The continuing faux-negotiations of our Lefty wonks with Libertarians is an interesting exercise but it does suffer from a fatal flaw in my view - our Lefty wonks are attributing ideological rigidity to liberal policy prescriptions that simply does not and has never existed. To be a liberal DOES NOT mean being for big government programs, state intervention and single payer healthcare as a matter of ideology. Rather to be a liberal is to to have a set of values and objectives for which good policies to achieve those values and objectives are sought. The policies need not involve state intervention - they need only work. Here is an example of what I believe is this flawed thinking. Ezra writes:

Ryan Sager writes:

Democrats gained with libertarian voters in 2006, without alienating other major voting blocs. This at least puts a dent in the idea that no one can offer anything to libertarians without sending the rest of the electorate screaming from the room like a call girl from Milton Berle.

This seems...wrong. Did Democrats actually offer anything in 2006? I mean, sure, a minimum wage increase and governmental power to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies, but is that really the sort of concessions Sager is hoping for? Or did 2006 prove that offering an end, or at least a check, to a buffoonish war attracts voters of all stripes?

Actually Democrats DID offer a different set of values and priorities to the country. They did contrast what values and objectives are important to them as compared to the values and objectives of the Republicans. Some called it Populism. Some called it the Common Good. But it was an important message sent and really, while wonks and the Beltway Elite like to act as if specific policy proposals are the basis of voter choices (this is especially true during Presidential primaries, when the Media and wonks pore over in great detail competing tax plans and the like as if these can ever mean more than a statement of a candidate's values and priorities). Indeed, it is a flaw seen in much Democratic political thinking.

Our Lefty wonks have turned an interesting political exercise into yet another battle of the plans. To me the politics, not the policies, remains the more interesting part of this discussion. More on the flip.

President Bush seems determined to send more troops to Iraq. He's even warning us to expect more losses.

Deaths of U.S. troops in Iraq now have reached 2,950. When will this man stop? Or a better question, who can finally stop him?

Digby is having and end of year fundraiser and as usual, eloquently explains why bloggers need contributions to keep on trucking.

Digby is an absolutely essential daily read for progressives. Please keep it going.

As I wrote two weeks ago, bloggers need Christmas heart too.

Let it snow! We're locked in by a fierce blizzard. Denver is shut down. Even the federal government has closed -- the Colorado Federal Executive Board has ordered all Federal departments and agencies to close. Hundreds of flights have been canceled. Boulder just announced it will be shut down through Thursday.

It's a winter wonderland.

From Media Matters:

A December 19 report on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight featured the graphic "Do-Nothing Dems?" But, as the report noted, Democrats will not actually assume control of Congress for a little over two weeks. . . . But rather than showing a clip of a Democrat presumably affirming Sylvester's lead-in, CNN cut to Rep. Tom Price (R-GA).

CNN also demonstrated their conservative bias, at least if you believe this "academic" I discussed, since they only cited the conservative "think" tank the Heritage Foundation.

The stupidity of the Media seems boundless.

Dem Senate leader Harry Reid on Bush and Iraq:

It's been two weeks since the Iraq Study Group released its plan to change the course and bring our troops home. Since then, the President has been on a fact finding tour of his own administration -- apparently ignoring the facts presented by those in the military who know best. The President needs to put forth a plan as soon as possible, one that reflects the reality on the ground in Iraq and that withdraws our troops from the middle of this deadly civil war.

In an interview with the Washington Post, President Bush admits for the first time we are not winning the war in Iraq.

So, is he ready to retreat? Of course not. He wants to add more troops to the failed extravaganza.

In another turnaround, Bush said he has ordered Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to develop a plan to increase the troop strength of the Army and Marine Corps, heeding warnings from the Pentagon and Capitol Hill that multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan are stretching the armed forces toward the breaking point. "

He seems to be willing to consider every option but the right one: Bring the troops home.

The New York Times published an article Monday on the broken military policing system in Iraq. Despite more than 20 reported cases of abuse, not one contractor has been indicted.

Today the Times has a damning editorial on the the broken system, Only the Jailers Are Safe.

Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago, was a whistle-blower who prompted the raid by tipping off the F.B.I. to suspicious activity at the company where he worked, including possible weapons trafficking. He was arrested and held for 97 days — shackled and blindfolded, prevented from sleeping by blaring music and round-the-clock lights. In other words, he was subjected to the same mistreatment that thousands of non-Americans have been subjected to since the 2003 invasion.

Even after the military learned who Mr. Vance was, they continued to hold him in these abusive conditions for weeks more. He was not allowed to defend himself at the Potemkin hearing held to justify his detention. And that was special treatment. As an American citizen, he was at least allowed to attend his hearing. An Iraqi, or an Afghani, or any other foreigner, would have been barred from the room.

Great reading -- Eric Boehlert on the warbloggers' obsession with the Associated Press.

Something doesn't add up here, and I assume it's something warbloggers don't want to address, as they cling to their anti-press fantasy to explain the Iraq debacle. Namely, if insurgents view journalists as their allies -- weapons in their sophisticated propaganda war against the United States -- then why are insurgents killing journalists at an alarming rate? The entire premise of the warblogger theory makes no sense.

With no facts to back up their allegations, warbloggers instead lean heavily on name-calling in their never-ending attempt to libel and smear journalists.

As Boehlert notes, pretty soon the warbloggers will claim it's the media's fault we lost the war in Iraq.

Bump and Update: DNC Chair Howard Dean now says he won't decide until early January. Why? Denver still has issues and New York doesn't want it badly enough.

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Original Post:

Is One Local Union Holding Up the Denver DNC Bid?

The Rocky Mountain News reports that although Denver's Pepsi Convention Center has agreed to employ only union workers for the Democratic National Convention, one local stagehands union is refusing to sign a no-strike contract for the event -- in an attempt to get the Pepsi Center to agree to use union contractors.

That stinks, as I wrote at 5280 today. I hope this union falls in line. They will look very bad if we don't get the DNC contract because of them.

Andrew Cohen has a good Bench Conference today on last week's California federal court decision lambasting lethal injunction. And words of advice for Jeb Bush and officials in Florida.

Memo to Florida officials: Save your time and effort and money. Do not reinvent the wheel. Read and absorb the transcript of the lengthy and painstaking evidentiary hearing conducted earlier this year by Judge Fogel in the California case. And then implement the same changes that the judge has ordered California officials to implement before he will again allow executions in that state. It's clear what happened to Diaz. People who have no business executing someone were in charge of executing someone. And those people will screw up again if they are allowed to persist without proper oversight and regulation.

Maryland's courts weighed in today as well.