define: libertarian

olympia snowe - pictured at left - republican representative from maine always votes with the dems. when they are counting reps who are voting with the dems on this or that - they always mention ol' olympia and usually her fellow republican from maine, susan collins. now i have no problem with these women voting in whatever way is representative of the population of their state, but if that means they vote democratic, then why don't they just go ahead and switch over?

see, there are committees that do a lot of the work of the house & the senate, and the chairmanships of these committees are given to the majority party and the minority party in certain ways that are supposed to keep things equal, but if you have democrats masquerading as republicans and taking chairs for the minority but voting with the majority, then that's subverting the system. not that anyone would be surprised by this type of subversion going on in washington deecee, but still - let's call it what it is, shall we?

susan collins - pictured at right - is pro choice, pro stem cell research, pro lgbt rights. let me make it clear right now that i am steadfastly ambivalent & conflicted on these issues - but i am not a senator of the united states who professes to be a member of the party whose platform does not endorse these stances. now -- if she switched sides and declared herself a democrat, the dems would have as much of a problem with her as the republicans do b/c she's got her conservative side, too. she voted against senate oversight of cia activities. that's pretty key to the liberals - exposing to the light of day everything the spies are doing - and she's against that and she's for a whole slew of national security measures. see? conservative.

olympia snow, also is liberal on social issues, supports legalized abortion and gay rights - yet she also supports the death penalty is a strong supporter of the war on drugs and the embargo on cuba. in fiscal matters and on defense particularly, snowe is generally conservative.

what is going on here? how can these women be on both sides of the aisle? hmm... perhaps like most of us who are not in wash-deecee -- aka blackandwhiteland -- most of us who live out here in greyland where issues are not so clear cut -- maybe like us, these women have a mix of thoughts & feelings. maybe they work to choose what is best in each case to rightfully represent their constituents who are no doubt real people, too.

we could use a real third party. not a ralph-nader halfass third choice. a real third choice that could actually appear if some powerful people would simply say enough. but - oh yeah - if you're powerful, the system is working for you, so you have no incentive to threaten the status quo by having anything to do with a choice outside the system.

in conclusion, it's just all frogged up.