News & Comment

David Sirota says that the GOP is playing with fire on public lands issues, and points up the opportunity available for Democrats to strongly ally themselves with the majority of the public on land preservation. It won us the governorship in the very red state of Montana, after all, which should demonstrate that there's nothing wrong with the Democratic party platform given a good candidate and sound strategy to advance it.

DailyKos: On orders from the White House, the CIA will be purged of 'disloyal' employees and 'liberal Democrats.' The military is calling up former servicemembers who've fulfilled their obligations to come back to active duty, in many cases, disregarding health concerns that would rule out regular enlistment. The Democratic party establishment wants to keep doing what it's always done, presumably on the basis that it's worked so well up until now. Meanwhile, Republicans tell moderates they're not wanted.

Asia Times: A book review of The Empire Has No Clothes, written by a former Cato fellow on the subject of American imperialism. This article starts of with a quote from the Iraqi blogger Riverbend and asks whether America will be any better off after smashing Fallujah than the Russians have been after leveling Grozny in Chechnya.

Ampersand explores the dishonesty of the anti-same sex marriage arguments before taking on the idea that elitist judges are responsible for the successes of the same sex marriage movement.

MyDD: How modern conservatism is damaging corporate profitability. Why the decision to focus the Democrats' efforts in swing states and to ignore safe states likely cost Kerry the popular vote. Finally, some more background on the struggle for the DNC chairmanship, and who to write to if this is an issue you care about. [Note, Howard Dean is currently a candidate vying for the DNC chairmanship.]

Go over to the Sideshow and read until you come to something you've seen before.

And ending the evening on an up note [knock on wood], Gregoire has gained a slight lead in the count.