The following are dumb reasons to vote for or against a candidate:

Neoperiapt currently has a very good article posted up about Abu Gonzales and his statements that the writ of habeus corpus is not a constitutional guarantee.  Neoperiapt cites a fairly old case, Ex Parte Bollinger, which says that Art. I, s.9, c.2 of the U.S. Constitution does not actually guarantee the existence of a writ of Habeus Corpus.  Given that this decision was authored by Justice Marshall, it is entitled to great deference in my opinion.  (This is the same Justice Marshall who decided Marbury v. Madison - yeah, THAT Justice Marshall.)

What to do with spineless Democratic Senators (and coming soon: house members) who do the "el foldo" and vote in favor of torture?  One of the best weapons is money and volunteer time.  Don't give one damn dime or one damn second to any so-called Democrat willing to vote for torture.  So what to do with your money and time?  A few suggestions:

The statement that "Israel has a right to exist" and its less common sibling "Israel has an absolute right to exist" are two statements I have heard for may years.  In all honesty, I do not know what either means.  Could someone explain?  The main difficulties I have are as follows:

I found a fun statute while doing some legal research today:

New York Penal Code s. 130.20:

A person is guilty of sexual misconduct when:

1. He or she engages in sexual intercourse with another person without such person's consent; or
   
2. He or she engages in oral sexual contact or anal sexual contact with another person without such person's consent; or
   
3. He or she engages in sexual contact with an animal or a dead human body

Sexual misconduct is a class A misdemeanor.

The nutjobs at Free Republic have turned on Ann Coulter!  Check out this thread before the mods over there pull it!

The point Kos and others around here are missing about advocacy groups like NARAL is all the work they do.  And even if you get a Democratic congress, these groups will remain vital.  Take two examples: Sierra Club and Human Rights Watch (HRW).

In the Rhode Island senate race, the question is not whether NARAL did the right thing.  The question is whether the Democrats feel stupid nominating an anti-choice joker for senate. After all, Rhode Island is not a hotbed of anti-choice sentiment where only an anti-choice candidate can win.

Competitive Advantage = Race to the Bottom

Accoding to the NY Times Op-ed

I guess Hillary Clinton decided to write off the video game vote.  As a video gamer, this sort of thing angers me no end.  Can the Democrats please leave this stuff to Focus on the Family?

Just "being practical" is impossible.  All practice is about is getting from A to B.  A is where we are.  B is where we want to get.  So what determines B, anyway?  Well, that is pretty much ideology.  Anyone who says they are just "being practical" has simply accepted their own ideology uncritically.  It is time to stop allowing ideology to be so transparent.

I hate to say it, but the Kelo case may have been decided correctly.  Kelo, you may recall, held that eminent domain is a really broad power.  If a city wants to uproot a community of color and install a Sprawl-Mart, then that is OK.  Well, I hate to say it but Kelo might have been decided correctly.

Today, in the decision came down in the case of Kelo v. City of New London, the Supreme Court held that condemning people's homes to build a Sprawl-Mart is a "public purpose" within the meaning of the 5th Amendment Takings clause.  Allow me to explain why this is bad for environmentalism.

Let's face it - the Democratic party is only a vehicle with which to realize an agenda.  If the party fails to move the agenda forward, then the fact that the party is labeled "Democrat" means nothing.

Here is my problem with Kos's position on NARAL.  

So I was thinking late the other night when I couldn't sleep about politics and why I don't feel comfortable with the word 'patriotism'.  The word obviously derives from the Latin 'patria' which is best translated as "fatherland".  Now who talked alot about the fatherland?  That would be the Nazis.

Since I am among fellow lefties and liberals, I will speak my mind.  Here is my problem: I am not sure what the hell the Democrats even stand for these days.  Don't get me wrong, I liked Kerry (no nose-holding while I pulled the lever) and voted Democrat out of pro-science and pro-environment convictions.  But I knew (and I suspect alot of other people did) that Kerry was talking out of is backside when he said closing tax loopholes was going to do something about "outsourcing".  And lets face it, its when Democrats under Clinton went all free trade with NAFTA that we started losing entire branches of the government (starting with both houses of Congress in 1994).