Russia embraces religious intolerance with draconian blasphemy and anti-gay laws

[DeistPaladin]

Nope, so you’ll have to demonstrate that he really was despite what he claims.

Self-evident point to any non-biased viewer. That you claim that Colmes was either a serious advocate for liberalism or that Fox is balanced indicates that you are the one that's "really out there".

Yes, I realize you only approved when the far left were entitled to their own set of facts. Fox destroyed that, and you resent them for it, I get it.

You like to attribute motives to me when you don't even know me. If you did, you would know that I was a Reagan-worshiping conservative Republican in high school. I was once "pro-life", I believed in trickle-down economics and thought that then President Reagan should be the fifth face on Mount Rushmore. I even read Ayn Rand and thought it was economics gold.

Why did I shift? Because then and now I cherish no ideology. Ideas are things to be debated and discarded when they're shown not to work. I believed then as I do now in getting all sides of a story so well I could convincingly role-play the other side in an argument if I had to.

I didn't change on a dime, I must admit. Even when you're open-minded, beliefs can die hard. My social conservatism was the first to give out, having no religious ideology to bolster it. My pro-life stance, for example, was based on the idea that person A's right to life trumps person B's right to choice. When I studied fetal development and found no significant brain development until week 21, I discovered there was no "person A" in the equation, and so I moved to the pro-choice camp. So by college, I had become a "libertarian Republican".

My first feelings of discomfort with the GOP was in 1994 when Gingrich refined the strategy of calling liberals traitors who hated America. This kind of thinking was always under the surface in the GOP but a kind that I abhorred. There is a difference between being wrong about where to take the country and hating the country. Gingrich did much to break down the concept of "the loyal opposition" in the GOP, leading to their current condition of demands of blind obedience when they're in charge and acting like they're living in an occupied country when they're out of power. Ironically, the GOP with its current attitudes, will now happily crash and burn the USA if they can't rule over it (see the Debt Ceiling showdowns). Who are the traitors now?

Over time, my libertarian beliefs began to moderate into "well, maybe some government regulation is good...". Though most of the mid to late 90s, I described myself as a "moderate libertarian who was uncomfortable with both parties".

I didn't officially switch party affiliation from the GOP to Democrat until around 2003 (although I had voted for Gore in 2000, the first time I had ever voted Democrat in a presidential election). When W Bush lied us into a war in Iraq and committed treason in doing so and also demonstrated that the GOP was now a wholly owned subsidiary of the wacko religious right. I paraphrased Reagan and said "I didn't leave the GOP. It left me."

I've taken some online tests and found my political beliefs are "socially liberal, economically moderate" which puts me mid way between liberal and libertarian. I am hardly "far left" but, as I've said, many loyalists in the GOP are both completely out of touch with reality and have gone so far to the right that the entire left wing is a distant blur.

As I have shifted left, the GOP has and continues to shift right. Just peruse the 1996 Bob Dole for President page still on the web to see how much the GOP has changed. Look, here's their page on health care where they advocate what sounds like Obamacare. And look, here's a page on student loans where Dole promises to increase funding for the program and keep rates low.

Their shift to the right continues as W Bush, who used to be the icon for conservatives, now looks like a level-headed moderate who advocated for the voting rights act. Conservatives these days like to point the finger and say "far left" and center-left Democrats like myself. This is as hypocritical as the GOP's charge of treason and "hating America".

“Fox News Channel’s coverage was more balanced toward both parties than the broadcast networks were. On FOX, evaluations of all Democratic candidates combined were split almost evenly – 51% positive vs. 49% negative, as were all evaluations of GOP candidates – 49% positive vs. 51% negative, producing a perfectly balanced 50-50 split for all candidates of both parties.

Link please? This study sounds awfully subjective and biased. For example I'd like to know how did they determine what is "positive" vs. "negative"?

Meanwhile, I would counter this "study" with observations of reality. See how the whole issue with being lied into the war in Iraq has been swept under the rug by our so-called "liberal media". See also their fawning all over the so-called "Tea Party" (who have as much in common with the anti-corporate patriots of the same name as Obama has with socialism).

Keith works for ESPN 2 now, he’s still alive Mr. Air America.

Good to know.

You prove you are. I know quite a few lefties but you’re pretty radical.

What's your idea of a moderate liberal?

Did the BBC tell you that?

GOPers like you have told me that.