowd, two of the party's front-runners were noticeably absent. Neither Sen. John McCain of Arizona nor former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani are scheduled to speak — a reminder that even as the GOP seeks to mobilize its base to maintain power, the future of the party's leadership remains much in doubt.

[deva]

There sure are a lot of rightwingers who talk about killing those they disagree with.

I think the country should be split up. One half for a Christian Theocracy where its their way or the highway (or prison, or death), the other half for those who want no part of it and want a diverse sectarian country.

May be another civil war brewing in the US.

[rtopia]

May be another civil war brewing in the US.

and if there really isn't - I'm sure you'll find a way to pull up a bunch of links to information that support the idea that the civil war has already begun.

Dividing the country may not be a bad idea.

Maybe a better division between those of us who actually aren't ashamed to be American and those who would rather start a new country period.

I know it's popular to slam the religious.
(in most cases they really bring it on themselves).

BUT...

Why is it that you don't have a problem with the way the Venezulan Cochina Boy invoked God all over the place last week?

- r

[DeadlyKungFu]

http://www.alternet.org/story/14531/
The Case for California Secession
California has the economy, the weather, the entertainment, the wine, and the right ideas. Why not start our own thing?

All right, take your fingers away from covering your eyes and stop that sobbing. It's over. The 2002 election, that is. I don't know which was uglier. Bush's smug smile or staying up way too late watching the rest of the country scream at us to eat their dust as they peeled out with an incredibly hard right turn leaving the state of California sitting all by our lonesome as the last remaining residents of Liberalville.

It was de-evolution in action. Like Cro Magnon Man dropping down to all fours and feverishly attempting to stick his tail back on. What you saw was a group of potential survivors vote themselves off the island of progress. We get to stay. Yes, yes, yes, I know, we're the real problem here. Not a single Republican voted into statewide office. We're the ones out of step with the rest of the nation. Out of Goose Step with the rest of the country.

So, why not step even further out. Just split. Leave the nest. 50 - 49 = 1. Face it, they don't like us. And we don't need them. We got the food. We got the wine country to wash it down with. We got the movies, the Disneyland, the Yosemite, the Death Valley, the Sierras, the otters, the Humboldt County. We could use a flag and some money, but otherwise, we're set.

If you ask me, they need us a hell of a lot more than we need them. We miss anything bad enough, we simply replace it. New York? Couple more skyscrapers and Sacramento becomes a major metropolis. Only difference: folks smile and wear shorts. You want gambling? We build us our own Las Vegas located somewhere more conducive to human existence than a desert. What else: you want Chicago? Just dirty up Bakersfield a little.

Why not secede? (Wait, let's encode it so they don't know what we're talking about. C-Seed. Tell 'em it's a new insecticide.) Why not C-Seed? Bush won't stop us. It's not like he'd lose sleep canceling all those planned trips to northern California. Subtract our electoral votes from the equation and his re-election is more secure than cold spot welded door rivets in a glue factory. He could move back to Crawford and nap until November 2004. Let Dick and Condi attack whichever small defenseless country they want. Be easy to sneak the bill through Congress. Call it "USA Bill To Deny Democrats 54 Electoral Votes Every 4 Years."

Remember how the Feds laughingly flipped us off when the Texas energy corps held us down and mugged us for more than $20 billion? You really looking forward to 2-to-6 more years of that? Of California women worrying themselves sick every time a Supreme Court Justice coughs, wondering if this is the end of Roe vs. Wade? Of Ashcroft's stormtroopers contradicting the will of our people by knocking over wheelchairs to confiscate a couple ounces of herb? Bush wants regime change so bad? I got his regime change right here.

With the seventh largest economy in the world we get instant credibility. No disrespect, but this isn't like Alabama or Iowa going solo. Probably rack up new immigration applications like we were giving away free beer at a frat party. You want commitment to environmental protection, education reform, and a woman's right to choose, Californy is the place you ought to be. So they loaded up the truck and they moved to Beverly. Its a win-win. We got a lot going for us. And here's just a couple more examples.

