Fact-esque

Third Parties: Not Just for Fun Any More

At Norwegianity, Mark Gisleson thinks we have to vote Democrat. The argument he makes is weak but it's the only one there is.

They [Republicans] want us tired. They want to create outrage fatigue so we'll stay home on November 2. Fuck you if you don't vote this year, and fuck you twice if you don't vote for Democrats (with very few Blanche Lincolnesque exceptions).

It's not a vote for Obama or the stunted solutions of the Wall Street enabled moderates. It's a vote to kill off the idiocy once and for all. Until the 20% hard right is discredited and humiliated, they will continue to be the "he" in he said/she said.

This amounts to little more than the fluff-diving fear-mongering David Axelrod piled on Susie Madrak the other day. David Dayen reports Axelrod this way: (Links via Avedon)

Axelrod tried to bring Madrak in on common goals. "Let me say this. I really believe this is the most consequential time in our lifetime… We are in a struggle, we are in a fight. We don't have to agree, but we all have to lock arms and move forward here."

He then pivoted, kind of making it sound like both sides need to lower the temperature. "Saying we shouldn't be involved in intramural skirmishes, I couldn't agree more. And that goes on both sides… I'm not lecturing you, I'm speaking to everyone involved on our side. There are big things at stake here. The nature of progressive thought is that we go at it, we trade ideas, and that's as it should be. But we have to come together."

In other words: "SCARY SCARY REPUBLICANS!!!!! SCARY!!!!!!!!"

Joe Sestak for Senate

Joe Sestak is officially running for Senate.  That's good news.  He's hired Chris Bowers to be the campaign's netroots outreach coordinator, which is good news too.  Chris explains it all here.  I'm happy to have Sestak in the race because I want to see him in the Senate but even if that ends up not happening, this is why we should be grateful that he's making this move:

Further, not only is Representative Sestak much more progressive than Arlen Specter, as Nate Silver has recently shown, his potential primary challenge has pushed Specter into the Democratic camp on 97% of all votes, up from only 16% of the time in the month before Specter's switch. This campaign has already demonstrated real results.

Specter needs to have his feet held to the fire for some important votes coming up.  This will help that cause enormously.  You can contribute to Sestak's campaign at Better Democrats 2010.  You can sign up to receive email updates of the campaign at Joe Sestak.com. 

So now who's running for the seat in the 7th?