John H. - Thanks again. I'm glad to converse via PM or here. I don't believe that this discussion is tedious. In fact I think that part of the problem with this discussion (and the general discourse on politics)is that the desire to avoid tedium leads to a lack of detail and a plethora of rhetoric. And in my opinion the solutions lie in the details

As for my last post, if someone else would have written it, I probably would have blasted her/him. Reading it this morning I see so many holes in the logic that its astounding. But it appears to be well reasoned on the surface, which is the problem with "good writing". You can cover a whole lot of shabby thinking in a well-turned phrase. Personally, I think Kendall's posts contain a lot more "meat and potatoes", although his style is probably too combative to convince(which is his right). In my opinion, you can't change a person's mind once you get their hackles up. But I digress. . .

What was bugging me last night was the feeling that Republicans seem to want to have things both ways too often, while slamming Gore for being inconsistent. The problem with the military isn't funding as much as it is how the money is spent and as Kendall pointed out, this is often tied closer to the "corporate welfare" issue than to real solid military strategy. The problem with the schools is not going to be solved by more testing, it will be solved by better teaching. If you want to maintain national standards in certain areas (welfare and education come to mind), how do you get that from state autonomy? Do you really believe local bureaucracies are more responsive and less wasteful than federal bureaucracies?

My biggest gripe is over "accountability". Republicans believe in personal accountability. Privatising social security, eliminating welfare, opposing national health care are among the issues that reflect this belief. But when it comes to business, i.e. corporate accountability, it's an entirely different story. Opposition to labor laws, opposition to environmental laws, bancruptcy laws - government regulation and oversight in general - springs from a belief that the only accountability business has is to "the Market". And we have seen where that leads.

Republicans complain about the "tired old solutions" that liberal Democrats (like Gore?) support. Well, I keep hearing a different bunch of "tired old solutions" in the rhetoric of conservative Republicans (like Bush?). And if the media insists on reducing this election to a choice between a "compassionate conservative Republican" and a "centrist liberal Democrat" - I'll risk the tedium that comes from trying to see what lies beneath those terms. Anyone who doesn't care to can move on to the condom thread. And people wonder how a guy can do well in the debate and drop in the polls. . .

I got work to do. Catch you all later.
Bart