10 Most Bitchin' Reasons California Becoming Its Own Country Would Be So Cool

* Four words: Vice President Nancy Pelosi.

* State and local legislatures already extremely comfortable setting foreign policy.

* Our own armed services. Eastwood, Schwarzenegger, Stallone or Willis in charge?

* Opening weekend foreign distribution movie figures go way up.

* You want a war. I got a war for you. We invade Florida for orange juice supremacy. Then take on Wisconsin for that whole cheese deal. Then France. For the wine? No, for the hell of it. Because now it's in our blood.

* Our own intelligence agency. Imagine the allure of an assignment to one of our undercover cells in Reno.

* Can extradite and convict Enron CEO, Ken Lay, at our own war crimes tribunal.

* We charge a fee on every foreigner trying out as a contestant on "Wheel of Fortune." Call it a stupid tax.

* Bechtel (a California based concern) builds a Great Wall right down the middle of Lake Tahoe. Screw the corner. Straight line. North to south.

* We outlaw Fox News as a foreign propaganda tool.

[glu]

i love it!

[knotkranky]

++++1 Yeah, lets do it !!! Whooooooo!!!

[DeadlyKungFu]

I'm going to start with San Francisco, I want to take the Bay bridge, shove it into the Caldecott tunnel, then take the materials from the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway 380 and build a 500 foot tall wall from SFO airport to the ocean.

The only way in or out of SF will be BART, tickets will be $100, no passes. When people arrive in town they'll get a brain implant that explodes at midnight if they're still within city limits.

Bridge and tunnel people are driving me nuts.

[knotkranky]

May be another civil war brewing in the US.

and if there really isn't - I'm sure you'll find a way to pull up a bunch of links to information that support the idea that the civil war has already begun.

Dividing the country may not be a bad idea.

Maybe a better division between those of us who actually aren't ashamed to be American and those who would rather start a new country period.

I know it's popular to slam the religious.
(in most cases they really bring it on themselves).

BUT...

Why is it that you don't have a problem with the way the Venezulan Cochina Boy invoked God all over the place last week?

- r

I don't think any american is ashamed to be american. But many are ashamed that bush represents them. Bush is no american leader since he never enacts anything most americans can be proud of.

Forget Chavez. He is a focus that does little service and his focus on god is not unlike bush's for that matter. So what.

Is anyone in here proud of the Iraq war, it's civil war and torture?

How can this so called moral religious majority be proud of this colossal prick bush ?

How did they hijack and twist morality? Certainly, they can't do it without god.

[craw]

you really think the democrats are any better. Rememer that Tony blair leads the 'equivalent' of the british democratic party in the UK.

Democracy in america is a farse (as it is in the UK)

The choice is between the shit & the even shitter!

[knotkranky]

I'm going to start with San Francisco, I want to take the Bay bridge, shove it into the Caldecott tunnel, then take the materials from the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway 380 and build a 500 foot tall wall from SFO airport to the ocean.

The only way in or out of SF will be BART, tickets will be $100, no passes. When people arrive in town they'll get a brain implant that explodes at midnight if they're still within city limits.

Bridge and tunnel people are driving me nuts.

12:01am

[DeadlyKungFu]

roflmao!!!!! EXACTLY!!! That last outgoing BART train could get MESSY!

[rtopia]

okay...

that shit was really funny

- r

[Electix88]

.


Lets not let bush do anymore damage. We have to give congressional control to the democrats. Register, tell your friends to vote. Please, We implore you.

This is our biggest and best chance to help ourselves and the rest of the world. Let's not blow it.

Euro, asia, canada, south america, dudes n chicks, please help by pressing your american friends to vote this november and show us your vote if you could vote.

Thank you Brother for the voice of clarity.
Kudos

[knotkranky]

Iraq war, criminal lies? Sure, but damnit, I want more rights for my snowmobile.


