"The map doesn't lie"

Seeing red

It is always better to let the Democrats fall on top of themselves rather than have conservatives point out a flaw. The only reason [new Democratic National Committee chairman] Terry McAuliffe could stand on the podium and spew his rhetoric about the "stolen" election is that the Clintons strong-armed him into the DNC chairman's position, effectively derailing Maynard Jackson's efforts. Excuse me, whose voices were suppressed? Plus, "chairman-select" McAuliffe failed to point out that the ballots were designed by officials in his own party. But when you're a Democratic spinmeister, when do facts matter?

On a more basic level, the problem with the Democrats is that they expect minorities and Americans in general to bow down to every single tenet of their agenda and then require us to be grateful that we had the opportunity to prostrate before them in the first place.

This is why Americans in 30 states chose President Bush. The map doesn't lie.

-- Lorenzo R. Cortes, Alexandria, Va.

Submit your own rant or favorite discussion to redvsblue@salon.com, or jump right into a Table Talk discussion about it.

Anger management

When will the fools have their fill of this wretch!! [Lucianne.com posting]
Posters have reacted quickly to a Washington Times report that "the unprecedented $300,000-a-year subsidy former President Bill Clinton has offered to help rent a penthouse office on fashionable 57th Street in New York City" -- in response to public concern that he was soaking taxpayers -- "will come from tax-exempt donations intended to build and endow his presidential library in Little Rock." Posters are both joyful ("Damn, I hope this is true," posts Jaeger) and, as usual, outraged ("Clinton has no shame and apparently thinks he can still fool most of the people all of the time," writes Radrelic).

"Jar of Polish pickles, small wedge of cheese, tossed salad" [Plastic.com posting]
A poster unearths the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's bizarre practice of publishing death row trivia, such as the final meal requests of those executed, the nationalities of those executed and the death row schedule. One poster on this hip forum for the young urban elite is troubled that he's not more troubled: "It seems that outrage is so passé -- and proven so useless -- all we have left is irony. But that's going to run out too."

A religious war continues over "faith-based" programs [Table Talk posting]
A David Horowitz column in Salon instructing us to "recall please, that it was the religious right -- pious conservatives -- who founded this nation, wrote its laws and gave us the First Amendment" prompts Christopher Bradley to write:

I laughed at the absurdity of [his] saying that "religious conservatives" founded this country. I started to think about our Founding Fathers. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin ... and the term, time and again, that is consistently used to describe their religious convictions is "deism" ... A person as well educated as Horowitz certainly knows this, and for him to cast Benjamin Franklin, whom the good people of Philadelphia believed was, in his own words, "an infidel or atheist," with the crowd that includes luminaries such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell amazes me for the sheer bravado of the lie.

But Horowitz has his defenders in Table Talk, such as Russell Harris, who writes: "The best part of Bush's "faith-based" option to help the "down and outers" is how it rankles the witless whiners from the leftie/liberal" side.

Tears for the Gipper [Free Republic posting]
In memory of Ronald Reagan's 90th birthday, someone posts Mark Joseph's essay from Breakpoint Online asking: "What is it like to be you these days? What do you dream about at night? As you recuperate from what is no doubt a confusing injury, what thoughts go through your mind? Are you thinking of the lives you saved in the Rock River? Acting in 'Kings Row' or 'Knute Rockne, All American'? Do you wonder who are the tall men in dark suits who constantly surround you? Are there moments over breakfast when you wonder who the slender lady with the sweet gaze is?" It's enough for Cordova Belle to respond: "Read this with a tissue handy. What a fitting tribute to one of our greatest."