But, I agree that activists on both sides get more heated up about wedge issues than regular folks, which is then exploited by our politicians in a divisive way. Also agree that quite often media pundits with an agenda and politicians try to characterize the entire opposing party with the most extreme figures from that party.

And evangelicals have helped the GOP with get-out-the-vote drives- especially in the South. They are still a powerful force in the Republican party.

Usually, I only bring Falwell and Robertson up when someone HERE claims that the left dances to tunes played by Michael Moore or Rosie o’Donnell, but even without that they are still important voices in the party. Of course Falwell came up a lot last week when he died suddenly. I was amazed that some commenters defended him- crazy statements and all. I would have disavowed statements like that. Their names also came up recently in posts about how the Bush admin. has 150 graduates of Regent University Law School (Robertson’s). It was Monica Goodling’s alma mater, and is considered a 4th rate law school. The admin. liked their ideology.

So, I disagree with your major points.

Here’s that link again:

BBCodeXtra is an extension, compatible with Mozilla FireFox and Mozilla Suite, which adds to the context menu new commands to insert BBCode/Html/XHtml codes in an easy and fast way…

FWIW – Adding Bold, Italic, Strike, etc. has always a real pain in the posterior. Since I’m a lazy person AND since Mozilla FireFox had a FREE extension that does all the coding I need with just a right click and select… I switched to the FireFox Browser.

Here’s a link for more info…

href=”https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/491″>BBCodeXtra is an extension, compatible with Mozilla FireFox and Mozilla Suite, which adds to the context menu new commands to insert BBCode/Html/XHtml codes in an easy and fast way…

It’s a great tool.

Jason Steck Says:
Since I have specifically said that righties engage in the same thing, I am going to assume that you don’t bother to read what I say before characterizing it and assigning me motives.

I picked a mild ‘example’ Jason and instead of trying to see the point I’m trying to make you try to get out with a ‘loophole’. You may think you don’t have an anti “leftie” slant but I have the right to disagree… You walk like a duck and fly like a duck and still don’t understand who some think you quack like a duck, too.

Jason Steck ALSO Says:

…hurled in their face all the time by self-righteous lefties who don’t have a clue (or a care) about what their conservative interlocutors actually argue.

And it needs to stop. And it will ONLY stop if some of the actual lefties around here start defending more than just “their side” when it does happen.

…I found myself more and more tempted to join the ranks of those who have simply been driven off by the intolerance, particularly of the left.”

I found myself getting more and more alienated as those efforts were always cast by the lefties…

Jason, I have already spent all together too much time on this silliness… it’s all off topic and really doesn’t matter so go ahead and tell me how, and why, I’m wrong / you’re right and we’ll move along.

Admittedly I do get wordy, even too wordy, too often. When Holly in Cincinnati posts (she is concise), it is driven home extra hard.

The Christian Coalition effectively went out of business over a decade ago. The only people getting the voter guides were the already-converted. I don’t think there is any remaining “influence” and I certainly think there is no evidence that evangelicals think that Katrina was the “wrath of God” rather than, you know, a weather event that exposed massive bureaucratic deficiencies in state, local, AND federal government.

I take it you referred to my short length per line rather than the practice of trimming…

DLS,

Absolutely, I did not/ do not mean to imply you were dropping or altering others words. More ike Bob Hope… he could make a one liner take three lines just cause he could!

Steve

Conservative commenters argued with me when I pointed out that he doesn’t speak for the DNC- he’s just out there on the fringes.

MvdG might have written it on his own site, not really sure.

[trying]

nothing worse then looking stupid while trying to help.

Are you sure? I wasn’t trying to help anybody the last time I looked stupid.

Thanks for the advice.

I take it you referred to my short length per line rather than the practice of trimming (so far, no false charges on here about quoting “out of context” after I removed what can be considered extraneous).

You attempt to sell the idea that only lefties resort to intolerance

Since I have specifically said that righties engage in the same thing, I am going to assume that you don’t bother to read what I say before characterizing it and assigning me motives.

Jason Steck Says:
I generally prefer the term “leftists”…

Jason,

You may, as you say, prefer “leftists” (a good descriptive noun) but you USE “lefties”. And, when read in context, it is obvious that are using it as a pejorative. (i.e. “……hurled in their face all the time by self-righteous lefties who don’t have a clue (or a care) about what their conservative interlocutors actually argue.)

You attempt to sell the idea that only lefties resort to intolerance and snark is, at best, disingenuous.

Well, social conservatives like Robertson and Falwell do have a lot of political influence with the Christian right. When they blame Katrina and 9/11 on gays, secular progressives, and feminists (and other sub-groups of the Democratic party,lol) many of the faithful believe.

Never seen any of them around here. In fact, I have seen no evidence of this influence at all.

And is that any worse than bringing up Michael Moore as though he was the chair for the DNC, which the righties love to do?

1) no evidence of this happening anywhere on TMV

2) even if the righties did do that, do you think it justifies your side doing the same?

And is that any worse than bringing up Michael Moore as though he was the chair for the DNC, which the righties love to do?

Your method of shorting sentences when you quote others sometimes makes it difficult to follow…

FYI, here’s the code for blockquotes.

This:
<blockquote><b>selected text you are quoting</b></blockquote>

Will give you this:

selected text you are quoting

PS – Boy I sure hope this code works… nothing worse then looking stupid while trying to help. :-}