You're so easy :-)

I was thinking about posting more on this over at Eric's place if you wanna talk about possibilities there for a bit? Also, we can e-mail directly through Eric's interface, as artappraiser kindly pointed out to me...

Posted at February 7, 2008 3:41 PM in response to The End of Conversation

Big fan of the West Wing, although I didn't get to see it as often as I would have liked. There was something comforting about that show, at a point when I was first coming to terms with the W. administration's flagrant craziness.

Maybe the Dems should draft Martin Sheen?

I don't actually think people are ready to commit to single payer, myself. I think they're ready to try transitioning to it, though, with the strictures in place needed to level the playing field in a competition between public and private coverage -- which is what I think the Clinton/Edwards plan amounts to.

Posted at February 7, 2008 3:09 PM in response to Congress Matters

Thanks, everyone, for pointing out your replies on other threads, and for the pointer to Eric's forum and stuff.

I'm a little lost around here...

Posted at February 7, 2008 2:49 PM in response to Something Different

she may have brought this on herself... by claiming over and over that she's "been vetted already" and she likes this part of a campaign... the fighting part

Well, she has been vetted already -- being the target of Rush Limbaugh & Co. for 15 years or more'll do that -- and even if she hadn't, why should saying that, or saying that you like the fighting part of a campaign bring vitriol your way?

I can't begin to count how many male candidates have made similar pitches to me in my lifetime, and no one seemed to find it particularly remarkable. I also don't recall nutcracker dolls in those candidates' likeness being sold in national airports.

If a person of color has to be beyond reproach in order to not be heaped with racist crap, that is because people are racist. If a woman has to be beyond reproach in order to not be heaped with sexist crap, that is because people are sexist.

Posted at February 7, 2008 2:30 PM in response to Ain't I a feminist?*

It's not just the change in format, but a lot of things -- editorial decisions, site policies (or lack thereof), etc. -- that have taken this place in a different direction from what I initially liked about it. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's just different from what I came here for.

I kind of like the idea of a group of TPMCers going off and doing their own (supplemental) thing... I had actually been thinking about contacting some folks privately after the primary madness settled down, and seeing if there was any interest/ideas... But now the private message function is gone, and I'm afraid that some of the people I had in mind are disappearing.

And I have to admit that my own thoughts on the subject are pretty vague. I just kinda figure, here's this group of people who seem to share similar ideas about what kind of community they want. A lot of them are pretty good writers, with interesting, informed perspectives on a variety of issues.

Should we get together and do, I dunno, something?

Posted at February 6, 2008 8:34 PM in response to The End of Conversation

For me, it's not just format, but editorial decisions and whatnot, that have made this a different place from what it was initially.

The post Eric links to above does a pretty good job of describing what irks me about the new format, though.

It's not necessarily bad, just not what I'm looking for.

Posted at February 6, 2008 7:59 PM in response to Something Different

Thanks, Eric and cscs. I'll direct my comments over there.

Posted at February 6, 2008 7:50 PM in response to Something Different

Yeah, I can't recommend either.

Posted at February 5, 2008 4:15 PM in response to Noticing Purposeful Political Extremism

The President has the bully pulpit

Yep, as does the candidate in the general election.

Which is why the Democratic standard bearer should be out there advocating for a more ambitious plan like Clinton/Edwards -- it's the right combination of vision and pragmatism that has the best chance of getting the US where we need to be, IMO.

And the moment is right. On some issues, a presidential candidate has to sort of hunker down and not get too ambitious, because the nation as a whole isn't ready. But the nation is ready for more than what Obama is proposing, and health care is the kind of issue where a Dem presidential candidate can advance the national conversation right now.

Obama definitely has his pluses, but it's a major downfall of his candidacy that he's not pushing this, for me. (I wonder if it would be possible for his position on health care to "evolve" if he won the nomination? It seems to have evolved a bit in the last couple of months, actually...)

Posted at February 5, 2008 4:00 PM in response to Congress Matters

Hello...

Will there still be a way to contact people back channel? I don't see anything, at the moment, unless I've missed it...

Posted at February 3, 2008 4:49 PM in response to Please Excuse Our Mess!