Our Netroots candidate is ready to ROCK with his first Manhattan fundraiser, but we need your help to spread the word!!

If you could please communicate this important message to everyone you know -- and ask them to spread the word as well -- it would be infinitely appreciated!

This event MUST be a huge success as it will serve as a sort of symbolic measuring stick (in the eyes of DC and the media) of the Netroot's determination to walk the walk when it comes to putting our ideas and passion into a position of policy determination (i.e. getting our people elected).

The consequences of voting for the lesser of two evils

In today's political climate, progressive politics has become heavily orientated toward a single short term goal - defeating the Republicans at any cost.

Unfortunately, this obsession of voting against one party, instead of voting for what we believe in, has prevented us from engaging in the important work of coalition building between Progressive Democrats, Independents and Greens that is essential for building a fair and just society.

A large part of our inability to challenge the political elite is that we have inherited a highly undemocratic winner-take-all voting system, which insures the political hegemony of the two party system. This traps the majority of us into voting defensively, instead of voting for candidates we believe in.

The consequences of voting for the lesser of two evils

In today's political climate, progressive politics has become heavily orientated toward a single short term goal - defeating the Republicans at any cost.

Unfortunately, this obsession of voting against one party, instead of voting for what we believe in, has prevented us from engaging in the important work of coalition building between Progressive Democrats, Independents and Greens that is essential for building a fair and just society.

When Jefferson and his collegues were framing our constitution, certain concessions had to be made in order to appease concerns over the balance of power between large and small states. A bicameral legislature was once compromise as was the electoral college. My Dad always told me the electoral college was important because it gave America's bread basket a voice in elections; because if those low-density states don't have a voice, the high density states won't have food.

I'm just going ape shit over this archaic interpretation, quite simply.
I shall breakdown this shit.

Sure, you can take years to rig the infrastructure of the vote or intimidate the opponent's constituency at the polls. Maybe you could even send out a "notice" to the opponent's constituency telling them that they can vote several days after the election. Heck, you can claim that the "injuns" cheated you. Who knows what they do on those "secret" reservations. Little doubt it's voter fraud.

Sure you could do these things, but if you really want to have some fun, and claim selfless bipartisanship at the same time, then it's high time you learned about the "Bush-Nader" technique. You see, why waste all that money and energy attacking a formidable opponent when you can undermine his or her election with a few, strategic acts of support for his in-party or third party opposition.

The idea is this: In most races, each party has a primary. It is before this primary that you begin your attack. Within the opposition party's primary there is typically a front-runner and the rest of the crowd. Assuming that you believe the front-runner to be your most threatening challenge, you must hit him or her with preemptive attacks:

More numbers in at 11:00pm PDT (now 66%), with just a slight uptick for Busby:

FRANCINE BUSBY       45963       43.28%

BRIAN P. BILBRAY       16268       15.32%

ERIC ROACH       15197       14.31%

Update [2006-4-12 1:38:33 by sdf]:

At 10:30 PDT, with 22% tallied, they are relatively steady at:

FRANCINE BUSBY       33399       42.88%

BRIAN P. BILBRAY       11826       15.18%

ERIC ROACH       10848       13.93%

(Original post follows)

Results are beginning to stream in from the special election in California's 50th District to replace disgraced Republican criminal congressman Duke Cunningham.  (We should have a special script key for the phrase "disgraced Republican criminal congressman.")

Democrat Fran Busby has led in polls in this heavily Republican district, but in this heavily contested special election (with 18 candidates in the contest) a majority is needed to avoid a runoff scheduled for June 6th.  (See Chris Bowers's earlier thorough rundown for more details.)

As of 10:05 PDT, with 7% tallied, the results are

FRANCINE BUSBY (D)       29037       42.19%
BRIAN P. BILBRAY (R)       10043       14.59%
ERIC ROACH (R)       9652       14.02%

With everyone else below 10%

More updates will hopefully follow.

-- Stu

I feel that the Democratic Party must become a party of principle if we are to win again and build a permanent majority so that Bush and his minions can never take power again. This means that we should vote for the candidate who is the best person on the issues, who plays by the rules, who campaigns actively, and who will listen to people.

Whatever our approach to dealing with the Hamas government, we have to start from this beginning: they were democratically elected.

So it has been extremely encouraging to this observer how well the Democrats seem to be doing in sticking with the "Culture of Corruption" theme in this election year.   (John Kerry's remarks on This Week are the latest example.)  The Democratic Party even has an entire (well-designed) page on their website about it.   Unlike most of the GOP's truthy lies, it is based on fundamental truths, and if repeated enough, it might be that rarest of beasts, both true and truthy.

As the San Francisco Chronicle notes:

But even the ever-optimistic Schwarzenegger will be unable to sugarcoat the disappointing election results, which show he had lost the overwhelming voter support he had just last year.

"This must be the worst defeat the governor has ever had,'' said Kevin Spillane, a GOP consultant. "It's not like having a movie that underperforms. This is going to be page one in every paper in California.

"Now, we have to see how he deals with defeat.''

Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California as a gimmick, to replace an uncharismatic, uncommunicative centrist Democratic governor who had been unable to deflect the blame for a myriad of state problems.  The recall campaign provided an opportunity for a grinning faux populist like Arnold to bamboozle enough Democratic voters in the context of an extremely condensed, extremely high profile campaign.

But now the good voters of California have awakened from their night out, and they have seen just who they decided to bring home.  And they want out.

Start practicing the phrase, "You lost. Get over it," with which to taunt Republican trolls and bloggers.