you cannot be disenfranchised of your primary vote because it isn't a right in the first place. Similarly the Dems (or Reps) for that matter can choose their nominee by whatever means they want. If they want to hold sack races on alternative tuesdays to figure out who they send to the general, they can. And they don't even have to tell you ahead of time because they have no contract with you (now the state parties are a slightly different deal). There is no reason on earth that they *have* to hold a real primary.

Given that the primary has given us two incredibly evenly matched possibilities, both of whom show no signs of dropping out, and neither of whom can reasonably win without superdelegates, and the level of acrimony between the two sides is quickly rising- I think it makes a fair amount of sense for a third candidate to step in. I rather like Gore, but i would say he was a poor choice simply based on his gender and race except for the whole 2000 thing. Gore in the race helps make this election even more about GWB and dems have a big advantage if that is the case.

"Cocaine is a hell of a drug"
Rick James
RIP

In fact, I find it hard to believe very many people from whatever part of the political spectrum would disagree with him.

Which means all this "cartel-favoring" legislation is being passed by politicians against the interests of their constituents to serve a small vocal special interest.

What else is new, huh?

Seems like a stunningly short-sighted way to run a blog that profits
based on advertising which is tied to traffic, but hey, it's their site
they can do what they want.

Not sure about how bad TalkLeft is since I never go there, but I would argue that short-sighted is exactly the wrong term for the described action taken by the site proprietor.  They are taking an action that will almost certainly hurt their traffic stats in the short term, in order to hopefully encourage a culture of more thoughtful, substantive commenting, which would hopefully ensure the long-term viability of the site. 

20 comments a day is a lot of comments for a thoughtful poster.  I don't see much difference between a 20 comment limit than, say, the one diary/day limit on DailyKos.

Probably all too accurate.

One would think that there would be (a) a lot more oversight when dealing with such things and (b) a way to cut through the red tape to correct errors.

That last part could be genuinely unfortunate, if China is convinced (or is able to convincingly claim) that this wasn't a mistake but rather an attempt on our part to give weaponry to Taiwan.

it is about academic intolerance and apparantly it makes THAT point very well:

Random right wing review :

As such, Expelled represents still another blow to the progressive orthodoxy of government-issued science in its winter of discontent.

The winter started early when in November two separate labs, one in Wisconsin, one in Japan, announced the breakthrough discovery that adult skin cells can be reprogrammed to mimic embryonic stem cells.

Just two years earlier, the elfin journalist Chris Mooney had likened adult stem cell research to creationism and assured the readers of his best seller, The Republican War on Science, that this “dogma” had been "resoundingly rejected by researchers actually working in the field."

As the winter rolled on, and as all four major global temperature tracking outlets showed a precipitous drop in annual global temperature, and as snow fell in Baghdad for the first time in recorded history, only Al Gore remained in meltdown.

Meanwhile, on a seemingly daily basis, the neo-Luddites from the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front have been putting a distinctly left wing face on the “war on science,” in this case a real war on real scientists.

[...]

One highlight among many is Stein’s one-on-one interview with Richard Dawkins, the dashing Brit who has made a small fortune as the world’s most visible neo-Darwinist.

To his credit, and to the utter discomfort of the public education establishment, Dawkins does not shy from discussing the atheistic implications of Darwinism.

Indeed, Dawkin’s anti-deity call to arms, The God Delusion, has sold more than a million copies worldwide. Where Dawkins wanders into a black hole of his own making is in his discussion of the origins of life on earth.

To Stein’s astonishment, Dawkins concedes that life might indeed have a designer but that designer almost assuredly was a more highly evolved being from another planet, not “God.”

Stein does not respond. He does not need to. For the past hour of the film, the audience has met one scientist after another whose academic careers have been derailed for daring to suggest the possibility of intelligent design.

If only they had thought to put the designer on another planet!

[...]

The producers have contracted with the same firm that marketed Mel Gibson’s The Passion to get the word out. They will use much the same strategy.

Central to this strategy is the creation of a powerful buzz and a strong enough opening weekend to catch Hollywood’s attention and hold it.

Put April 18 on your calendars. Bring the kids. You won’t be disappointed.

Seems like Myers and Dawkins may be unwittingly carrying the water for the movie's producers here as they are generating lots of buzz. :) Perhaps that is exactly WHY one of them was booted out and the more prominent one allowed in? Hmmm.

Random left wing review :

Ben Stein is dead to me. It’s a shame, considering my own high school has long touted him as one of our most prominent alumni. Unfortunately, he must have skipped biology class more than a few times because his new anti-evolution movie Expelled (in theaters April 18) infuriates me. It paints intelligent design as the underdog, stifled by “Big Science”.

[...]

The trailer begins with Ben Stein discussing evolutionists’ wacky ideas, saying: “they believe we’re nothing more than mud animated by lightning”. Nice unbiased strawman argument there. But Ben Stein is nothing if not reasonable, adding, “I have no problem if people want to believe that sort of thing.”

Though of course, no creationist diatribe would be complete without pointing out that “Darwinism’s not only improbable, it might even be dangerous” as footage of concentration camps scrolls across the screen.
Hitler believed in evolution, therefore evolution caused the Holocaust. It’s a straightforward argument. Hitler also had a mustache; perhaps we should ban mustaches to prevent any future horrors.

But what upsets me the most are the simple, to the point counterarguments included as sound bites from prominent evolution supporters: “They [intelligent design proponents] are not scientists.” “Intelligent design is not a research program.” “It’s all propaganda.” Apparently, the intelligent design movement expects the average American to interpret these valid criticisms as more evidence of the narrowmindedness of “Big Science”. Unfortunately, the intelligent design movement is probably right about that, and that makes me sad.

Even the lefties recognize it as a problem in spite of their bias.

Are you upset because you wasted a lot of time trying to figure it out or because you have something against elves?

on this. There's no way you could synthesize the two parties or many of Gravel's views with the LP.

There are some questions about the legality of this, specifically in Ohio. Hopefully facing felony charges will discourage some disengenious voters whose mentor is Rush Limbaugh, from playing games.

I wonder what would happen if Rush was trying to do Operation Voting Chaos in an election in say Baghdad.