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#CHSTL DRAFT ORDER

In case you wanna download and print this out before you come.

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A virtual new-media interview

So I just finished my first live chat (for the American Society of Newspaper Editors, on the topic of new business models), and one thing I learned is that before a live chat, you're suppose to prepare some canned copy that you can paste in, so the guests don't sit there waiting while you type.

And since I was invited to this chat by the great Steve Buttry, he sent me a list of possible questions in an email earlier this week. I thought they were damn fine questions, too, and since I've already answered them in preparation for the chat (which only got around to a fraction of this material), I figured I'd reconstruct it here, as an interview, for as much of an audience as cares about it.

'Debating' with #tcot

So while waiting for an appointment, I decided to kill a few minutes reading the hashtag for Top Conservatives on Twitter (#tcot). I noticed this Tweet:

TheAntiGuru: Hello?!? You mean not one of you libs supporting Obamacare can name a single problem solved by government? Anyone? #tcot #p2 #topprog #hcr

To which I replied:

xarker: @TheAntiGuru Fire protection? Food safety? Interstate highways? Libraries? Public education? Land grant universities? Need more? #tcot

Which generated this priceless string of replies:

TheAntiGuru RT @xarker: @TheAntiGuru Fire protection? Oooh! You mean there are no fires anymore? My local news says otherwise. #tcot17 minutes ago from TweetDeck

TheAntiGuru RT @xarker: @TheAntiGuru Food safety? I guess all those stories about contaminated food were made up, right? #tcot

TheAntiGuru RT @xarker: @TheAntiGuru Interstate highways? Wow! You mean people didn't travel before those? Amazing! #tcot

TheAntiGuru RT @xarker: @TheAntiGuru Libraries? Public education? Land grant universities? Yes, there were no books and NO education before gov. #tcot

TheAntiGuru RT @xarker: @TheAntiGuru Need more? I'd settle for just one, got any? #tcot

Why no, Mr. AntiGuru. I think you've made things crystal clear.

If Dems were more like GOPs

This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow, from Salon (click to view full size).

Obama's post-partisan dream

So here's how I see the political equation around health care today:

1. Democrats control the White House and both legislative chambers.
2. Voters correctly conclude that this makes the party accountable for federal policy and governance.
3. Despite counting 60 senators in their caucus, the Democrats don't have 60 votes for everything the president sends their way.
4. This means there will have to be compromise within the party to get a health-care reform package out of the Senate.
5. While I'm sure there are plenty of sane Republicans out there who oppose Obama's half-measure health-care reform on pure conservative principle, the party's public campaign against the package isn't even about health care. It's about playing up dark fantasies of murderous socialist oppression being unleashed against white conservative Christian people by the shadowy armies of some terrible communist/Satanist/Nazi/minority/hippie/gay/French conspiracy.
6. Consequently, the goal of achieving traditional bipartatisanship on this health-care package is really just kind of a nice thought. As Paul Krugman said, these people can't be appeased.

So what do you do if you're the Democrats?

Big Rock Candy Mountain

Luke Conover: Big Rock Candy Mountain from Dan Conover on Vimeo.

Xark hijo Luke Conover plays the first day of the Youth Gives Back music festival at Awendaw Green on Aug. 8.

Shining Rock Wilderness

Xarkgirl on the Art Loeb Trail, Shining Rock Wilderness, Haywood County, NC, Aug. 2, 2009.