Lance Arthur proposes a solution to President Bush's problem with gay marriage.#

My solution is, dare I say, both logical and elegant. Rather than spend $1.5 billion dollars educating straight couples who might be inclined to be legally wed anyway, why not send direct payments to every homosexual in the United States on the promise that we shall not marry another of our own sex?

The population of the United States is currently around 292.5 million. Taking the "10% rule" into account, that means that there are currently 29.25 million homosexuals.

Now you and I both know that many homosexuals, for reasons of their own which I'm sure have absolutely nothing to do with your administration's support of discrimination, intolerance and ignorance, choose to remain closeted (that means "in the closet") and, for the sake of argument, let's agree that 50% of the homosexual population would deny their homosexuality. This reduces the practical number to 14.375 million practicing (that means "doing it until you get it right") homosexuals.

Brent Simmons defends TV and criticizes the notion that the rest of the country must be stupid.#

I think I detect a subtext that bothers me. It goes like this imagined conversation:

A: Hey, TV is stupid, all sound-bites, no substance.

B: Yes, well, you know you can read about the candidate on the Internet, go to meet-ups, read some great stuff in print magazines, and so on. It's up to you find good information.

A: Oh, sure, I do all that. It's not me I'm worried about, it's Joe Sixpack who just watches TV that I'm worried about. He'll just believe whatever he's spoon-fed.

All I can say is, I know Joe Sixpack, and he's better than that.

Lead Ballons quotes Howard Dean, a particular quote that illustrates why he must be stopped: "We raised $40 million from ordinary people like you … We don't owe anybody anything."#

Lawrence Lessig writes about his Congressman who doesn't listen to his constituency.#

I live in the 12th Congressional District in California. We're a pretty sensible (you might call us liberal) bunch. Over 80% oppose the war. Almost 70% oppose the "Patriot Act."

Yet our Congressman — a wonderful and amazing figure, Tom Lantos — doesn't vote the way his district thinks. He has supported the war. He has supported the Patriot Act.

The New York Times reports that part of the USA Patriot Act has been struck down.#

Collins' ruling was the first of an expected string of rulings on cases now pending in courts across the country as the result of the Patriot Act.

Emily Whitfield, American Civil Liberties Union National Media Relations director, said more than 230 communities around the country, most recently Los Angeles, have passed resolutions calling for the repeal of certain controversial sections of the act.

The U.S. Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said in a statement from Washington, D.C., that the Patriot Act is ``an essential tool in the war on terror'' and asserted that the portion at issue in the ruling was only a modest amendment to a pre-existing anti-terrorism law.

A very small change--yet essential? Get your facts straight.

British Politics writes about why Howard Dean deserves a comeback.#

I want a Howard Dean comeback in New Hampshire for one simple reason: The media coverage of his Scream has been completely over the top, and has featured pundits, columnists and writers deciding on the basis of 15 seconds of a campaign rally that a serious politician is not fit to be President.

I find this kind of coverage distasteful, pointless and irrelevant. Howard Dean may be the wrong man to be President, but it's can't be for that reason. It's gotcha politics at it's lowest, and driven, not by outrage at his policies, beliefs or campaign strategy but on the media equivalent of schoolyard bullying.

Rob Lawson writes about the transformation of the Democratic party.#

What has happened to the Democratic Party? Why do they keep moving farther to the left without any consideration for their conservative members? I believe the shift to the left started with the Jimmy Carter years. Bordering on socialist status, it's no wonder President Carter was such a screw up in his own Party. Not only did he fail the American people, he failed his own Party in such a manner that; in order for the Democratic Party to survive, migrating left was essentially their only option at the time. Ever since, the Neo Dems have had a hard time obtaining power in the White House.

Both parties are completely different beasts than they once were.

ScrappleFace reports that Renee Zellweger is just a few points behind John F. Kerry in NH according to a recent poll.#

Senator John F. Kerry, who still leads Ms. Zellweger by about three points in the polls, immediately attacked her military record.

"If I had been an actor in 'Cold Moutain'," said Mr. Kerry, "I would have pretended to fight for my country in the Civil War, instead of pretending to harbor deserters, like Ms. Zellwegger did."

Mr. Kerry, who has served as a Vietnam veteran for more than 30 years, refused to say which side of the war he would have pretended to be on.

Matt Stoller speculates about New Hampshire and what might happen.#

The most interesting storyline of this primary is actually what's happening to the primary process itself. Iowa shocked nearly everyone. I'm intrigued by the free media Kerry has received, jumping to the head of the national polls he barely registered on three weeks ago, as well as the piggybank and organization of Dean, who may be able to take the huge pounding he got in Iowa just because he won the internet primary this summer. The important new component here for both actors is the internet (not the momentum, which is a staple of primary seasons) - Kerry can translate momentum into cash to fuel his later state campaign through the web, and Dean can use the cash and organization that came from his earlier momentum to fuel his current campaign.

Matt Stoller writes about Wesley Clark's presidential campaign.#

The problems of achieving the Presidency are not just practical, or logistical, though there are those, and Clark has made tactical decisions to handle them, right or wrong. What's more profound is Clark now having nothing to talk about as a candidate; when you get right down to it, running for President is not just a job audition, it's an attempt to get the country to engage in self-examination and decide what it wants to make of itself. It is, more than anything, a strategic dialogue. And Clark, despite his spectacular accomplishments (and make no mistake, Clark is one of the most brilliant leaders this country has produced in the last half century), just isn't part of that discussion right now. He's bogged down in whether he grew up poor, or whether Michael Moore said something technically untrue, or some irrelevant conspiracy theory, or a million other insultlets capable of diminishing a Presidential candidate.