Hey, guys, take care of yourselves now, I mean it.

There is a reason you are Democrats and a reason you backed Sen. Kerry. It's because you are caring, decent human beings who want to see a fairer, more open and more humane America. This crisis in America right now is exactly the kind of thing that can send you over the edge. It involves just about everything that Democrats care about and it shows all these things being pushed aside. You wouldn't be human if you didn't feel like you were going crazy right now.

The lefty freepers are expressing their pure anguish and outrage by attacking some of their fellow Dems. They are posting on a Dem board because that's where Dems post and they are attacking their own, who are also in anguish. (I know this is illogical and useless, but I understand why it's happening. We are all at the breaking point as to what we are seeing, reading and finding out about this catastrophe.)

Stay out of the threads that are poisonous. You can't argue with lunatics and the temporarily insane. It's pointless. We have to find the threads that are sane and back those. We have to stop encouraging the anger and the in-fighting and the 'I'm purer than you in my anger' stuff. It will only damage you.

The Democrat's time is coming. We will need every voice to make a change and to make those who failed America in her direst hour pay for their incompetence. We cannot afford to make lasting enemies with those who agree with us 95% of the time. And we can't afford to lose the good people to frustration, bitterness and burn-out.

So be very careful out there among them DUers. Find the ones who are speaking truth and try and reinforce them. It is a better thing to do than try to shout down the insane at this moment in time. And it will be better in the long term, trust me.

when the House and Senate get back in session, we will begin to see the stuff that our Democratic leaders are made of. I think they understand that the American people are pissed, and will respond accordingly (and not nicely). Maybe then, when Democrats begin to speak out, things will calm down some among the Lefty Freeper crowd. In the meantime, I'm stickin' close to you guys!

anything else. I dont think I have ever been that angry at them.

So I understand that, for some, the frustration is so extreme that they will turn against their own, particularly when they already were pretty much marginal anyway.

(in a discussion that started with someone else claiming that Kerry should have mentioned in his statement about Rehnquist suverting the constitution in 2000.)

Did that person just lose it today, or have they been gone for awhile, I wonder?

I pointed somebody to Kennedy's statement, because if anything Kerry's one is sober compared to Kennedy and others.

When did these people learn that you should not be polite when you write somebody who just died.

because over breakfast, I commented that it would be symbolic if all the Democrats said they had other priorities and avoided his funeral because of the Gore decision - which was even against Rehnquist's stated principles. Very stupid comment and politically awful. My 15 year old reacted immediately saying, "That's so mean." and correctly gave many reasons to back herself up. I agreed and told her my comment was in poor taste and not well thought out.

I think some of them also were responding emotionally. Rehnquist and his 4 co-voters led us to this disaster. As they intervened in a way that went beyond law, I don't understand no-one didn't argue for them to do the more "conservative" thing of just shifting dates - keeping Clinton longer and having Carter and a reputable Republican (Kean?) head a serious examination of the Fl election. Both Gore and Bush could be given enough money to work on real transitions and Clinton would continue to be the President. Where's the crisis?

I did like Kerry's statement because it said nothing you know he didn't mean - and it a way that makes his other beautiful, thoughtful statements - such as the one on the Pope- more meaningful. (In an odd way, they show Kerry's values - because they describe things that Kerry genuinely admired in the person.)

Man, it has reached that point with some of them.

My most disheartening experience has not been related to DU.com--it's been regarding one of my favorite web writers ever. Katrina has pushed him OFF the DEEP END. He has snapped. His blog--which still contains excellent analysis about what the Administration is doing and why it's vile--is basically self-destructing right now, due to the degree of craziness he has descended into. "Lefty freeper" isn't quite what I would call him, but he's close.

And it IS poisonous to expose yourself to that kind of insanity, primarily if it's coming from a person you used to have total faith in and respect for. TayTay is completely right about that. My spirit was already strained before Katrina hit, and now? Well, as embarrassed as I am about it, I've kind of decided to give my donation, and hope for the best. If I had more to give materially or emotionally right now, of course I would, but I don't. Especially because, I'm kind of afraid for my sanity if I try.

It is everything that we have fought against as libs and as Dems. Of course it's off-the-scale upsetting.

You don't just turn off the part of yourself that cares, the part that lead you to where you are as a person. Those qualities serve you well in good times and are moral compass in a cold world. Those same qualities can go on overboard right now and can just render you depressed, stunned and so sad it almost feels like you can't move. This is your own sense of compassion and caring working against you. It physically hurts to see our fellow Americans in so much pain and not be able to directly do something. We can donate, we can collect coats and bottled water and so forth, but these are indirect actions. So it hurts.

We are human beings, not robots. It takes a lot to back away and get a little perspective. But you need to do this. You need to find some way to get hold of yourself, and remember that the compassion and caring that libs have in abundance is not something that you can just put aside. You need to have some faith in the relief workers who are actually doing their jobs, they are like you. And we have to stay away from the people who are making it worse by spitting out poison. This only pushes the buttons that are already pushed into extreme overdrive.

Sometimes you have to sit back and accept your own humanity and it's limits. There will be a time and place to help more. We have to wait and make sure we have something there when we need it.

I have a male and a female cat; if they are inside the house, and a strange cat walks up to the other side of the patio door and looks in, the female, who is the "underdog" in the pecking order of the two will attack the male! She displaces her fear onto her companion. And that is what I am seeing among some of the DUers. We are all made more fearful because of the situation we see going down in this country--and turn on the closest and easiest target.

We just need to ride this one out and support our Dem leaders, who know far more than any of us here. We've got to give them a little credit trust them to do their jobs! I always trust Kerry to do the right thing. But I'm extending it to all of the Dems now.