See, part of the problem with politics is that the terms themselves are politically loaded. There's not a neutral place to stand and describe the situation. Every description of the political situation already presupposes some understanding of the way the world is.

Ice would say I'm a liberal. I'm not.

I used to be a liberal. But now all I want is for my country to be what it used to be.

I would vote for Ronald Reagan in a heartbeat. I would vote for Eisenhower. I would vote for Ford. I would vote for Maggie Thatcher. I would vote for any Republican (or any Tory) you can name, pretty much from throughout American history, with the exception of Nixon and the current set of crooks in the White House. (I also wouldn't vote for Blair, that lickspittle toad.) If I knew anything about Canadian or Australian politics, I'm sure I could add all the names of all the most right-wing Canadians and Australians as well. (Although maybe not Howard, who looks to be as worthless as Blair.)

I'm a moderate right now. I'm ecumenical. I'm for anybody who can stop the incredibly horrific trend we're on. I'm in the huge and growing crowd of people who think the US is on a seriously and dangerously wrong path. That crowd includes people from all over the political spectrum, from anarchists to libertarians to liberals to classical conservatives.

Pretty much everybody except neo-Nazis, totalitarians, a certain strain of really scary religious fundamentalists, and their ilk used to agree that (a) torture was wrong and should never be practiced by civilized nations; (b) habeus corpus is the very foundation of a decent society; (c) any government that spies on its own citizens without a warrant is not a free or decent society; and (d) . Anybody who has ever studied political theory or political philosophy basically agreed on these points -- no matter what their political persuasion. Everybody on the political spectrum from George Will to Noam Chomsky could agree on all these points. And they still do!

But now all of a sudden we have a President and a cabinet full of people who know nothing and care nothing about these things. All they care about is their own power. And all they have to do is say "We're keeping you safe" and "Trust us, we know best" and "The world is full of dangerous people" and "The terrorists are gonna getcha" -- and that's enough to get some people to want to follow them. Their only weapon is fear. But apparently that weapon is enough. Apparently Ice and Allstar and a few others (and millions of other Americans) are so scared of the terrorists and what dastardly things they might get up to, that they are willing to follow this set of morons, no matter where they lead us.

I'm angry. I'm really, really angry. I'm ranting, obviously. But that doesn't make me a liberal. Any more than it makes George Will or Fareed Zakaria or Andrew Sullivan or Brent Scowcroft or, again, Dwight Eisenhower or Maggie Thatcher or Ronald Reagan or George Bush I or Howard Baker a liberal. It just makes me a human being with some sense of political theory and political history.

I agree with Cactus Jack. I am a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. The way the Republicans waste money should deny them the tag of conservative. This war of choice should brand them as far right dumb.

Kenny...why the Nazi symbol?