Values

At least one newspaper in Pennsylvania has decided to cancel Ann Coulter's column and several advertisers, including Verizon, have pulled their advertising from her website.

Michelle Malkin went all prim and proper on Coulter's verbal grenade, because it sullied the forthright image of conservatives; meaning it's going against their meme campaign to paint themselves as morally superior than the foul-mouthed bloggerss they were able to ouster from the Edwards campaign or that yucky liberal pundit Bill Maher.

By the way, some think Ann Marie Cox is a skank compared to Coulter. Then there's Tucker Carlson saying she called him gay once but he didn't cry about it.

Rush Limbaugh and GOsPindrones everywhere have been trying to paint 'faggot' as a synonym of 'wuss' and the applauses Ann Coulter got as a demand within the party for the kind of angry and offensive leadership Ann Coulter portrays. Right-wing bloggers everywhere have been all too fast to stay on message about their moral superiority meme and have gone of the defensive.

promoted to front page by Lorraine
I hold the Democratic leadership's feet to the fire because I have loved this party for 40 years. I come from a time when liberal values and principles were the ripples on the river that ran over the basement of time, the bedrock principles that engendered pride when these words were spoke, I am a Democrat.

I come from a time when the very word liberal wasn't bracketed but was a driving force, I come from a time when women began to stand up and insist our voices were heard. When equality and justice were at the forefront of the national party, a time when we could hold in our hands the knowledge that we were the party, a time when the leadership fought for the Voter's Rights Act, a time when the leadership fought for the Equal Rights Amendment, when they fought for Roe v. Wade and said out loud and proudly that we were the party of choice.

Because much has changed over the past two decades and because the Democratic leadership was all that stood between this administration and us, the American people, when the leadership didn't do their job in protecting us, when the leadership concentrated more on being elected instead of enforcing our rights through denying the passage of such legislation as the Patriot Act and the Bankruptcy Bill, when the leadership consistently refused to say one word about the war against women, it was then that I started to look outside the party it has become to the party it can be, a more progressive party, a party that embraces its liberal base once again.

Las night, from AP :

Any hopes of commercial reward were quickly overwhelmed by near universal revulsion to last week's announcement — from those who knew Goldman and Brown, from booksellers and advertisers, even from Fox News Channel personality Bill O'Reilly.

A dozen Fox network affiliates had already said they would not air the two-part sweeps month special, and numerous stores had either declined to sell the book or had promised to donate any profits to charity.

"I really don't think there would have been very many advertisers who would have been willing to participate in this show," said Brad Adgate of the ad buying firm Horizon Media.

With little advertising, Fox would miss the chance to profit from the show. If there were no advertisers, the show wouldn't even be rated by Nielsen Media Research — so the number of people watching would have done nothing to help Fox's season average, he said.

The cancellation was a stunning setback for ReganBooks — an imprint of HarperCollins — and Judith Regan, who had labeled the book and interview Simpson's "confession." She insisted that she had done it not for money, but as a victim of domestic violence anxious to face down a man she believed got away, literally, with murder.

In a GOTV email from Howard Dean, he outlines the values that the Democratic Party stands for. And they represent what I stand for and these are the reasons why I am a Democrat. As I have said before, it is not a lack of ideas that is the problem with the Democratic Party. It is a lack of unity in achieving those ideas. Here is a list of Democratic Values according to Howard Dean (and I agree):

Honest Leadership & Open Government
We will end the Republican culture of corruption and restore a government as good as the people it serves.

Real Security & A New Direction in Iraq
We will protect Americans at home and lead the world by telling the truth to our troops, our citizens and our allies, and we will heed the advice of our commanders on the ground and force a change in the failed Republican strategy in Iraq.

Energy Independence & Lower Gas Prices
We will create a cleaner, greener and stronger America by reducing our dependence on foreign oil, eliminating billions in subsidies for oil and gas companies and developing energy alternatives.

More Jobs, Better Pay & College Access for Everyone
We will create jobs that stay in America, raise the minimum wage, and open the doors to college for every American.

Healthcare that Works for Everyone & Life-Saving Cures
We will join 36 other industrialized nations in making sure everyone has access to affordable health care, and we will make decisions to invest in stem cell and other medical research based on science, not politics.

The 2006 mid-term elections are going down as having one of the most virulent campaign seasons in the last 100 years. Republicans have been the gravely wounded targets but it does not mean that Democratic incumbents and candidates have not come out hurting and smarting from the bloodfest. Because, it has been a horrendously bloody political season that started with the downfall of Jack Abramoff.

We can say that, well, the republicans were asking for it. I am not one to be beneath smacking down conservative hypocrites like Abramoff, Foley or Craig. As you well know though, I am also as eager to smack Democrats and liberal bloggers hypocrites.

Which is why, instead of smacking, I want to put a word of caution ... 19 days before the elections.

Democrats may well end up smarting, and not in a good way, from what I can only describe as their embrace tactics from the school of Karl Rove politics. This political season has been an all out war by Democrats. They are kicking ass indeed, but it may come back to haunt them.

Here's the problem:

In their eagerness to get elected anybody who calls themselves these days a Democrat, they are helping elect the rejects of the Replican party, people who not until they saw a political opportunity to switch, had no reason to call themselves a Democrat.

Party switching is not a new concept. Historically though, the wave has been against Democrats : Since the 1960's, and after the success of the Civil Rights Movement, most of party swtichers were Democrats (candidates and incumbents) bolting to the Republican party.