At Delawareliberal (the really old version of the site) they used to have up the following quotation from Gandhi: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. Which is intriguing in light of the fact that some diarists at The Daily Kos are now spending almost as much time discussing [debunking, from their perspective] Libertarianism and the idea of a serious Libertarian third party as they spend trashing social conservatism and Sarah Palin: here , here , and here . As a rough measure it is becoming more and more clear that libertarian ideas--unfettered by the overtly moralistic and often theocratic overtones of the extreme social conservatives--are seen by progressives and liberals to be their major intellectual and political opposition. Which would be a lot of fun if Libertarians could ever find a way to organize themselves. Ah, well....

You want to find some serious, and scary Obama-bashing by a major public figure? Go try out the web site of one of Hillary Clinton's major supporters, General Wesley Clark. It's called, innocently enough, the Clark Community Network , and it all seems to be about supporting Hillary strongly enough to rehabilitate Wes Clark (famous in Kossovo as the man who almost started World War 3 before Bubba and the Joint Chiefs had to relieve him for "character issues") sufficiently for him to become--I don't know--Secretary of State or Defense. Just visit and browse for awhile. If you're known for the company you keep, this ought to be enough to scare you away from the candidate my friend Waldo loves to call the She-Clinton . By the way, read Waldo carefully: while the rabid readers of the daily kos and other similarly credible blogs are trashing a single Delaware elementary teacher who might have said negative and erroneous things about Obama and Islam, it's the ...

... and the story is not pretty. First, there was this letter to the Cape Gazette , a Sussex County, Delaware, paper : Cape Gazette February 22 Pray for understanding and an end to hate Our 10-year-old sister, Amani, is in the fifth grade at Lord Baltimore, a public elementary school in Ocean View. Last Tuesday, her teacher “taught” her class that Barack Obama is a Muslim and that she would not vote for him because he does not swear on the Bible, nor recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Her teacher told the class that she is a Republican and that Barack Obama “believes in different things and is scary.” We are very disappointed in this teacher and the Indian River School District. This teacher is telling her class something that is dangerous and untrue. Barack Obama’s website (barackobama. com) explains the truth about him. He says, “In the internet age, there are going to be lies that are spread all over the place. I have been victimized by these lies. Fortunately, the American people are...

From the Daily Kos (I was forced to do it by a regular reader, ouch): Where Are All the Libertarians on FISA? For all the talk of "freedom" that the Paulbots claim to believe in, they sure as heck have been silent on the horrible FISA bill we're fighting to fix in the Senate right now. Same for Ron Paul. Why the silence? And the CATO people and the libertarian publications like Reason, where are they? Here we are engaged in a huge civil liberties issue, and progressives are being forced to fight this thing alone. It's easy to talk about "liberty". It's much more impressive to actually do something about it. Of course it's easier to take cheap shots than do your homework. From the Libertarian Party Website : Washington, D.C. - The Libertarian Party has sent letters to 22 Democratic Senators who voted for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act amendments in August of last year, urging them to reconsider against an upcoming Senate bill that would ma...