GOP Mines Data for Every Tiny Bloc
By Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten
Times Staff Writers

September 24, 2006

AMERICA VOTES

The Battle for Control

--

WASHINGTON — As Democrats drive to extend their power in Congress, holding on to Debbie Stabenow's Senate seat is a must. And the Michigan incumbent is currently ahead in the polls.

But Republican strategists are working hard to upset Stabenow, in part through a low-profile appeal to a group that most politicians rarely think of as a voting bloc — snowmobilers.

And the stealth campaign to woo the thousands of working-class, historically Democratic Michiganders whose cold-weather passion is snowmobiles is just one small example of a technique known as "micro-targeting" that GOP strategists are using across the country as they try to pull off another election day victory against the odds.

By most measures, the November elections offer Democrats their best chance in years. If anti-Republican sentiment turns out to be a tidal wave, strategic and tactical brilliance may not be enough to protect the GOP majorities in Congress.

But if control of Congress comes down to three or four dozen closely contested races, as now seems likely, then micro-targeting and the other technologies that Republicans are using in battleground states could make a difference.

The GOP system — built around a database nicknamed Voter Vault — combines huge amounts of demographic, financial and other personal information on individual voters with the data-mining techniques used by direct-mail advertisers to deliver surgically targeted appeals to voters identified as likely to respond, including many who might be considered part of the Democratic base.

In Michigan, for example, the GOP contacted snowmobilers by mail, telephone or other personal communication suggesting that Democrats' environmental views stood in the way of greater opportunities for snowmobiling.

Though details of the GOP system are secret, snowmobilers and other categories of voters are identified from such diverse sources as credit card transactions, product warranty files, magazine subscription lists, consumer surveys, vehicle registrations and other public records.

Going back at least to the 2002 elections, the Republicans' use of technology, coupled with elaborate computer profiles that make educated guesses about individuals' political inclinations, has demonstrated its power in close races.

In the recent Rhode Island Senate primary, the GOP assessed reams of data — from prior voting histories to signatures on petitions — to identify Democrats and independents whose profiles suggested they might support beleaguered Republican incumbent Lincoln Chafee; his victory improved GOP chances of holding the seat in November. In June, the same technology helped the GOP retain the House seat vacated by convicted felon Randall "Duke" Cunningham of Rancho Santa Fe.

Democratic strategists understand the power of the new technology and techniques, and they have scrambled to develop their own micro-targeting capabilities. The Democratic National Committee is deploying a new system in six states, and another system will be available in 20 or so others.

With the November elections only seven weeks away, however, many Democrats concede they are far behind — their efforts hamstrung by a late start, arguments over tactics, personal feuds and divisions inside the party's leadership.

The GOP system was developed by the Republican National Committee with the encouragement of White House political strategist Karl Rove.

In addition to locating potentially sympathetic voters, it proved more effective than traditional get-out-the-vote schemes in 2002 and 2004 in making sure they got to the polls.

In their search for voters, Republican strategists can quickly pull up information not only about voting histories, age, address and marital status, but also consumer habits, vehicle ownership, magazine subscriptions, church membership, hobbies, major purchases — even whether a household prefers bourbon over gin. (Bourbon drinkers tend to be Republican; gin is more often a Democrat's drink).

The data and the profiles, held in a centralized system to maintain quality control and help strategists monitor overall trends, are continually updated and massaged on the basis of contacts with voters.

In Michigan alone, Republican workers are making 20,000 telephone contacts with voters per day; Democrats also have telephone banks, but they are not integrated into a system as advanced as that of the Republicans.

Because both parties shroud their efforts in secrecy, it can be difficult to compare their programs, especially in individual races. Still, the evidence suggests the Democrats are substantially behind in micro-targeting and related technologies.

The Democratic National Committee will have a test version of its micro-targeting models available in only half a dozen states; the basic GOP system has been in place nationwide since the campaigns began.

"We are not where we need to be," says Maren Hesla, who handles voter outreach for Emily's List, a liberal group that is part of a coalition helping Democrats develop more sophisticated grass-roots operations, including micro-targeting, in about two dozen states.

