KRC

The problem is that the candidate changes along the way. As they move up the ladder, they owe more and more to the party and less and less to their consitutents. This is where the disconnect comes into play. As you move up the ladder, your constituents are less and less important. You just contradicted yourself. First, you talk about changing the party. Then you talk about people not having party loyalty. Do you want party loyalty or do you want change? They are mutually exclusive, IMO.

A newer party can shake that stigma if marketed correctly. The current third parties cannot and are doomed to failure. It depends. The Libertarian Party is attempting this as we speak (changing from within). If the Libertarians cannot pull it off, I doubt that the D's or R's can pull it off on a larger scale. The problem you have now is that too many are apathetic to the process. Then you have those who attempt change, but are beaten down by the establishment. I just cannot see "changing the system from within" as a viable option, given the climate. Just look at the current crop of Dems. Instead of presenting moderate ideas (which is a sure-fire way of winning back power in this country), they are just going negative and obstructing. They are doing the exact opposite from what they need to do to win. What happens on the local level does not make its way to the national level. Grassroots campaigns are great, but there is still a disconnect between the local level and the national level. If you do not abide by the establishment, you will be tossed aside. Look at Lieberman. He used his head and heart and spoke according to his views. As a result, the party is tossing him aside. The same thing will happen to any grassroots candidates that do not tow the party line. That is why "changing from within" is not a viable option.

Still too much baggage. You mention Republican or Democrat and you will get a specific response, regardless of the candidate. You need a brand new party to have any impact. It eliminates the baggage. The problem is that the Dems and Reps have a stranglehold on the system and are (obviously) not going to do anything to change. I know this first hand because I am trying to change the system here in PA. Several of the current election laws have been ruled unconstitutional in federal court. The board of elections has changed their procedures to somewhat comply (but not fully yet). So now, you have a situation where the law says one thing, but the board of elections is doing something else. Meanwhile, the candidates need to follow the letter of the law or they will get hauled into court, lose votes, lose the campaign, etc. I wrote legislation to make the current actions by the board of elections the law (so that they are in sync). The legislture wanted to have nothing to do with it. Next, the Governor formed an Election Reform Task Force. Basically, it looks like it was just pandering to the Nader people who got f'ed by him and the military people who got f'ed by him in trying to get Kerry elected President. He formed the task force so that they could come up with recommendations to make the election laws more equitable. I took one section of that report (absentee ballots), only took the parts of that section that had unanimous support of the entire task force and sent a bill to a legislator that was sitting on the task force. Remember, this bill used the EXACT SAME WORDING of the recommendation THAT THIS LEGISLATOR WROTE. The legislator refused to sponsor it. He refused to even support his own recommendations. You need to change the system and the Dems and Reps refuse to do so (because their power is more important than actually representing the people who elected them).

Running a number of candidates is not the way to get the message out, nor is it a way to show a positive movement. The Libertarians run a crap-load of candidates each year, and where does it get them? 30 years of failure. The advantage that these Dems have is that there are a number of criminal investigations, court cases and sentences against Dems here already (corruption is a way of life among the Dems here). The city is not going to go Republican so their only choice to clean things up is to find new Dems. The problem is that you are going to need the support of the unions if you want to win. I doubt the youngin's are going to get that here. You need older Dems who try to spin a new message. In summary, it makes Dems feel better, but will do nothing to help the situation. A Dem is a Dem to people, regardless of any new marketing campaign calling them "progressives."

The problems with the Libertarians, Greens, etc is that they are too radical. They do not campaign correctly and the media just wants to portray the lunatic fringe of these parties. These parties are just tossing up as many candidates as possible. As a result, you get substandard candidates and poor campaigns. As you mentioned, it will take a high-profile person to run in order for the people to take a third party seriously. I do not see it coming from a currently existing third party as they have too much baggage associated with them. You could get Clint Eastwood to run as a Libertarian, but he would still not make enough of a dent to overtake D or R because of the negative aspects of the Libertarian Party. You need to form a brand new party and start with a clean slate.

That is exactly right. When Kristy and I went down to stay at his house last year, he was the perfect host. Whether it was at his home or out at a restaurant, he made sure that everyone was happy. He also made sure that the servers felt good (tips, conversation, etc) when they came to our table. That is just the type of guy he was. He also had a couple of guitars (12-string and standard 6-string). He handed one to me and he had one, and we just played while he sang. He was no slouch on the guitar (as Tom mentioned), just like he was no slouch at discussing most any topic. Kristy and I had a wonderful time that weekend and will always treasure the time we spent with him.

For those of you who do not visit the Wall... Paul Lewczyk (Ghost of Bib) Thread

RIP friend.

What color is it (piss-yellow Bud color or more of an pale/amber color)? If it tasted like Bud, then they probably used the same hop blend and just adjusted the grain bill.

That cannot be proven.

I have never had the Select, but I am guessing that it is their way of trying to compete with the craft brew market while still appealing to as many people as possible. The craft brew market is increasing and the BMC's (Bud, Miller, Coors) are taking notice. My guess would be that Select gets rid of the rice that they normally use in Bud and sticks to mainly a malted barley grain bill and then they bump up the hops a bit (to the point where you might actually taste them ).

News release from AB: blah...blah...blah...

AB tried to buy one of the microbrews out your way: Stone. Fortunately, the owners of Stone turned them down. As far as the cans, it is a crock of stojan. Ribbed cans to keep it colder longer? WTF? Are they afraid that the beer will go up to proper serving temperatures and you will actually taste how bad it really is?

AB is buying up a lot of smaller breweries in order to increase market share. Rolling Rock and some microbrews are selling out to The Man. Coors and Miller are more concerned with marketing to gain market share (I am still trying to figure out what cold tastes like ).

Yup. That and I was not able to get enough dead people to vote for me.

I think the quote was something like, "more votes were cast than were received by any president in history." (paraphrasing)

Like he said, just like a Presidential election.

No. He would have done the same as Clinton and gave Iran the technology they needed and then bribe them to keep quiet so that he can sweep it under the rug and have someone else take care of the problem (ala DPRK).

I saw the full performance here in Philly. IMO, he did not do a good job in the beginning of the song, so it is probably for the best that not everyone saw it. By the middle of the song, he sounded better.

Because people pick their president well before campaigns are even run, debates are held and issues are discussed.

You don't even know who is opponent is and you have already made up your mind?

This is what happens when you extend the poll beyond the Super Bowl era. Too many young'ns

If you want an "edgy" beer for an "edgy" song, drink Hop Whallop by Victory Brewing.

Maybe there was a reason why the PBR was knocked to the floor. Consider it a sign from God that you should not be drinking it and it should be replaced with better beer.

I am also thinking of another who used the same techniques.