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Second Thoughts...

This essay has been getting a lot of attention from bloggers all along the political spectrum:

Commentator Rod Dreher has been a conservative since he was 13. Now on the cusp of turning 40, he's still a conservative, but is so dismayed at the way President Bush is handling the Iraq war that all of his prior beliefs have come into question.

Who is Rod Dreher? Wikipedia says:

Rod Dreher (b. 1967), originally from St. Francisville, Louisiana, is a Dallas-based writer and editor. He is an assistant editorial page editor (and occasional columnist) for The Dallas Morning News and a contributor to The American Conservative and National Review. Previously, he served as a columnist for The New York Post.

Here's the part of his essay that's getting most of the attention:

The fraud, the mendacity, the utter haplessness of our government's conduct of the Iraq war have been shattering to me.

...

As I sat in my office last night watching President Bush deliver his big speech, I seethed over the waste, the folly, the stupidity of this war.

I had a heretical thought for a conservative - that I have got to teach my kids that they must never, ever take Presidents and Generals at their word - that their government will send them to kill and die for noble-sounding rot - that they have to question authority.

On the walk to the parking garage, it hit me. Hadn't the hippies tried to tell my generation that? Why had we scorned them so blithely?

Will my children, too small now to understand Iraq, take me seriously when I tell them one day what powerful men, whom their father once believed in, did to this country? Heavy thoughts for someone who is still a conservative despite it all. It was a long drive home.

The entire essay can be heard here.

Test Yourself...

VoteMatch Quiz from On The Issues. Twenty questions, multiple choice.

Quotable...

Digby:

I am a liberal because it is the political philosophy of freedom and equality. And I am a progressive because it is the political path to a better future. And I am a Democrat because it is the political party that believes in freedom, equality and progress.

The whole thing.

Digby's blog, Hullabaloo.

Where is...

the West Shore?

Roughly speaking, the suburbs of Harrisburg along the west bank of the Susquehanna River, mainly in Cumberland County, extending as far west as Mechanicsburg or even Carlisle. For the purposes of Drinking Liberally West Shore, the area of concentration is between the river and routes 81 and 76.

What Is...

Drinking Liberally? Details here.

Promoting democracy one pint at a time.