Maryland Parallels

[elshiva]

Welcome to the Twilight Zone
Eery parallels between 2002 MD gov race and the 2004 prez race:
1.Both the Democrats in these races were liberal, pro-gay Roman Catholics with strong ties to the Kennedy Family (Kathleen KENNEDY Towsend, daughter of RFK// JK junior senator to TMK)
2. Both the Democrats were chastised by the Roman Catholic Church for being Pro-choice and churches were instructed not to serve communion to them
3. Both Democrats were Lt. Govs of their state
4. Both Democrats came from liberal Roman Catholic States starting with an "M"
5. Both the Republicans in these races were evangelical, anti-gay United Methodists
6. Both Republicans want to tax the poor (Ehrlich proposed slot machines,
Bush's tax cuts)
Finally both Republicans "won" "despite" high voter turn-out, which supposedly guarantees a Democratic Victory.
Note: Important differences: No electoral fraud in MD election, also Ehrlich has trouble passing his slot machine boondogle because the Annapolis State Senate is mainly Democratic.

[JohnKleeb]

1. Maryland, my neighbor

A good state, I actually saw Paul Sarbines when I got a tour of the senate building. I love going to Maryland, wish Virginia were more like it.

[elshiva]

2. Paul Sarbanes, Barbara Mikulski

both wonderful senators. So cool that you got to see Sarbanes. I'd love meet Mikulski.

[JohnKleeb]

3. didnt get the chance to talk with him but he was like hi guys

we were on a tour with Landrieu from Lousianna's office. Funny thing is when I saw Hagel the next month, I saw the same guy who gave us a tour.

[CBHagman]

5. I'm extremely grateful for Sarbanes.

He really gets the job done, and he is so principled, including on issues where it would be easy to cave to get political cover.

I saw Sarbanes at Rep. Chris Van Hollen's post-swearing-in reception, and it seemed Sarbanes was ready to fight. He's generally pretty mild-mannered but wondered aloud why we didn't boo at a mention of Tom DeLay's name!

Van Hollen is another good egg, by the way. I hope he serves a good long time and have high hopes that maybe someday he will move on to even more prominent positions.

[vinessa4freedom]

4. Are you seriously telling me the Catholic church refused

someone communion based on the fact that they were pro-choice? Good Lord, our Bishop said a mass for the gay and lesbian community here a couple years ago. He took a tremendous verbal bashing by the Vatican for it, but he's a bit liberal himself. As far as a Bishop can be, in any case.

Geez, I'm pro choice, pro gay marriage, and used birth control. It's a good thing I chose to leave the Catholic church--they would have excommunicated me.:crazy:

[ginnyinWI]

6. my guess

They are getting out the Evangelical vote like never before. They've found a reliable voting block, and they pander to them. But notice that Bush is now back-peddaling on the anti-gay amendment thing now. I hope it gets James Dobson and all of them hopping mad, and that they start castigating him in the press!!

The thing with this group is that they are already placing more importance on faith than facts--so it is easy to sway them with propaganda. No offense to Christians, but some denominations are taught to be very suspicious of facts put out by scientists and the like--and they are. I am a former member of this group myself--I actually attended an Assemblies of God Bible College for a year, many many years ago. So I think I know where they are coming from.
I totally trusted the religious leaders, and now I know that some of them were hypocrites, living lives of "sin".

[vinessa4freedom]

7. The second day of the condi hearings

I accidentally turned on C-SPAN instead of C-SPAN 2 in the morning. *'s press secretary was talking about how it is a top priority of * to get a constitutional amendment passed to "protect the sanctity of marriage" I was so outraged that he has the balls to not only trash the Bill of Rights (repealing PATRIOT Act is my pet project), but to propose an amendment to take away civil rights. It's demonic. And not only that, at the end of October, he said publicly, that he wanted to leave the legal status and rights of gays to marry in the hands of the state. Now the evil truth comes out that he wants to make it federal law, with no precedence of a federal position. And the pukes say that JK flip-flops? He has lied yet again. I can't imagine Americans taking any type of domestic agenda as seriously as Iran and Iraq right now, but holy shit. He can't cover his ass with this (or try to) by saying "whoops, I had incorrect intelligence reports." This is a calculated and blatant assault on civil liberties and a downright all out deception. Even more firm grounds for impeachment.

[ginnyinWI]

8. I don't know where I read it, but

he's flopping back to the October statement now. Not going to do anything about a gay marriage amendment. He wants to talk about it, but actually won't do anything because he knows it would go nowhere at Capitol Hill. Saying it is a "top priority" means nothing, if you think about it.
I can say that my "top priority" is to take a two week vacation in Hawaii, but not having money or time means I won't do it, regardless.

He's a paper tiger on this one--and that's good for America!

[vinessa4freedom]

9. maybe one of his advisors pointed out that

Americans are tired of being lied to.