Hesla insists that her party "will have enough going on in enough key states to surprise people about what we are able to accomplish."

The question is whether it will be enough to help Democrats achieve a breakthrough victory.

So serious do some Democratic leaders consider the technology gap that they have begun devising their own separate systems, especially for House and Senate races.

"It's every man for himself," said Donna Brazile, a longtime party strategist who managed Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign and is now working to unite party leaders behind a strategy for translating favorable opinion polls into victories.

Brazile, like Hesla, says she sees positive developments for Democrats, but she also worries that the party is behind.

Although micro-targeting may seem like inside baseball, activists in both parties say that the methods and technology Rove and others pioneered may revolutionize campaigns. They predict the new techniques will become as crucial in future campaigns as opinion polling — virtually unheard of in congressional races four decades ago — is today.

"The revolutionary change here is that Republicans … are going after voters as individuals, as opposed to a census tract or a media market," says Harold Ickes, a Democratic Party strategist.

Campaigns traditionally relied on geography or other broad indicators to target voters. Democrats, for example, would blanket predominantly African American neighborhoods because those populations had historically supported Democrats. Republicans would focus on suburbs, which were historically Republican.

Such targeting was far from precise. And many of the old targeting assumptions are less true now. Some suburbs have become more liberal as jobs spread beyond the central city. And enough African American voters peeled away from Democrat John F. Kerry in 2004 for Bush to retain the presidency.

Now, Republicans nationwide can identify approachable voters inside what had previously been seen as Democratic territory, then deliver appeals to them on issues that cut across party lines.

The system's real power develops when complex algorithms are used to rate how likely individuals are to vote for particular Republican candidates.

Bruised by the power of the GOP system in 2004, Ickes commissioned a study in early 2005 that concluded: "The Republicans are light-years ahead of us. This is not rocket science, and we Democrats will get our clocks cleaned if we don't catch up."

A year later, Ickes launched his own effort to develop such resources with a new coalition of labor and activist groups. His $9-million project, active in two dozen states, is taking a leading role in making micro-targeting and other advanced technology available to Democrats.

Even combining this effort with that of the DNC, Democratic strategists lament that their party remains behind the GOP.

Looking at the technology available to Democrats in Michigan, where the party is at its most advanced, a Democratic coalition strategist said ruefully, "We can't do snowmobilers."

The snowmobiler appeal was developed by state GOP Chairman Saul Anuzis. Michigan has a higher proportion of snowmobilers than any other state. Anuzis says the "extreme environmental views" of Stabenow and incumbent Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm have hindered development and use of snowmobile trails.

Anuzis says that created an opening to reach out to snowmobile users — many of whom belong to demographic groups often considered Democratic.

Similarly, Michigan Republicans have sent messages to African American households in predominantly Democratic inner-city Detroit extolling education plans that give parents more choice.

In the hottest congressional race in Minnesota, where the DNC and the Ickes group have developed micro-targeting capabilities, Democratic candidate Patty Wetterling has not yet begun using the technology but expects to start soon.

The campaign manager for Republican Michele Bachmann says the GOP system has proved to be "a critical asset." Using Voter Vault's ability to track voter preferences on hot issues, Bachmann's campaign even identified households where one family member opposed abortion and the others did not. The campaign tailored different messages to different members of those households.

In GOP-dominant Tennessee, where Democrat Harold E. Ford Jr. is running even with the Republican candidate to succeed retiring Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Ford's campaign obtained voter data files months ago from the DNC.

But the campaign had to hire its own consultants to develop the computer models necessary to use that data, while the Republican candidate enjoyed access to the full Voter Vault system that has been massaged and updated for years — a potentially crucial difference in a race that is expected to be decided by the ground operations in the final days.

Surveying the Democrats' effort to close the technology gap, veteran strategist Brazile insists her party is making gains. "Unfortunately," she said, "it's late and last-minute. We're still perfecting drive-by campaigning."